Advanced Darkroom Techniques

Need ideas on what technique to try?

http://www.alternativephotography.com/

https://www.pinterest.ca/angeliaperkins/alternative-photo-ideas/?lp=true

https://www.pinterest.ca/autumnshaw1827/alternative-photography-ideas/?lp=true

Ideas to research:

Think about how you shoot. This can impact your final work. If you are using a film camera, try one of hte following...

A vortograph is the abstract kaleidoscopic photograph taken when shooting an object or scene through a triangular tunnel of three mirrors. Alvin Langdon Coburn’s images were some of the first abstract photographs taken.
Wrap torn plastic or other materials around the edge of your camera to create hazy edges, as in the photographs of Jesse David McGrady. This clever photography trick produces soft, hazy edges around with a photograph, helping to create an ethereal or other-worldly atmosphere. Jessy David McGrady achieves this effect using a plastic sandwich bag, with a hole torn in the side. He places the ring of plastic around his camera lens, secured in place with a rubber band, leaving rough, torn, slightly crunched edges visible through the viewfinder (but not obscuring the image completely). The intention is that the middle of the image remains well-focused and sharp, while the edges become misty. You can experiment with using marker pens to colour the plastic or increasing the number of layers of plastic.
Use a hand-held glass lens or prism, to create blurred, abstract forms, like photographs by Sam Hurd. A convex lens or prism held in front of your camera lens can create stunning reflections, distortions and ‘bokeh’ within and around your image. The results are unexpected and unpredictable, often creating beautiful abstracted shapes and colours that are not easily replicatable using Photoshop. A hand-held glass lens or prism enables you to quickly add variety to an image, bending and directing light and colour from the scene itself.
Deliberately un-focus lights to create ‘bokeh’, as in the landscapes by Takashi Kitajima. Takashi Kitajima stands on high-rise buildings and photographs Tokyo city at night, capturing radiant semi-abstract urban landscapes. Bokeh is created in different ways by different lenses – typically appearing unintentionally in the background of a scene. In addition to being an exciting part of outdoor night photography, bokeh can occur in dimly lit interiors, such as when photographing sequinned fabric, glitter sparkle, or Christmas lights etc.
Photograph scenes through visible hand-held lenses, as in work by Freya Dumasia. The frame of the lens becomes a dominant compositional element, containing blurred and abstracted figures that are reduced to smears of unidentifiable colour.
Project images onto people or scenes, as in the examples by freelance photographer Lee Kirby. Although images can be combined digitally, projecting one image across a three-dimensional form creates a close interaction between the two scenes. The projected image distorts and becomes obscured as it bends around a 3D form and falls within shadowed crevices. Projecting images onto people can be a great way to experiment with ideas relating to identity and portraiture, or as mechanism for moving towards abstract photography. It can also become a creative photography lighting technique – a way of introducing mottled, coloured light to a scene.

Think about the surface you are printing on:

Michal Macku has invented his own technique, which he named ‘Gellage’, whereby photographic emulsion is removed from its paper backing, leaving an image that is semi-transparent and flexible. This allows the image to be stretched and reformed – sometimes combined with other images to make imaginative, distorted and/or surreal scenes – before the artwork is adhered to durable paper.
Use an ink transfer method to print photograph images onto other materials, as in the work of Crystal Hethcote.

Use of water, paint or collage:

Matthew Brandt has created unexpected and dramatic running of coloured ink by submerging printed photographs in water. After photographing lakes or reservoirs from around the United States, Brandt collects samples of water and brings them back to his studio. He then soaks the c-prints in water from the location that the image represents. Over time, the surface begins to degrade, creating images that are relics of this process. This is a great example of how creative photography techniques can (and should) be driven by the subject or theme that is explored.
Paint directly onto photographs, as in the works of Gerhard Richter. Richter has painted over 500 of his own photographs (with many more works discarded): commercially printed images that are overpainted with spontaneous gestural smears, using leftover oil paint applied with palette knives, squeegees or doctors’ blades.
Paint onto objects and then photograph them, as in the work by Rachel Ecclestone. This work incorporates imaginative face painting with dramatic lighting and well-composed images. This approach is growing in popularity amongst contemporary online photographers with a wide range of artistic skill.
Combine paint and photographs digitally, like Fabienne Rivory‘s LaBokoff project. Fabienne Rivory explores interactions between imagination and reality. Selecting photographs that represent a memory, Fabienne digitally overlays a gouache or ink painting, introducing an intense vibrant colour to the work. You might like to experiment with this idea by creating a photocopy of a work and applying ink or watercolours directly (watery mediums will not ‘adhere’ to an ordinary photography surface).
Redraw part of a scene with paint, as in the work of Aliza Razell. Although similar to the above technique, this involves more than applying painterly colours or textures to a work.
Splash, smear or throw mixed media upon photographs, as in work done by Jemma Kelly. Collaged, mixed media photography techniques can add another dimension to photographs, and can help with the exploration of conceptual photography ideas.
Collage mixed media materials onto images, as in Vasilisa Forbes’ photography. Her work explores popular culture and the ‘conditions of living in a commercial system’.
Take unfocused shots and create semi-abstract photographs, like those by Bill Armstrong. Armstrong sets his camera’s focus ring at infinity and takes purposefully unfocused photographs. He makes collages – photocopying, cutting and painting over images – and then retakes these as blurred photographs, so that the resulting scene appears to be a photograph of reality. Exact identities and objects remain mysterious. This photographic technique allows the emphasis to be placed upon light, tone and colour, resulting in intriguing, suggestive images.

