With the semester starting to pick up, we have began to start working with the view camera in my photography class with Sam Olfano. Last week and this week, we have started to learn how to use the cameras (shown below) and how developing works.
First, we took a few classes to learn the cameras without taking any photos. We just focused on things such as aperture, how to focus, and all the basic knowledge one needs. Especially considered the image shown via the “screen” is upside-down.
On Thursday, September 12, we took out first photos.
We very simply set the cameras up inside, and took shots outside the windows. After developing the outside photos, we then took pictures of each other and developed those as well. The photo is originally taken as a negative.
On Tuesday, September 17, we began learning how to take our negatives and turn them into positive black and white photographs. It is a very lengthy process of testing different times of exposures until we know for a fact we have just the right amount. In order to do said testing, we expose our negatives for different amount of times on the same piece of paper, covering the sheet up as we go on as to not ruin the other exposure times.
The first exposure test is a general test from too much exposure (darkest) to not enough (lightest). In my first test, we actually never reached a moment of too much, however I still did not have enough. So, I did a second test with even more exposure times. By then, Sam was able to help me find out around how much exposure time I needed. By the third test, the paper was exposed for 36 seconds. Although it was close, we still need just a few more seconds, which I will be trying on Thursday (September 19).
At First, the test photos may not seem like much, but if you look closely you can notice the little difference of each exposure.
If your interested in my journey as a photographer outside of the blog, you can see here.
