Technical Journal by Brad Lacey, S176084

TECHNICAL JOURNAL

By Brad Lacey, S176084

Brief

Large Format Photography This type of photography is a photographic format which produces 4x5 images or larger. The negatives for this type of camera are large enough to allow photographs to be produced at a large scale without the appearance of grain. The way this camera works is the same principle than that of an average camera; it’ s a sealed box where a tiny hole allows light to project an image. One of the main differences between large format photography and most cameras is how much control is given to large format, the lens and film standard can be moved within the camera. This means an image can be altered without having to move the camera like with a fixed plane camera.

These types of cameras are made up of three main parts, the front standard lens plate, the rear standard and the bellows held in between. The bellows are made up of a light proof fabric sewn into an accordion-like box. The lens can be moved with respect to the focal plane for focusing with these bellows as they provide flexible, dark extension between the plane and lens.

Because the light level is reduced when the bellows are extended, an equation called bellows extension can be applied to ensure the film is correctly exposed, taking into the account the time it takes light to reach the film. Shown below is an equation that allows us to work out what to do in a situation like this.

Types of Large Format Cameras

Monorail Cameras: This is the most common type of large format camera, the front and rear standards are attached to a single rail, fixed to a support. The benefit of this type of camera is it gives the greatest control within the movement. A negative for this type of camera is that it is made out of stuff which makes it difficult to pack for travelling.

Field Cameras: This type of camera has the front and rear standard mounted onto sliding rails. When the bellows are fully retracted, the flatbed folds up and the overall camera becomes small and portable. These are mostly used for location shooting.

Press Cameras: This type of camera is designed to be used as a handheld camera. They have more adjustment capabilities which include tilting the rear standard and can be used handheld or be attached to a camera.

Converging Verticals When photographing a high rise building with a fixed plane camera from the ground, the top of the building will become distorted, yet this can be solved as the large format camera allows adjustments. By tilting the front and the rear standard until they are parallel with the building, this distortion can be fixed. Rather than moving the camera, the framing can be adjustment by simply moving these two standards. In the illustration below, the building and camera are parallel on the left, meaning the light rays travel the same distance, whereas, on the right, the camera is tilted meaning the upper ray travels more making the top smaller.

The movement of these two standards affects the focus, shape and border of an image. The lens projects a cone of light into the camera, anything that falls on the film plane is captured and only part of this cone will be in focus. As the front is tilted, more of the image will be hit by this cone and therefore in focus. Ways of avoiding this are to keep the camera parallel to the subject, move the camera back, turn the camera and crop, climb and edit.

General Large Format Kit The large format kits generally include: The Camera (1), Lens Plate (2), Cable Release (3), Loop (4), Light Meter (5), Dark Slides (6), Focusing Cloth/Fabric (7) and a Tripod (8).

Loading Large Format Cameras When it comes to 35mm and medium format photography, reels of film can be placed within the cameras to shoot, and when finished it can be replaced anywhere. Yet, when it comes to large format photography sheet film is loaded into darkslides and must be loaded in the dark to these slides. The film is placed within multiple covers of packaging so light doesn’t access and expose the film. The sheet film has notches and when in the top right corner, lets you know the emulsion side is facing you. The darkslides have two sides, one with a white top edge and one with a black edge to let you know whether that specific sheet of film behind the slide has been exposed or not.

Guide to Shooting Large Format 1. Set the camera up in the place you want to shoot.

2. Open the preview.

3. Open aperture.

4. Level the camera.

5. Use the focusing cloth to cover yourself so that it’s dark enough to be able to view the image reflected.

6. Make any adjustments in terms of movements.

7. Use the loop placed against the glass to focus, begin at the bottom of the glass (top of the image), once focused here, find something around the middle of the reflected image to focus on, tilt the front standard until it appears in focus. Refocus the top of the image and re-tilt the front, repeating this process until both areas are in focus.

8. Take a light meter reading.

9. Stop down the aperture as the overall focus will improve.

10. Close the preview and set the shutter speed.

11. Place the loaded darkslides into the camera (this will block any preview).

12. Take the image.

Light Metering Incident Light: measures the light which falls onto the subject and how light or dark the subject is will not affect the exposure reading.

Reflected Light: measures the light reflecting off the subject alongside the colour and value affects the reading.