Sewing photographs:

Lisa Kokin takes found, unrelated photographs and stitches them together, fabricating a relationship between them; creating an imagined life from the nostalgic shots.
Maurizio Anzeri offers a wealth of inspiration for those who are looking for portrait photography ideas. The brightly embroidered patterns and delicately stitched veils cross the faces with sharp lines and dramatic glimmering forms.

Experiment with burning or scratching negatives prior to printing or once the photo is printed:

Mark or scratch negatives or photos, as in the work of Frank Eugene.
Try burning images like Lucas Simões images... NOTE: As when using any dangerous technique, burning should be attempted with adult/teacher supervision and care. This can only be done with Ms. Learmonth present.

Make a photograph something else - again - this would need to be with pinhole or film cameras:

Fold a photograph and make a installation, still life or sculpture, as in work by Joseph Parra. Parra cuts and folds three identical prints with meticulous precision, creating transfixing, distorted portraits and creates a sculpture display. Entitled ‘Oneself’, this work references the ‘fractured, multiple, and twisted ways we often view ourselves’. This is a reminder that sometimes the photograph itself can become the still life.
Create 3D photography collages, as in these works by Midori Harima. Harima makes black and white Xerox copies of photographs on archival paper and uses these to create hollow papier-mâché sculptures. The final works are formed from tiny pieces of the images, exploring ideas about childhood senses and our fragmented absorption of data in an ‘information intensive society’.
Add sculptural elements that protrude from the photograph, as in the work of Carmen Freudenthal & Elle Verhagen. Their work blurs the boundary between a 2D representation and reality, integrating photography with 3D elements. Some of the works by Carmen Freudenthal and Elle Verhagen include videos projected onto photos and images printed onto draped sheets.

Simulate the effect of, or try early photography techniques:

Try doing a documentary with a pinhole camera. Or create your own pinhole camera from scratch like Matt Bigwood. Matt Bigwood's six month exposure, captured the movement of the sun, using a homemade pinhole camera, made out of an aluminium can. The top of the can was removed and a pinhole was punctured in the side (the smaller the hole, the sharper the image – although the longer exposure time is needed, as less light is let in).
Try simulating the wet collodion process used by Sally Mann. Photographer Sally Mann is a fan of antique photography technology. She has produced a significant body of work using the platinum printing process, as well as the bromoil printing process. Sally Mann has also created many works using the collodion wet plate process, which can result in images that appear to be a hybrid of photography and painting.
Paint developer sporadically onto photo paper to expose only parts of the work, as in the work of Timothy Pakron. Pakron uses experimental darkroom techniques to create ‘silver drip portraits’ of his close friends and family, including his mother and twin sister. Rather than immersing the paper entirely, Pakron hand-paints developer solution onto the photo paper, revealing key elements of the face, such as eyes, nose and mouth, communicating emotion via a few selected features. The dripping chemical solution creates a stream of drips across the image, revealing further details of the face in unexpected and unpredictable ways. The drips suggest tears, exhaustion and despair: the feeling of being submerged in a storm. This aptly communicates the struggle of separation and loss in his family, which are specifically represented in the portraits of his twin sister and mother.
Take photos using a scanner, like Evilsabeth Schmitz-Garcia. Scanography is the art of recording a subject using a flatbed scannerScanography artists arrange objects upon the scanner screen (sometimes covering these with a layer of paper or draped fabric) and create a ‘scanogram’; or capture movement in exciting ways, such as Evilsabeth Schmitz-Garcia’s ‘Borderline Personality Disorder’ portraits, which have been distorted and stretched as the scanner arm moves across the screen. Scanners can also be used to take scans of objects place upon existing photographs.\
Create a photogram, as in the work of Joanne Keen. Also known as a ‘cameraless photograph’. This is created by placing objects directly onto photo paper in a darkroom and then exposing the arrangement to light for a set period of time. The objects create shadows on the paper in various intensities, depending upon the strength and duration of the light as well as the transparency of the items. Translucent items can be particularly successful, as in the slices of lemons and limes shown in Joanne Keen’s photogram. We have already done these, so they would need to be more in-depth, on a theme and with something new you have added.

