Looking retrospectively at this years com tech project I can safely say that I have learned a lot and achieved a lot in a relatively small space of time, the focus of my research and self directed projects has been predominantly photography based with a very brief insight into design, layout and printing. The purpose of com tech is to learn how to learn, to find out the best way for you learn new skills and absorb information while also learning new processes and documenting them accordingly. In the least amount of words I would say that I have succeeded in setting up a fully functioning dark room and learned how use it and learned the basics in terms of photo editing, photo assisting and digital print and layout, all of which I had little to no knowledge of previously.
The biggest success in my eyes was setting up the darkroom in my basement, I had received the enlarger and the rest of the equipment in summer for free from a friend who had in turn received it from a school that was intending to throw it away. I had intentions to set it up in my basement previously but never got around to it, however com tech gave me both a reason and the motivation to do it and to do it properly. My only other dark room knowledge was based on a morning induction at the Rossington Street building, at the start of the first year, in which we shot a 12 frame roll and developed them all together in a group, however due to the regulated nature of it I didn't particularly learn much and had forgotten it by now. Furthermore the little knowledge I had was based on a controlled environment that was not available to me, this meant that I had to organize the layout and light proofing of the basement in order for it to work. I ordered a set of chemicals from eBay that stated it included everything you needed to develop your own film, this much was true but with very little instructions I enlisted the help of, previous student, Andy Jones to mix and organize the chemicals with me. From this point onwards the process of developing a film was simply a recap of the process I had previously learned but applied to the environment in my own basement.
The next major problem was that I did not have a fixative for developing my photographic prints, a quick Google search returned results explaining that a solution of watered down white vinegar would work, however there were debates on how strong the solution needed to be. I continued searching via Google, yahoo answers and flickr forums to find an average or most agreed upon amount, this turned out to be three parts water to one part vinegar. Surely enough the solution worked and the problem had been overcome. Despite having everything I needed I still encountered problems during printing through silly mistakes such as not checking the aperture of the enlarger or the recommended developing times printed on the boxes.
Once I had completed the process I repeated it all without any of the previous mistakes and this was a major turning point, I had not only set up the dark room but it was fully functioning and I had an efficient production line. This was a large milestone in my learning process, however I realized that obviously I was, and am still, not fully confident and completely competent with darkroom skills but neither would I learn to be in the next couple of weeks. Instead I would learn these things over time, this meant that my learning curve would come to a plateau and rise much slower than it had up until now. Therefore I made the decision to bring a halt to the darkroom related work, I would continue it in my own time, and move onto other things.
At this point I moved onto looking at layout and digital print so I could learn the process of taking, developing, scanning and printing photos in a document from start to finish, it was a relatively short amount of time and came with few problems overall. In retrospect the jump from technical photographic skills to layout and printing seems strange but I think my train of thought was influenced by use of the digital print room and the level of ease and low cost that had intrigued me. After a tutorial and a look through my work I turned back to photographic practice to look into photo assisting and photo editing.
Both of these were short lived in comparison to the dark room section of the project and encountered far less problems, both of which seemed more of a case of just sitting down and getting on with work, taking in information and learning things. Although I learned a lot with both of these and with digital printing the learning curve was much smoother and uneventful in comparison to that of the dark room where I would say I had the most success, problems and significant moments.
Also I think that if you learn a process and everything goes to plan then you don’t quite understand it, whereas if everything goes wrong you have to find out why in order to truly understand it. The important distinction I found is that with the printing, assisting and editing I had learned and understood processes to a reasonable level, almost a linear process of starting at a point with no knowledge and then ending at a point with an understanding of how to achieve what I had wanted. In contrast the darkroom part of my project involved the biggest successes, biggest problems, largest amount of stress and also biggest sense of achievement. At one point I had found myself sat on the floor of my basement surrounded by completely white and/or completely black pieces of photographic paper with no idea why images had failed to develop but I was determined to succeed and identified the problem, the combination of the aperture and exposure timings of the enlarger, and thus managed to move on. But it was the interest that had kept me going and wanting to learn the solution, through this project I have learned as much about myself as the processes mentioned previously and in the rest of my research.
For instance my time keeping and management is fine but I must take into account when I am relying on other people such as deliveries or help on a subject I do not understand. This accentuated the fact that I am impatient and somewhat of a control freak, but also helped me realize that you can only do so much until you do need to rely on another person or company.
