GRAD SHOW: CREWING FOR TJ

I sure have been busy these last two terms, and when TJ asked me to gaffer for his grad film I had to say yes. We had many meetings as a crew to discuss the upcoming shoot and looked through all the pre production. It was super thorough, and so instantly I knew what TJ wanted me to do. Myself and TJ had meetings to talk lighting, gels, colour, equipment and pre lights so I was all up to speed with everything that was needed of me. We arranged a pre light and I felt that helped a lot and reassured us both that we could do it. We had four shoot days which seemed like a lot, but they were super crammed on the day, yet still a lot of fun. I feel it went well the whole shoot, despite the fact that lots of the equipment was faulty or broken, but we managed to resolve it all. I feel that I did my job well as a gaffer and gave TJ what he wanted, he seemed pleased with the lighting outcome so that was reassuring. I tried my best to keep the lighting as similar as possible when I had to change the lights around. There were a few difficulties as the space on the third and fourth day was super cramped, so some of the lighting doesn't match up as nicely as I wanted. But it isn't unfix able in post production colour grading. 

After the shoot was over, TJ asked me if I would like to edit and I said yes of course because it was a great opportunity and felt like I was up to the task. However I got a week into it and had to go to hospital with heart problems relating to stress and felt that maybe I had taken on too much in one term. So after discussion TJ handed the edit over to Nina and Rufaro. I am dissapointed in myself that I couldn't see the edit the whole way through but if I had continued then I know I would have made myself more ill. Overall I enjoyed working on this shoot so much and love helping others and getting stuck in doing what I love, and I can't wait to see the final piece. Below are only a few images I took, there will be some more BTS coming as Preston took those pictures. 

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

DANCE FILM:UPDATE

After proposing our idea for our idea, myself and Danielle got to work trying to source dancers and get our pre production together. However, due to us both being very ill during the Easter break, we were unable to get everything together in time as we were unwell and we had to take care of ourselves. This was a massive shame as we had big ambitions with this dance film but illness lead to being delayed. Although, I had a quick chat with Rosie and she said that due to us crewing on so many shoots that we would be able to make up our grade from our contributions to people's projects.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

ADVANCED PHOTOG (LIGHTROOM CATALOGUE)

As one of the tasks for Advanced Photography we were asked to create a primary and secondary Lightroom catalogue. We spent a whole lesson with Bayton going through step by step what was needed in our catalogues and how to execute it well. We were asked to create collections in our catalogues, give our pictures colour and star ratings, edit them, and give them keywords to search for in the search bar. Below I have taken screenshots of my work flow and pieces of editing I have done along the way.

Above you can see that I opened my image as a smart object therefore any work or editing I did to the photo, it linked back to my Lightroom catalogue, and inserted a new image with all the changes I had made to it.

As you can see above I created my 3 collections, and in my light source collection I had made a start on rating them and colour rating them. One thing Bayton told us in class is that a good work flow is to make all your newly imported pictures coloured red, meaning you haven't edited them, orange if you had made a start, and green when the image is complete.

Above is a screenshot of me demonstrating me opening an image as a smart object into Photoshop. 

Above you can see that when I open the image into the camera RAW view, I have made changes to how the image is imported and displayed. I chose 16bit for my image and changed the present from adobe to Prophoto.

You can see here that I am starting to make changes and edit my images slowly.

Again you can see the changes I am making to my image to make it look better.

Here I have taken a snapshot in Photoshop so that Bayton will be able to see what and how I have edited my pictures.

As you can see here I am showing you the beginning of my light sources collection, where everything is coloured red, and my star rating is how good I deem the image without any editing.

This is my personal collection at the beginning of me editing anything.

Again this is my studio shoot catalogue at the beginning of the editing stage.

Pictured here I am displaying that when you make changes to your image in Photoshop as a smart object it relays any editing back to your catalogue and creates a duplicate. You can also see in the bottom right hand corner the little icons show that I have created key wording for them, colour labelled and star rated them.

Here you can see my workflow as I start to make progress on an image.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

VFX TITLE SEQUENCE MAKING

I decided to set myself a day in the library to master the skills and tutorials I had watched in order to make my title sequence. I created a new composition and created a shape layer that would be the loading bar, then a box around it. With the loading bar I added a trim path to it so that I would be able to animate it, then edited the progression of the trim path and added easy ease. In the tutorial it gave an equation for the percentage of the bar to rise, I added the code however the numbers didn't go up at all. So I decided to delete the code and just add my own number when it got to 100%. After this was finished I pre composed the whole composition so I could start the next part of my title sequence. 