Other Techniques with film cameras:

Place objects on top of a photograph and scan it, like the work of Rosanna Jones. In one of her works, a strip of folded tape was placed upon a blurred photograph and then scanned to create a subsequent digital image. This creates the illusion of a piece of tape floating in midair, in front of a ghost-like figure.
Put objects on top of photographs and rephotograph them, as in the work of Arnaud Jarsaillon and Remy Poncet of Brest Brest. Retaking photographs of photographs – similar to the scanning of photographs above – is another technique that is becoming more popular. Retaking photographs is particularly suitable when the nature of the added objects cannot be scanned (as in a wet liquid) or when you wish to use alternative angles and other photography techniques to manipulate the image further. In these examples by Brest Brest, the raw egg and tomato ketchup provide an unexpected contrast to the formal portraits, creating images that command attention.
Project images onto textured surfaces and rephotograph them, as in the experimental images by Pete Ashton. These urban landscape photographs were created using a homemade camera that projects an image onto a piece of scratched plastic and then photographs this. A similar effect could be achieved by projecting images via an overhead projector or slide projector onto a textured or decorative surface, such as an eroding wall, ripped wallpaper and stained concrete.
Deliberately overexpose a shot, creating ‘high-key’ photography, like portraits by Gabi Lukacs. High-key photography is the result of letting too much light into the camera (having the shutter open for longer than the light conditions would normally require). Although overexposure usually occurs by accident, this can be used as a deliberate stylistic technique. A high-key photograph is typically taken in a bright location (extreme sunshine or under special photography lighting) with a white background or surroundings. A high-key photo often has a minimal, sleek and/or futuristic appearance: smooth flawless surfaces, pale shadows, few minor details, and light areas ‘blown out’ (whitened).
Use a homemade light box to create uncluttered backdrops for photography, as in a YouTube video by Auctiva. Art teachers and students frequently take photographs upon cluttered classroom tabletops, often with less than optimal lighting conditions. Light box photography can be especially useful in this situation, helping those who wish to create professional product shots (Graphic Design students creating promotional material, for instance) or those who want to photograph sculptural or design pieces, create composite works from several elements or just to have a simple backdrop for their images. Tabletop photography becomes infinitely easier when you can light a subject well, and capture true colour and details, in a reliable, uniform way.
Experiment with camera filters, like the neutral density filter that was used to photograph this beautiful seascape by Salim Al-Harthy. The neutral density filter reduces the amount of light that enters the camera. This allows long exposure shots in brightly lit scenes to occur without becoming over exposed. Other filters affect the brightness or hue of a colour, reduce reflections, distort or diffuse a scene. Camera filters can be added and used in combination as needed.
Use a transportable photography reflector to create better lighting within your shots, such as in the outdoor portraits by Toni Lynn. Most transportable reflectors for photography are inexpensive, lightweight and easy to carry. They come in a range of sizes and colours and are usually made from reflective fabric, held taut by a wire ring (although you can make your own silver version using tinfoil taped onto a cardboard sheet or use reflective insulation board from a hardware store). The primary function of a photography reflector is to lighten a subject naturally, eliminate harsh shadows and/or add a sparkle to the eyes by directing, absorbing or diffusing light. Different coloured reflectors can also be used to change the mood of an image, such as a gold reflector for warmth and silver for increasing highlights. Black and translucent ‘reflectors’ are not technically reflectors at all – and instead absorb, scatter or diffuse light. In the example above, Toni Li demonstrates how a natural backlit portrait can be improved dramatically by reflecting light back onto the subject’s face.
Produce High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDR Photography), as in the work of Karim Nafatni. In certain situations, part of a normal photograph may appear too dark or too light. HDR is a way of solving this problem in exposure, by combining two or three photographs of the same scene taken at different exposures, so that all areas of the photograph have the right ‘dynamic range’ or brightness. Even shadows and very bright areas in HDR photography are perfectly exposed and full of detail. HDR Photography tips: avoid movement (of both the subject and your camera) for the duration of the shots (use a tripod!); avoid this technique if you desire strong contrasts between dark and light areas; and do not use when a scene that is already vivid and well exposed.
Use tilt-shift photography to make real things look miniature, as in the work of Nicolas. Tilt-shift photography is a technique that makes real objects appear small, as if they were part of a miniature scale model. This is achieved through blurring and distortion – either with special camera lenses; lens adaptors which convert traditional lenses to tilt shift lenses; digital manipulation after the image is taken; or using a free smartphone app or Photoshop. There are also websites that convert images to tilt-shift photos, such as http://tiltshiftmaker.com. A quick tilt-shift photography tutorial: start with a high quality, well-lit, in-focus photograph; take the photo from above and to the side (as if looking down upon a scale model); choose a relatively simple scene; and make sure people are small (realistic people don’t appear in models). Remember that exciting techniques such as this are fun and tempting to use to excess: integrate only those which are beneficial and relevant to your high school Photography project.
Use a tilt-shift effect to make paintings or drawings appear real, as in the photographs of Vincent van Gogh artworks by Serena Malyon. Third year Art student Serena Malyon achieved some draw-dropping results when applying the tilt-shift technique to famous van Gogh paintings using Photoshop. Flat, two-dimensional images took on the illusion of three-dimensional scenes, casting the viewer suddenly back in time. This tilt-shift approach may be more suitable for high school students who specialise in Painting, but there may be ways in which digital distortion of painted scenes can form an integral part of a senior Photography project.

See Teams for more information on marking criteria, etc.

Thanks to https://www.studentartguide.com/articles/creative-photography-ideas for the ideas and write ups.

Gleneagle Secondary