The light meter gives you information about the lighting within a scene, the information it gives are the settings to achieve a good exposure. When working in the field, it’s best to use a reflective reading. The meter will read at an angle of 30% and reads the brightest point as mid-grey at 80%. When shooting, try and take a reading at the midpoint of tonality, mid darkness and lightness.

Reciprocity Reciprocity is a form of the intensity and duration of light in which determines the reaction of light sensitive material. Not all film is created the same, meaning some will respond better than others do, but with different types of film this is what is to be expected: Black and White Film: exposures in excess 1-2 seconds will result in reduced density alongside thin or non-existent shadows.

Colour Negative Film: exposures in excess of 20 seconds will result in colour-shifting, dye layers of the film will absorb light unevenly over the prolonged exposure.

Slide Film: exposures in excess of 5 seconds have colour shifts similar to the abovementioned colour negative, in higher saturation films, shifting is much more extreme.

It happens at very high or low levels of illumination because of the exposure on the film which depends on the rate which energy reaches the film. All films experience this form of failure and are compensated by being rated as less sensitive. There are also advised settings for exposures that are over 1 seconds long.

Pre-Exposure This technique is a method of contrast control, used to bring out detail within darker areas.

As explain on the Ilford photo website, pre-flashing/exposing adds density to highlight areas of the print without significantly affecting mid-tones and shadows.

Tray Developing Film When it comes to tray developing film, multiple trays are set-up, each a different segment of the development of the film.

The first tray is filled with water at 20°. The second tray is filled with ID11 (Developer) at a 1:1 dilution. The third tray holds the stop bath in order to stop the development on the film so the image doesn’t become overly developed. The fourth tray consists of the fix and finally the last tray is used as a wash with water to rinse the remaining chemicals off of the negative. Developing the film needs to be done in the dark, the film placed emulsion side down into the chemicals with repeating agitation so the chemicals develop the film evenly.

When multiple sheets are being developed, agitation is done by placing the bottom film onto the top and repeating this process.

Tray development gives more control in the way it can be done evenly and gives the user control over how much contrast is developed onto the image. ID11 is a fine grain film developer which keeps the grain fine, yet this is not as sharp as the high res developer which makes the negative sharper yet brings in grain.

Darkroom Printing with Steve McCloud:

Rules break when printing becomes more advanced, the focus is no longer trying to work with achieving and understanding a well-exposed print yet instead, what is a well-exposed print to the individual. Place the negative into the enlarger so that when it’s projected onto the base, it’s the right way up for better understanding and reading of the picture. Make sure to still understand and consider basic elements and lines and borders within the imagery. Make the exposure as long as possible so that dodging and burning can be done if necessary. Rather than cutting out and using strips for tests, use whole sheets of paper; this is so the whole image can be assessed rather than one specific section which might not compliment the image as a whole.

When it came to printing my large format shot, I printed a whole page test strip (shown above), specifically as my image had many areas which a single test strip wouldn’t cover to allow a good exposure. I printed the print at the darkest settings within this test strip.

Working with Steve allowed me to develop my understanding of how I want to print, I had initially planned to walk away with a basic exposed print yet Steve told me to work with making the image dark, make it fit my personal aesthetic to how I want people to view the image. Having dark images, low-key and just generally a creepy aesthetic is what I prefer working with and Steve developed my understanding in this and allowed and preferred me working with that aspect in mind. Steve recommended after viewing the print that I burned some parts of the image to make it even more mysterious, shown below is a comparison of the first and then second (with burning) image.

The final print (scanned, yet given a digital border as the one that was scanned was cropped) is shown below.

Pre-Flashing This technique is used in the darkroom which reduces highlights within an image. First, a test strip is needed in order to decide on a length of exposure (1). Without a negative, complete the rest of the test strip with small amounts of light (2) then select an amount of time. Finally, preflash the paper with the time selected in the previous step (2), then reinsert the negative and expose the paper again with the time selected in the first step (1).

Tray Developing Prints This is similar to processing film as there are trays for each part of the development and as it is black and white, the red light can be used. Take the exposed paper and place it within the developer for 1 minute, then 30 seconds to 1 minute in the stop and 5 minutes in the fix.

The paper is then moved to the water to wash off the remaining chemicals. Once it’s washed, it can be placed to dry within the rack.

Scanning Scanning allows us to make digital versions and archives of negatives or to make a highquality digital copy for exhibition printing. When scanning negatives, it shows how dirty they are and each spot of dirt should be removed individually.