This part was the moving DNA piece. This tutorial was very intense and had to be stuck to very very closely, and I managed to do so. I started by creating two shape layers of circles and then duplicating them both to create masks for when they separated. I inverted the alpha matt for them so that when the circles drifted apart it seemed as if a bit of them was missing. I then creating a pole or listed Beam in the images below to create the piece that joined together the DNA. But in order for the circles and beam to keep together, I had to create a null object which was the rotation and parent all the circles and the beam to the null object. Then I keyframed how and where I wanted the rotation to happen and once I was happy with it, I then carefully keyframed so it appeared to come closer in the screen, even though all I did was enlarge the closest circle and decrease the furthest away circle. After I was happy with this then I pre composed this too and duplicated it, added roughen on the second duplicate to create a more motion blur effect then duplicated it some more so I could fill the screen and move them around. Attached below are some screenshots I took whilst working.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

VFX PROPOSAL

I had many ideas when it came to an opening title sequence for vfx. However my skills in after effects aren't as advanced as my mind wants them to be. I originally wanted to do the opening title sequence for My Little Pony, as it is a favourite show of mine, and I like the bright colours and felt it would be nice to work with. However, when talking with Phil he explained how much work I would have to do in order to create a sequence like that, a lot of animation, walk cycles and a lot more. As I have a lot going on in and outside of uni, I decided to work within my skill range in after effects. I learned how to create a neon light, and thought about what programmes had neon in them. I thought of Black Mirror and decided to try that out, I would have to film some live action too. But when it came to the live action filming I was stuck in the snow and I had to try and re create a sunny, hot west coast beach. So that meant I had to change my idea again. I watched quite a few tutorials on YouTube of things within my skill level and do them step by step. I first learned how to create a loading bar. This gave me ideas of TV shows and I decided to pick Humans the Channel 4 series that was really popular. After I had completed the loading bar, I thought of what else was linked to the TV show and DNA is one of them and technology so I watched some mega complex tutorials and tried to push myself and I managed to create DNA that moves around the screen. I am happy with what I have so far, although I am thinking of adding maybe something else on the end.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

VFX LESSON FOUR (SKELETON)

With this lesson being one of the last Phil decided to show us more complex things in after effects. He asked us to create a skeleton out of the shape layers. So rectangles and circles for the limbs and joints, very basic shapes nothing complex. Then adjust the centre point so that they were nearest the limb or joint they were going to be attached to. Then parent them to each other. For instance, the right foot was parented to the right shin, and the shin was parented to the thigh, then the thigh was parented to the pelvis etc. This was a really fun but complicated exercise to do! once that was all parented and together we used a plug in called Durik, which was an animation plug in that helped the limbs moved. It was a really cool plug in as you could select which limb was what and it would link it all for you so the limbs were then properly attached. Once this was done we could key frame the limbs so that they would move, or do a little dance. However, when I linked all my limbs up with Durik, something didn't seem to quite settle, somewhere in my parenting it had gone wrong and some of my limbs weren't properly attached. I had a look over to see if I had just missed something, but when Phil checked it he couldn't see anything either. But I didn't let this bring me down I still key framed my little skeleton and him being not properly connected just made him look more funny.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

VFX LESSON THREE (EXPERIMENTING)

This lesson was all about deciding what title sequence you wanted to do and start experimenting from there. I knew that My Little Pony was going to be too hard for me, so I had a look at some tutorials and found how to create a neon sign in after effects. I knew there was a neon sign in Black Mirror, so I thought I could create this neon sign, and film some live action and edit it together to look nice and well effected.

I followed the neon sign tutorial and it took a long time but I managed to get it working in the end, and once that was done I recreated that and just had some ending text before what would be the beginning of the show. This took me all day but I was feeling hopeful about how this would turn out as I felt it was complex enough but not too complex that I couldn't create it.

Sadly after this session it snowed it down and uni was closed for a few days. The episode of Black Mirror I wanted to create required really hot and sunny weather as it is based on the west coast of America. However it snowed it down so hard it was unsafe for me to drive to a beach, plus the beach would have snow on which wouldn't look how I wanted. So yet again I had to change my idea and change it fast.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

VFX LESSON TWO (LIQUID TEXT)

For the second lesson we were taught all about trim paths and all the effects you can do in after effects. We were asked to download a high res picture of the Nike logo, then import it. With the import Phil said we should use the pen tool to draw around and use the beziers to make sure we had nice curves and that it looked as close to the original as possible. Then we selected all the points we had made and created a trim path, also we were told that if you highlight your keyframes and press F9 then it makes them easy ease. Then you can edit this progression in the speed graph option.