Although this project has been based around technical skills and processes and less about the content and actual photographs I can definitely apply this new knowledge to my photographs, furthermore throughout the course of com tech I have been on various photo excursions and have come to the conclusion that this is definitely what I want to do. I was almost certain of this prior to com tech but this has helped confirm my decision that photography is the area of practice I want to work in and that I am in fact a photographer.
This leads into the vast number of things that I still need, and more importantly want, to learn. Some of which can be applied to what I have learned already in com tech such as continuing to learn dark room skills such as working with medium format and colour processing to things completely new to me such as the introduction to medium format phase one backs. This induction may only be a minor thing but the knowledge I will receive from it, amongst other things, will allow me to possibly get an assisting job in the future.
It is these broader developments that add up and result in the experience I will need, when I look back at the short amount of assisting I did on com tech it may not seem much but it is definitely a starting point. I also think that working with printing companies in order to send work and pay invoices has educated me on a level of professionalism that I didn’t have before and again this may be minor but is a starting point in something possibly much bigger. The other overall realization is that you won’t get anywhere if you don’t work, this sounds obvious but I realize now, more than ever, that if you want to succeed you have to put the effort in and that if you are going to do something you may as well do it properly.
Things brings myself to a fairly succinct conclusion in that I have learned a lot about processes, photography as a practice, independent study as a whole and myself. I had originally been somewhat apprehensive about basing my com tech project around photography as I was already interested in it and wasn’t sure whether to pursue a completely new train of thought or to continue with it. However it would have been pointless to start learning about something that I was not interested in, furthermore I feel that by focusing on the technical skills and areas that I have, I have learned more in this space of time than I would have done normally. The greatest example of this is that if it weren’t for com tech the enlarger and darkroom equipment would probably still be cluttering up my room and gathering dust as opposed to being put to use. I have also realized the distinctions between photography as an interest and photography as work are few and far between. I often find myself looking at websites and reading blogs, books and zines for leisure but have come to realize that all of these things are effectively a source of ongoing research that I not only enjoy but look forward to.
All in all com tech has been somewhat of a stressful but enjoyable journey in which I have learned as much about myself as I have my photographic practice, I also feel that it has been one of my most productive projects to date and think that it has set a precedent for the volume of work and research that I should be doing for this coming year.
Photoshop Basics Evaluation
Having completed three very basic Photoshop tutorials I am now convinced that that even on a low level the quality of my photos can be improved, with this new knowledge I can remove dust and scratches from a photo or even complete elements of it before sharpening an image to keep a top quality. Again this is only a very basic level but is enough paired with my prior knowledge to start editing and generally cleaning up the appearance of my photos, while still keeping them very original.
Photoshop Basics - Content Aware Fill
This is the third and final of the basic tutorials that I will be completing, it is essentially an extension of the clone stamp tool and can allow you to remove an element from a picture and replace it with what would be in the background however it is more accurate and much quicker.
The desired area is selected with the lasso or magnetic lasso tool followed by the delete key, you are then given the option of content aware fill, simply accept this and allow the computer to do this for you.
Again this is a very quick process but can remove large parts of an image at relatively quick speed and accuracy. Obviously using the clone stamp tool this can be feathered in and made more subtle but is not terrible as it is.
The desired area is selected with the lasso or magnetic lasso tool followed by the delete key, you are then given the option of content aware fill, simply accept this and allow the computer to do this for you.
Again this is a very quick process but can remove large parts of an image at relatively quick speed and accuracy. Obviously using the clone stamp tool this can be feathered in and made more subtle but is not terrible as it is.
Photoshop Basics - Sharpening
High Pass Sharpening
The following is a very basic but also quick and accurate way to sharpen your images, again it starts with duplicating your layer in case of mistakes. This seems like the next logical step after removing dust and scratches as you can sharpen a whole image as opposed to the previously mentioned method of sharpening only certain areas.
Once duplicated you follow the menu - filter, other, high pass and order the pixel radius in order to determine how much of the image will sharpen. The image is shown in greytones and is then revived by altering the top layers representation from normal to any choice of light between overlay/soft light to vivid/hard light. As before sections of the new layer can be erased in order to show original parts of the image where necessary.
Again this is a very quick process and paired with the previous one can lead to clean, dust free images that retain their original sharpness.