Negative Scanning To use the scanner, the programme Flexcolour is used. When the scanners are on and this software is open, a preview must be shown by clicking preview. In the options the film that was used should be selected, if this is unavailable then “Negative Standard” is selected.

Draw a box to highlight the centre of the image so the difference can be seen. The aim of scanning isn’t a perfect print and instead an even image with correct colour. Place the negative within the holder using the air blower to remove any dust. The scanners take a while to scan and produce a high-quality digital version of the negative which is to be saved as a TIFF.

300-400dpi is used for quick scans and 3200dpi for final scans. When editing on these digital files, make sure to duplicate them first so the original is not worked on.

Flatbed Scanning The flatbed scanners (reflective scanner) works by shining white light onto the object and reads the intensity of the colour of light that is reflected from it. They’re not specifically designed to scan negatives yet can be used to do so. They’re designed for scanning flat objects such as prints and documents although the quality isn’t as high as the negative scanners.

Drum Scanner The drum scanner which is named this because of the clear acrylic cylinder, captures image information using photomultiplier tubes rather than a charge-coupled device used in flatbed scanners and negative scanners. Light is shined onto the image one pixel wide without the use of a lens. It rotates at a high speed while the object is passed through. Light from the object is split into separate red, blue and green beams in the optical bench of the scanner, making it have a better and wider colour balance than an average scan. They have no optical degradation because there is no lens, however, it takes a while and should mainly be used for exhibition scanning/printing. Film is used within this type of scan as they can be wetmounted to the drum, enhancing sharpness and masks dust and scratches.

Digital Enlargers Digital enlargers project an image from an LCD screen at the film plane from a digital file uploaded to software on a computer. Below is a sketch of the digital enlargers used.

When it comes to uploading an image to the enlarger, the computer next to it is used with the programs EXPOSER and DIGILAB. The index will appear on the left and this is where images are loaded alongside image properties. On the right, the EXPOSER window opens which allows the size of the image to be selected for printing.

When a memory stick is inserted, click load in the index window and load the image file. The thumbnail of the image will appear within the index and the colour, saturation, brightness and contrast can be adjusted.

In the EXPOSER window, click the stop button to turn off the auto scan, and then click the image size necessary. When this is decided, select the image on the index which is intended to be printed and then make sure the auto scan is on in EXPOSER and click print in the index to send the image over.

When preparing to print, use the control box to turn off the monitor and turn on the focus button so the enlarger projects the image. Use the handles in front of the enlarger to raise or lower the enlarger until the image is the size chosen to print. Use the focus finder to focus the image, it is focused when the lines (pixels) that cross are in focus. Once this is done, turn off the focus switch, line up the paper in the dark and press the start button on the control box. The enlarger will then project the image through different colour channels, and a beep will be sounded when this is done.

Place the paper into the processor and wait until it’s developed and ready. If multiple images were set up to print, the enlarger will prepare the next image.

Inkjet Printing Inkjet printers print digital images by propelling drops of ink onto a material (paper, etc).

The choices that are given within the facilities are glossy or matte, my personal preference is glossy as it enhances the colours and gives the image a shine which to me makes it feel more professional and finishes the overall look.

When it comes to printing an image, the first step is to select which printer is intended, the glossy or matte printer. After this, a customised size must be made with a width of 430mm as this is the width of the roll paper the printer holds. The height depends on the user’s image size, the printer works with this roll paper so it can be cut after printing so long/big/multiple prints can be done working within this 430mm width. The margins are to be set at 0 and then these below settings to be set within the layout options: Roll Paper Glossy: Photo Paper - Premium Luster Photo Paper (260) Matte: Matte Paper - Epsom Enhanced Matte Paper Colour Off (No Colour Adjustment) SuperFine - 1440dpi High Speed and Finest Detail After this is done, these settings are to be selected on the main printing menu: Photoshop Manages Colour Glossy: HARMANCrystaljetLusterRCEpson4880_0309 Matte: Pro4880 EMP_MK Normal Printing Relative Colourmetric Blackpoint Compensation Before continuing to print, check the left to see if the image fits within the box/printing area. After this is done, continue to print, and then use ID on the corresponding printer to print the image.

In my portfolio imagery, I have an example of matte paper and glossy paper, most of my prints have been done on glossy simply as this to me is how I would present my work in an exhibition.