Then with all of this set up we could key frame the trim path so that it would disappear and appear smoothly and so it looked sleek. This took quite a while to do as it was fiddly and complicated. But once it was done it looked really good and you could spend some time changing its colours and all sorts. I really enjoyed that lesson and can't wait for the next one

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

VFX LESSON ONE (3D TEXT)

This was our first lesson for VFX for creative toolkit so I was excited as to what we would do. After having a few after effects lessons in first year my skills aren't as good as other peoples but I am taking time to learn and improve so I can be as good as everyone else. Phil started us off with the first lesson introducing 3D layers, cameras and lights. 

Phil asked us to create a standard composition, and type whatever we wanted. Then he asked us to activate a camera in after effects, which I had never done before. But it was really fascinating as you could select weather you had depth of field and focus and everything. After activating a camera we then created the composition to become 3D. With the composition being 3D this meant that we can move around the space on a XYZ axis and give depth to the piece. We then added a light, this was also really cool as you could select what sort of light, weather it was a spotlight or a fill and how bright etc. We then were asked to duplicate the text you had typed earlier and move it round the space so that when you moved the camera, you would find the pieces of text and your light would shine on it too.

We were then encouraged to use the skills we had learned in the morning and apply them to making a 3D object, such as a box. We had to create the box from 2D square layers and then bringing them together. This was a lot harder than it seemed as you had to move constantly around the space in order to get all the sides touching. I managed to eventually create what looked like a box, but it took me so long that I ran out of time! 

I hope you enjoyed. Thank you.

DANCE FILM: LEARNING AGREEMENT

DESCRIPTION:

This dance piece explores the friction and compromise in relationships through structured choreography. With this piece I aim to display the physical and emotional connection and strain relationships have on each individual, with the dancers never touching, but simply coming close to each other and displaying touch through body language, posture and expression.

RESEARCH:

(TV) AHS coven - one takes 

(TV) Mr Robot - one takes

 (FILM) Wes Anderson - colour palette 

(FILM) Neo Yokio - colour 

(FILM) Her - colour, lighting

(FILM) Moonlight – lighting and colour palette 

(FILM) silver linings playbook 

(FILM) eternal sunshine of a spotless mind 

(FILM) happy together / Wong Kai Wai 

(MUSIC VIDEO)ok go - composition, colour 

(MUSIC VIDEO) sigrid - strangers – set, art direction, colour

(MUSIC VIDEO)idgaf dua lipa – colour, choreography

 (MUSIC VIDEO)wide open / chemical brothers - choreography

(INSTALLATION) james turrel - light and space

(PHOTOGRAPHY) Todd Hido 

CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

My work relates to my future goals by developing my exploration of sexuality, relationships, feminism and the female form. Previously I have made work about the objectification of women, sexuality and feminism and I felt this would be a good opportunity to explore similar themes through the medium of dance. I feel my work has similar themes from the likes of Yves Klein and his piece Blue Women Art, as he explored the female form and used paint in a way to choreography their movements. Another example could be a music video for Submotion Orchestra - Kites, where they used flowing material as an interpretation of the female form, and I will be introducing flowing material to symbolise fluidity, sexuality and femininity.

TECHNICAL AND CREATIVE SKILLS:

My technical and creative skills will include: One dance piece, handheld camera work, shoulder rig, gimball, set building, choreography composed by myself, team management with my crew, set design, set building, colour palettes, lights and gels, editing in Avid media composer, colour correction, creation of my own soundtrack.

COMMUNICATION:

I will create extensive call sheets and schedules, and will give a copy of both to my tutor to ensure she knows exactly when and where we are shooting, who is on set, and their contact details. I will set up a google doc with all the pre-productin to ensure that all crew are up to speed with the development on the film. I will hold regular meetings with the crew to make sure they are all happy, on board and are competent in their roles. This piece communicates with the audience by using an aesthetic colour palette of light pastels and soft colours to draw your eye to the piece, then with the choreography it will conceptually engage the audience with flowing movements and dramatic shifts in body language and posture. It will also engage with the audience by displaying that it is a relationship that is flawed and I feel that many people can relate to this weather a romantic relationship or purely platonic.