The following is a very basic but also quick and accurate way to sharpen your images, again it starts with duplicating your layer in case of mistakes. This seems like the next logical step after removing dust and scratches as you can sharpen a whole image as opposed to the previously mentioned method of sharpening only certain areas.
Once duplicated you follow the menu - filter, other, high pass and order the pixel radius in order to determine how much of the image will sharpen. The image is shown in greytones and is then revived by altering the top layers representation from normal to any choice of light between overlay/soft light to vivid/hard light. As before sections of the new layer can be erased in order to show original parts of the image where necessary.
Again this is a very quick process and paired with the previous one can lead to clean, dust free images that retain their original sharpness.
Photoshop Basics - Dust and Scratches
This will be the first in a small selection of photoshop tutorials that I will be finding online in order to improve either the content and or quality of my photographs, these will be mainly based on video tutorials found via youtube or google search results.
Removing Dust and Scratches
One of the mot noticeable problems I encountered with developing my own photos was problems with dust or scratches on the film once I had scanned them, this is a fairly frequent problem and once easily remedied, The video below explains the process in full detail but I will be showing only the very basic steps here.
As you can see the original image has a lot of dust and scratches, the first step is to duplicate the layer, this means that if anything goes wrong you can start again and you have not damages the original file. Once duplicated you follow the menu - filter, noise, dust and scratches and the menu below will be shown, by altering the radius and threshold of the pixels the programme will eliminate the scratches etc that it sees as anomalies.
However this can result in a loss of quality as seen above, to redeem this we use the eraser tool to remove sections from the top layer in order to show the detailed sections from the bottow layer, in this case the eyes.
Once this stage is complete the image can be flattened and you have an image that is free of dust and scratches but can retain its quality.
This is a fairly quick and simple process but one that could definitely benefit all of my photos quite easily, next I will be looking at sharpening images overall.
Removing Dust and Scratches
One of the mot noticeable problems I encountered with developing my own photos was problems with dust or scratches on the film once I had scanned them, this is a fairly frequent problem and once easily remedied, The video below explains the process in full detail but I will be showing only the very basic steps here.
As you can see the original image has a lot of dust and scratches, the first step is to duplicate the layer, this means that if anything goes wrong you can start again and you have not damages the original file. Once duplicated you follow the menu - filter, noise, dust and scratches and the menu below will be shown, by altering the radius and threshold of the pixels the programme will eliminate the scratches etc that it sees as anomalies.
However this can result in a loss of quality as seen above, to redeem this we use the eraser tool to remove sections from the top layer in order to show the detailed sections from the bottow layer, in this case the eyes.
Once this stage is complete the image can be flattened and you have an image that is free of dust and scratches but can retain its quality.
This is a fairly quick and simple process but one that could definitely benefit all of my photos quite easily, next I will be looking at sharpening images overall.
Assisting Evaluation
Although I have only had a very brief introduction into assisting I feel that it is something I could benefit from if I continued to do it at a higher level then it is a potential way to make contacts professionally. I feel that I didn't do a great amount of physical work but definitely took a lot of notes and generally have a better understanding of the process of taking pictures in a studio environment and understand the importance of the relationship between the client and the photographer. The fundamental things I have understood is that the client must come to the shoot with an idea of what they want to get out of it and/or that the photographer must know what they want, without this the whole scenario is pointless and somewhat unenjoyable. As a personal preference I also think that there should be some music playing in order to avoid awkward silences and generally keep the mood of the scenario alive.
Assisting Part 2
Due to my late start previously I arranged to assist on another shoot with Emma Saynor that had been present at the previous shoot and was also interested in studio band photography. This time I arrived on time and helped set up, this involved rolling down the backdrop, setting up the lights and softboxes and general housekeeping of the studio. I also played a more active role throughout this shoot by regularly altering the light placements and suggesting arrangements for the band in order to show them all but avoid shadowing each other.
As previously stated I feel like I did more actual work this time round but still not a lot as I feel that Emma was still learning to use the equipment herself and so it was a learning curve for both of us. Again my criticisms are that having music playing in the background may lighten the mood and generally loosen up the clients and most importantly that they must come with an idea of what they want out of the shoot.
As previously stated I feel like I did more actual work this time round but still not a lot as I feel that Emma was still learning to use the equipment herself and so it was a learning curve for both of us. Again my criticisms are that having music playing in the background may lighten the mood and generally loosen up the clients and most importantly that they must come with an idea of what they want out of the shoot.