Shoot in inspiration from Jenny Sampson
Shoot plan-
The ideas behind my work are to work in inspiration form Jenny Sampson. I wanted to capture a similar emotion and atmosphere as she manages to in her work. She creates compelling portraits of the local skaters to her which is an idea I would like to employ in my work. Her style of shooting on an old school camera in close up black and whites inspires me and is something I would like to explore in my own work. She shoots using wet plates but I will be using a large format film camera to incorporate her idea of using an old camera for contemporary work. I will be shooting skaters and surfers from Cornwall who shows interesting features and characteristics. I would like to create a series of images all in black and white of close up portraits of individuals. I will also be shooting using my old film camera so I get a variety of images. I am aiming to get detailed close up images of individuals, by using a large format camera I am hoping to achieve that. I will also be developing my own film using the collage darkroom so it will be interesting to see the outcome. I have not conducted a portraiture shoot yet however, I thought it would be good to create a variety between my images and explore different techniques using film and different cameras. I will be using thew rule of thirds to centre my subject in the middle of the image so they are the main focus of the image. I will be shooting quite close up so that I can get as much detail as possible. As I will be working in the studio I will be positioning the camera directly in-front of my subject with lighting either side to get a good amount of bright light. I will not be using flash just brighter lights so the images have good contrast. This shoot will take around an hour to set up the equipment and shoot each different person, as I am working using a large format camera I have a limited amount of large format film so I will only be taking one photo per person. I have 5 individuals to shoot each has a different vibe and unique characteristics so there is a variety between each image. I have chosen to shoot these talented individuals because it links to my magazine project I am creating where I will be focusing on the youth of surf and skate culture in Cornwall. My equipment list: Large format camera, film, lighting and studio (white background). The weather conditions won't matter as I will be shooting indoors and using artificial lighting.
Thumbnail Sketches-
Final Images-
Editing- Due to working on film I won't be editing the physical properties of the image such as brightness and contrast. I scanned the film and uploaded it to photoshop to invert the image and then cropped it slightly because the lighting setup came into the composition slightly.
Evaluation-
Overall the images came out really effectively and it was really interesting to use the large format camera. The starting points of this shoot was to capture a set of black and white portraits of unique individuals to add a variety to the images I am capturing. Jenny Sampson and her inspiring black and white portraits following local skaters of her community was the basis of my ideas for this shoot. I wanted to incorporate her idea of using older photographic techniques to capture the community of a contemporary sport. Throughout this shoot I learnt how to shoot using a large format camera and how to develop film. I shot using paper and film in the camera so I learnt a variety of developing techniques. It took me a while to get round the process of setting up and using a large format camera. As we couldn't learn much studio or black room work in first year due to COVID this was all new to me but it was something iv wanted to explore for a while so im very pleased with the outcome. I also learnt how to set up the studio with the lights and using a light meter to know the camera settings so that the exposure is correct which is ended up being perfect. The process of experimenting with a large format camera was really inspiring for me to try something new and learn a new technique. I really enjoyed developing the film and the process of scanning it to see the outcome-it was really interesting to not be able to see the outcome straight away made the process much for exciting. The technique of using film was really effective and gave so much more to the outcome- it made the final images m such more special rather Han using a digital camera. The less successful areas of shoot was the timing, this was because I hadn't left enough time to set up the shoot and to learn how to use the camera. therefore the individuals I has arranged to shoot had to wait but the overall process was very effective. The only thing I found tricky was using the other type of film as I had to adjust the settings on the camera and use the light meter to know the manual settings. I am very pleased with the outcome of this shoot, the set of portraits work really well together. The overall exposure and contrast was perfect without editing. The final image had a really nice atmosphere to them- each individual radiates a different energy which is really captured through their composure and facial expressions. The images have a softness to them as the tones are very subtle which is really effective. In the future I would like to develop my skills in using a large format camera and to get more confident with knowing the manual settings I need to create effective images. If I did the project again I would off got more prepared and left more time before shooting so that I could take time to learn how to use the camera instead of rushing into shooting the individuals. I am really happy with the outcome I didn't expect it to be this successful and it has really inspired me to use the technique in my future work.
Shooting using film instead of paper-
For the second part of this shoot I used film in the large format camera, from looking at the outcomes of the two different types of images you can see the big difference between them. I prefer the outcome of the paper negatives as the quality is much better and the constants is nicer- they have a been feel in the overall image. These film images don't have enough contrast and are slightly blurred. This is due to not focusing the camera properly and doing the wrong settings on the camera. Due to using out of date film it is also fogged so it couldn't capture the full effect and contrast of the image. The process of developing the film was very tricky as I had to do it in the complete dark due to the sensitivity of the paper. Overall I prefer the process and outcome of using paper in the large format camera however it was interesting to experiment with two types of processes and I have learnt a lot from it and different techniques in the dark room.
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