SELF MANAGEMENT:

I will ensure I am well managed by having regular meetings with my crew about up and coming film dates, what we need to prepare, and what is already done. I will look at the timetable and select my filming dates carefully and make sure that all my crew are available. With this shoot I will of course have schedules and call sheets to make sure we are on track and getting the most out of the time we are shooting. I will make sure that we shoot the dance film at least three weeks before the deadline to allow me to have enough time to edit and, if necessary re shoot anything or make any adjustments. I will make sure that I have all my pre-production with me at all times on shoots and meetings with the crew and with my tutor to ensure that I am giving correct information about our shoot days and can stick to the schedule as accurately as we can.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

DANCE FILM: INSPIRATION (PHOTOGRAPHY)

I feel that any form of media or anything in this world can inspire our work. Weather it be an experience, or a place or piece of work. But I took inspiration from a photographer called Todd Hido. Even though you may not assume any of his work inspires me, I feel that his composition and lighting does. Being a lighting fanatic I am obsessed with his dark, sunset style lighting. Most of his work appears like it is small towns, surrounded by snow and isolated it gives the feeling of isolation and sadness as there is a lot of blue sombre tones to his work. Because he photographs houses a lot in the bleak winter there is often a light on in the house. Some could say there is a light on simply because someone occupies the building, but I think the light has been turned on purposefully to signify a light of hope, or life in a building or event. I feel this could be quite useful in my choreography to try and replicate this sort of feeling in my work. Pictured below are some of his works.

DANCE FILM: INSPIRATION (INSTALLATION)

I felt that because my set took inspiration from an installation that I should do some research into installation for inspiration for my dance film. As I am a fan of Drake, and his music videos, I went about finding who did the backdrops and sets for him. I found out that it was James Turrel who did them. He created his neon backgrounds that feature so heavily in Drake's videos. I love the colour used in his videos and the choices of colour too. The colours range from blues and purples, to intense yellows. I will be taking heavy inspiration from Turrel's work in thinking about the gels and colours I use.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

DANCE FILM: INSPIRATION (TV)

For my dance piece I wanted to put in some thorough research to ensure that my idea is well backed up and also give myself some inspiration into making my piece more artistic or technically advanced. I will research many mediums of moving image for my piece. But in this post I will focus on television. The pieces I will choose to research will be for technical and creative merit and ideas and I will explain why for each piece.

The first example that comes to mind for inspiration is American Horror Story season 3 called Coven. You may ask why I would research and feel inspired by a horror show, but it is because I am drawn to their technical skills in the series. In many episodes you see flash backs where the camera will spin to the other side of the room and you see no cut in the edit, but the same actors in the present are there in the flashback. I have watched this transitions so many times and still cannot quite work it out. As I would like my dance piece to be a one take, I wanted to take inspiration from the craftsmanship of the camera team in Coven.

Another example I would like to give is Mr Robot, the Amazon Prime series. In season 3 episode 5, it appears to be 40 minutes of one take throughout the whole episode. I have watched this episode a few times now as it was recommend to me by a friend who knew I was interested in one take pieces for my dance film. I did a bit of research into the episode and the camera team say that there were a few cuts, but it was about hiding them in places that appeared to look like just one take. If I cannot do a one take for my dance film, I would research more into how they did this, as I would like to be able to pull it off in the same way they did. I am aware I am not as talented as the camera crew of Mr Robot but I feel I should push myself and see just how far I can go.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

DANCE FILM: INSPIRATION (MUSIC VIDEO)

To further my research I decided to look at music videos for my dance film, as you could say this are the most related in terms of length, composition and choreography. As there are hundreds of music videos out there that I could talk about for days, I decided to pick 4 that I felt inspired me in different ways.

The first music video I found was by Sigrid called Strangers. This music video is a strange one as you see some behind the scenes in the music video. Such as the people holding the wind machine etc. I felt this was quite a nice part of the music video as it makes the audience aware this isn't reality, even though you know it isn't. The set I also really like in this music video as it is very minimalist, just a massive room or infinity wall with some furniture and props, that the singers dances around and interacts with the set. I was thinking of maybe including some behind the scenes in my dance film as I feel it adds a sort of reality into the video and that is what I am trying to do. I am also taking inspiration from the set and its minimalist style and will only have the paper mountains and a clean white background, so the attention is focused on the dancers. Below is a link to the video.

