Picture with Camera

     The first step in this assignment was to go outside and take pictures of each other. Learning how to use a camera and how to adjust the focus and the lighting. After taking the pictures, we would come inside and take out the film from the camera. We then would take a light-tight developing bag and put the film inside of it. We had to put the film in the reel and put all the parts together. After the container was closed and no light was getting through, we had to develop the film. First by pouring in the developer, agitating it, pouring it out, pouring in the stop bath, agitating it, pouring it out. Then pouring in the fixer and agitating it and finally leave it under running water for a few minutes. Then take out the film and leave it hanging up to dry. Then after leaving it to dry, we would cut the film into pictures of five. Looking at the pictures, you want to choose the best photo that has the right lighting, is in focus, and that also has black, white, and gray on the photo. We took that photo, put it on the enlarger, take a test strip, and test for 2, 4, 6, and 8 seconds. After developing the test strip, you take it out and see which time has black, white, and gray. We noticed that 8 seconds has black, white, and gray, so we took another test strip and put it all on 8 seconds. After developing the photo and looking at it, we thought it was good to take the larger piece of paper and enlarge the photo onto there. We developed the picture and it came out with black, white, and grey on it.

Camera Know How

Camera Know How

1. I am using the ProMaster camera #20.
2. There is no power button on the camera we are using.
3. You would press the shutter release button to take a picture.
4. To change the shutter speed you would turn the shutter speed dial.
5. The shutter speeds are 12, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 1000, and 1500.
6. You change the aperture by turning the aperture ring. The higher the number, the smaller the aperture opening will be and the less light there is to be exposed onto the film.
7. The aperture settings is that you turn the aperture ring until the aperture number is opposite of the marker.
8. You focus the camera by first looking through the camera, then turning the focusing ring until the lines on what you're taking a picture of are aligned with one another.
9.The camera I used doesn't have a zoom lens.
10. To see if your camera has enough light you can use either the aperture ring, the meter, or the shutter speed dial.
11. You can tell if your camera has enough light by holding down the shutter release button halfway down, and adjusting the shutter speed dial until the green light comes up.
12. I haven't leaned how to bracket yet.
13. We are using the 35 millimeter film.
14. The iso setting makes the film go back into its original position.
15. To rewind the film, you use the film rewind crank and the film rewind knob.
16. To take the film out of your camera, you pull up the film rewind knob and the back of the camera will pop open.

Photograms negative

In the first picture are my failed attempts/not final photograms. The test strip with the soldier, was my first attempt in making a test strip negative. The larger piece of paper that came out completely black, was a failed attempt in making a negative, too much light touched the paper. Leading to it to develop completely black. The second larger paper was my first attempt in making an abstract photogram. After developing it, I realized that not everything was showing up, so I needed to build up and add more layers to my photogram.

In the second photo, are my final negative photograms. The first picture is my landscape photogram, with the sky and the clouds as the background, the mountains as the middle ground, and the soldiers and ground as the foreground. The second photo is my symmetrical photogram. I had to add tissue paper and a couple layers of netting for it to actually show up after being developed.  My last photo is my abstract photogram, at first I didn't have enough, and there was too much negative spacing. Then I added on more and layered more objects on. I added a few pieces of tissue paper and and couple layers of netting. Without doing that, none of the netting would've shown up.

Pinhole Camera Negative to Positive

The objective of this project was to take our negative photos and turn them into a positive. The picture to the left is my negative photo, this wouldn't completely work because my negative had faded too much. My first test strip has visual transitions, but too much light was exposed. I tried it again with another test strip, that time you were able to somewhat see some of the detail from the background. So I decided to test out one more strip to see if I could get the picture to turn out positive. You could somewhat see the brick wall in the background and a shadow of a silhouette. I think that the photo paper was fogged, so that's why my photo wouldn't come out clear enough. On my final paper, the positive came out too light, yet you can still slightly see a silhouette of a person.

Pinhole Camera Negative + Questions

The first step with our pinhole cameras was to go outside, open our apertures, mine was open for 30 seconds. Then we had to go into the dark room and put the picture through the different chemicals. After we saw that there was no light getting inside we were able to take out pictures. I put another strip of photo paper inside my pinhole camera, and went outside. I placed my camera on a stool and took a picture of myself, my aperture was open for about 10 seconds. Then I went back into the dark room, and placed my strip through the chemicals. After completing both my strips, I then took a larger piece of paper and did my final picture with it. I went back outside, placed my camera on a stool, and opened my aperture for about 15 seconds. Again going back into the dark room and processing it through the chemicals. Completing my negative picture with my pinhole camera.

Pinhole Camera Worksheet Answers:
1. A camera obscura is a darkened box with an aperture to allow light inside. It is Latin for "dark room".
2. A pinhole camera is a camera that is light-tight, with a pinhole aperture, and no lens.
3. The three things all cameras have in common is an aperture, a shutter, and they are all light-tight.
4. The two parts of the camera that allow light to enter in is the pinhole aperture and the shutter.
5. To test a camera for "light leaks" you would go outside and open your shutter with the photo ready paper inside, and leave it open for about 10 seconds to test out. After you put the paper through the chemicals, if the picture is dark, that means too much light got inside. To fix it you must find where the light is getting into your camera, and cover it with black paper, making sure that there are no spaces where light can get through.
6. "Camera shake" is when you are taking a picture and your camera moves. Which will make the picture look blurry. To prevent this, you must have the camera set up on a stool or table to make sure there is no movement while taking the photo.
7. When a strip is placed in the developer, the lightened image begins to appear on the strip.
8. The stop bath is where you place your strip of paper after the developer, it stops the action of the developer.
9. When placed in the fixer, the strip is stabilized, removing the layer of silver film, leaving it insensitive to any light it comes into contact with.
10. When printing, you must agitate the chemicals because you want to make sure the entire film is soaked in the different chemicals. You also don't want your print to stick to anything else.
11. To prevent prints from sticking together you must use the tongs to move the photos around, making sure the do not touch one another.
12. We wash our prints because we don't want any remaining chemicals left on our film strips.

Rules of Composition

To learn the rules of composition, we cut out pictures from magazines that represented the different rules. The different rules are lines, balance, framing, simplicity, avoiding mergers, and the rule of thirds. This helped me learn the different ways to take good photos in the future. I will know what to look for and what should and should not be in the picture.