SIGRID STRANGERS

Another music video I found was Dua Lipa's latest music video IDGAF. This video is incredible in the editing as they almost clone the dancers and they interact and touch each other. But I am taking inspiration from the colour in this music video. They have gorgeous gels, with blues, yellows and reds being the main colours. The gels and lights are soft on the face giving a nice glow and I will want to try and use this to inspire my piece and have beautiful soft lighting.I also really liked the choreography, as it requires a whole dance crew, even though I am only using two dancers I will still take inspiration from this choreography. Below is a link to the video.

DUA LIPA IDGAF

Although I am not a massive fan of the Chemical Brothers, their song Wide Open is incredible. A friend showed this to me and I just couldn't get my head around how it was done. You see a dancer slowly turn into a hollow structure with holes in her, and you can see her heart. Although I am not aiming to do something as technical as this, I felt the choreography was beautiful and well crafted. The dancers movement was so elegant and complimented the music so well. I will be taking lots of inspiration from this choreography for my own work. Below is a link to the video.

CHEMICAL BROTHERS WIDE OPEN

Again I am not a huge fan of OK GO's music, but I find their music videos, clever, sometimes simple but very funny and surreal. There were many music videos I could have chosen to talk about but I felt this music video had the colours I wanted. I have talked a lot about colour palettes, but not much about costume and although simple, the costumes in this music video have really nice colours. They are wearing quite bright colours in this video but it works. With the plain background of a muted toned aeroplane, they are able to be the focus of attention with the bright colours. Taking inspiration from this, I felt that if I were to have quite a plain background, my dancers should have quite bright clothing so they don't get lost in the scene. I was thinking still minimal and easy to move in clothes but with bright and complimenting colours to the set. Below is a link to the video.

OK GO UPSIDE DOWN AND INSIDE OUT

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

DANCE FILM: ART DIRECTION INFLUENCES

For my dance piece I have done some research into what I wanted my dance set to look like. With some dance pieces they use the outdoors as their set, to convey a message to the audience and link with the piece, others use simple backdrops, or others create a set. As we are in to the latter end of second year I really wanted to push myself in every field in the technical and creative elements. I want to create and build a set for my piece so I did a little bit of research into what I wanted my set to look like and why. 

A couple of years ago I saw an exhibition in London that was a sculpture made of paper much like mountains, you were allowed to walk around and through it, the paper was thick so it could stand alone. The room was fairly dark, but light enough for you to see and the card was a beautiful orange colour that almost glowed. It was an incredibly immersive experience and felt quite womb like and nurturing. I feel sad that I cannot remember what the exhibition was called but I will try and find out and attach a link if I can. This sculpture piece has been in my mind ever since, and I felt going forward with this dance piece that I would like to incorperate it somehow. Because our piece is about relationships and their struggles both good and bad, I thought paper mountains would be interesting to include. The physicality of a paper mountain. and their rough and jagged sides could denote the rough parts of a relationship, it being unstable and uncertain where you can place your feet next. But it could also denote that when you reach the top of the mountain peak, a euphoric and accomplished feeling as you got through the hard times together.

I am hoping with some research into materials that I will be able to source this paper and craft it in a way that will stand by itself and allow the dancers to move about and around the space. Of course with using paper, after the shoot is done I will ensure that it is recycled so it won't cause harm to the environment. I feel having this set will really enhance my piece and push my creative skills into crafting this for my dance film. Pictured below are some examples I have found of paper constructions that I hope to base my sculpture on.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

VFX INSPIRATION MOOD BOARD

For VFX I have been thinking for a long time what I wanted my title sequence to be. At first I wanted something colourful and fun such as My Little Pony or Hello Kitty, but that would require a lot of advanced skills to make the 2D characters 3D and a lot of effects that I am not quite competent enough to use yet. So I decided to have a look at some interesting tutorials on After Effects and text in After Effects and came across a neon sign tutorial. After completing the tutorial I felt that this was quite achievable for me to do and that I should find a way to incorporate it somehow into my work. So I had a look at TV shows or films that had used neon lights and remembered the Black Mirror episode San Junipero and remembered the neon lights in that episode. In the bar that thee girls both meet the neon sign in the background is pink and blue and very striking as the light falls on their faces. The later in the episode when they kiss on the beach they are wearing pink and blue as a running colour scheme. So I think I am going to use this throughout my live action filming and my animation work on After Effects. Pictured below are some abstractions from the episode and some mood boards and colour schemes/swatches.

pink and blue colour scheme

neon sign at the bar 

colour palette swatch

another colour scheme 

the two running colours in neon

blue swatch

pink swatch

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

AVID SESSION III

With this being our last booked in time to edit our films, the pressure was on. The Avid rooms are open until 8pm so if I didn't finish today I knew I still had time to adjust things and make improvements or changes. With my edit all in order, I decided to get to work on sorting out the audio. Some of the clips had talking in the background so I had to figure out how to make my own atmosphere track to cover the sound. I scrolled through lots of the footage to find a clip that had no noise, only the background atmosphere and I selected and cut that, the put it underneath the clip I wanted to change the audio of. Then I cut the new atmosphere track down to the size of the clip so it didn't interfere with any of the surrounding clips. I then had to deselect the video tracks, right click and select unlock tracks, by doing this it separates the audio from the footage. I then clicked on the audio and selected mute track. So when you play the clip through, it muted the original audio and instead plays the atmosphere track I put together. As some of the clips I was using had a lot of talking in the background I spent the morning sorting out the audio for them to make sure it was perfect. Then I decided that when the beginning of the film starts I should fade the music from silent to the atmos track so it doesn't sound all static and unprofessional. So I placed some markers on the audio timeline and lassoed them so they would both move at the same time. I made the first markers at zero, and then slowly build them up so you wouldn't notice the audio.

After all this was finished and tidied up I moved on to colour correction. This is my favourite bit as I adore taking something plain looking and natural and turning it super cinematic and colourful. So I started with going into the colour correction format under Work space in the top left hand corner. Using this work space is great because it allows you to see the clip your editing, the one before and the one after, so you can match your colouring and it flow nicely with your colour pallet. So I set off with the scene that had tungsten lighting putting a little bit of blue and purple in there, but reducing any green that I could see. This is what I did for the majority of the colouring for the tungsten lighting. However, when it came to the red lighting I had a different approach of course. I enhanced my red every so slightly but made the red chart have an S curve in the shape so the red peaked higher in the bottom left hand side of the screen and was more subtle in the middle of the screen. I also turned the master track up as that affects the exposure, and as some pieces were quite dark I just adjusted them ever so slightly. The was one cut away that was really orange for some reason, it was a close up of TJ's hand holding the chess piece, and as this was meant to be the natural tungsten lighting I enjoyed playing around to match it back to the lighting. I adjusted the reds a little lower and raised the blues and a bit of purple, then turned down the master track as it was a little over exposed. I had a lot of fun doing this but I am not quite finished with the edit, but I have enough time to spend a few more hours perfecting it and preparing it for being finished.

Colour Correction for Tungsten Light

Audio Control with Key Frames

Creating my own Atmos Track

Unlocking the Tracks

Creating the Atmos Overlay

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

LARGE FORMAT CAMERA INDUCTION

On Wednesday Peter Renn held an all day workshop on large format cameras, under the Fields and Frames unit. Beforehand I was really excited as I had never used large format before and I wanted to know how it looked and worked. Peter gave a presentation in the morning of famous photographers that use large format and why. We were shown some beautiful examples of large format work and it was incredible. The quality and definition you can get in the photo is incredible, and this allows you to be able to enlarge the images easier.

After the presentation, Peter got out some large format cameras and showed us how to set them up and make sure they aren't damaged and in good working order. He also told us what to book out if we ever need one, as when you book out a large format camera and a tripod, it doesn't come with the film paper slots, so you have to book them out separate. The setting up of the camera itself was fascinating, the care and time you take over the camera is important as it is delicate. We were also shown how to load the film, and how to set the camera up to take a picture. This was a lot of information to take it, but luckily I wrote notes. We were then reminded on the light meters and how they will come in handy whilst shooting. After this, Peter gave us some film paper and sent us off to take pictures of whatever we wanted and experiment. We got into groups and my group was me, Nina and George. we decided to go around uni and try and take a self portrait in the reflection of a window. but we accidently exposed the paper so it went completely white instead of capturing the photo. Sadly George had to leave so it was up to me and Nina to see if we could figure out how to take a photo and it work. After multiple attempts of it being over and under exposed we finally got there, and started to shoot some really pretty photos. I think it was easily one of the best and most fun workshops I have been to, I enjoyed the laid back manor and Peter allowed us to play and experiment and capture whatever we wanted. Pictured below are some of the camera and process.

Photo Paper

Failed Self Portrait

The Camera

The Viewfinder 

Darkroom

Behind The Scenes

Behind The Scenes II

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.