Experimental Photography: A guide to Techniques

EXPERIMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY

A guide to techniques Cover Image: Alexandra Bellissimo

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CONTENTS DIGITAL EXPERIMENTS Selections ……………………………………………………………………… 5 Black and White …………………………………………………………...…. 5 Toning ……………………………………………………………………..…. 6 Black and White with Selective Colour …………………………………..…. 6 Tinting ………………………………………………………………..………. 7 Solarisation …………………………………………………………………... 7 Double Imaging ………………………………………………..…….…..…… 8 Superimposing Images …………………………………………………...…… 9 Image Reversal (Inverting) ……………………………………...…...……..…. 9 Duotone Images …………………………………………………...………... 10 Dodging and Burning ………………………………………………..……… 10 Digital Collages/Photomontage …………………………………………….. 11 Capturing Light Trails ………………………………………………………. 11 Projecting Images over Objects ……………………………………………. 12 Pixel Dispersion …………………………………………………………….. 12 Fisheye Effect ……………………………………………………………….. 13 Creating a Photo Mosaic ……….…………………………………………… 13 Creating a Text Portrait ……...……………………………………………... 14 Circular Landscape ………………………………………………………….... 14

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DARKROOM EXPERIMENTS Photograms …………………………………………………………………. 17 Image Reversal ……………………………………………………………… 17 Painting on Developer ……………………………………………………… 18 Folding the Paper …………………………………………………………… 19 Solarisation …………………………………………………………………. 19 Double Imaging/Sandwiching ….……………………………………………... 20 Pinhole Photography ………………………………………………….…….. 21 Working in to photographs: scratching ……………………………………. 22 Working into photographs: sewing ………………………………………… 22 Toning ………………………………………………………………………. 23 Tinting ………………………………………………………………………. 24 Cyanotypes …………………………………………………………………. 24 Photomontage/Collage ……………………………………………………... 25 Chemigrams ………………………………………………………………… 26

Last updated: June 2017

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DIG ITAL EXPERIMENTS

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SELECTION TOOLS A GOOD, NEAT SELECTION IS VITAL FOR MAKING AN IMAGE YOU HAVE MANIPULATED ON PHOTOSHOP LOOK PROFESSIONAL. To select part of an image, you can use one of the tools to the left.

The marquee tool (dashed square) will select a rectangular shape.

The lasso tool (selected) will allow you to draw a freehand (straight-edged) shape to select. If you right click on this tool, you can change it to ‘magnetic lasso’, ideal for if you edges are well defined and if your image is high in contrast. This will allow you to partially draw freehand around an object or part of your photograph, and it will cling to the edges it sees.

The quick selection tool helps you select an area using a brush tip, which works well for roughly selecting areas quickly.

If your selection isn’t quite neat enough, or another area has been selected by one of the tools, you can clean up your selection using the ‘edit in quick mask mode’ button, which appears at the bottom of the toolbar. Once you click this, the part you left unselected will turn red. You can erase to widen your selection, or use black paint to add to the deselected red area, zooming in will help you do this easily.

Another option for neatening selections is Select > Refine Edge. This is particularly useful for selecting around hair, but works best with plain backgrounds.

To return to your usual view of your image, with the correct part selected, simply click the quick mask mode button off.

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Black and white Using Photoshop, open the digital photograph you wish to use. Click Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black and White. Use the sliders to adjust the intensity of black and white on certain areas/colours.

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Toning Using Photoshop, open a colour or black and white digital photograph that you aim to tone.

There are a few different ways that you can do this. The easiest way is by clicking Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. You then have the choice of a standard photographic filter (eg. warming filter 85) or you can double-click on the swatch of colour to choose your own. You can also adjust the density (intensity of the colour).

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Black and white with selective colour Using Photoshop, open up the colour image you wish to use. Decide on which colour you wish to keep in the photograph. You will need to use one of the selection tools to select the part of the image you wish to keep in colour. See the ‘Selections and Basic Techniques’ Powerpoint on the Digital Imaging section on the AS Photography Moodle page if you need help with this. To get a professional outcome on any image you create on Photoshop, being good at using the selection tools should be your top priority.

With your coloured area selected, click Select > Inverse to select the opposite parts of the image.

Edit > Copy (Ctrl+C) and Edit > Paste (Ctrl+V) this. Click Layer > New Adjustment Layer, then Black and White. This will turn the selected area black and white. You will see in your Layers panel that your full colour image still exists beneath the black and white layer, and that your colour portions show through.

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tinting Using Photoshop, open a colour or black and white digital photograph that you aim to tone.

You will need to use one of the selection tools to select the part of the image you wish to colour. See the ‘Selections and Basic Techniques’ Powerpoint on the Digital Imaging section on the AS Photography Moodle page if you need help with this. To get a professional outcome on any image you create on Photoshop, being good at using the selection tools should be your top priority.

With the area you wish to colour selected, add a new layer Layer > New > Layer.

Ensure it is your new layer that is selected, with the flashing outline of your selection still showing. Choose a colour for your tint and click Edit > Fill (make sure the Contents box reads Foreground Color’. Your selected area should now be filled with pure colour. Change that layer’s mode from ‘Normal’ to ‘Overlay’. If you wish the colour to be even more subtle, you could adjust the Opacity or Fill, which are set at 100%.

You can build up the colour in your image, doing this more than once with different colours in different areas.

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solarisation Using Photoshop, open a colour or black and white digital photograph that you aim to tone.

Easy method: Open your image, Filter > Stylize > Solarize.

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More controlled method: Open colour image, Image > Adjustments > Black & White to make it black and white, then Image > Adjustments > Curves and create a W shaped curve for total control over the effect.

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Double imaging Using Photoshop, open the two photographs you wish to combine. As with many techniques in Photoshop, there is more than one way to do this. The easiest way is to choose one photograph to start with. Click Select > All, and Edit > Copy (Ctrl+C). Then, click onto your second image. Paste (Ctrl+V) your first image in. Set the layer mode from ‘Normal’ to ‘Overlay’ then play around with the positioning. You can also adjust the Opacity if you need to. You may find that the images work better together layered the other way around.

EXTRA TIPS: You may want to use a rubber with a very soft edge (right-click the rubber over your image and change ‘Hardness’ to 0%) to erase some parts of the top, more transparent layer so not all of it is visible. Layer up multiples of the same of different images to create a dreamy and surreal image. You may also want to use selections to ensure the layered image only sits over certain areas.

Double Imaging: Dan Mountford 8

Superimposing images This is a more advanced way of combining images, and will take longer. You need to be good at making neat selections of areas on Photoshop. Use very detailed collages to build up the image, using many of the tools that Photoshop has to offer – Layer Modes such as ‘Overlay’, the dodge and burn tools, Blur filters, Colour Balance to make the different elements fit together colour-wise, Black and White layers and other adjustments. Notice how in the image below, the coffee beans are now less coffee-coloured and look more like gravel. This technique is something to aim for if you are interested, but will take a lot of planning and layers on Photoshop!

Superimposing: Erik Johansson Watch how he created this image here

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Image reversal Using Photoshop, open the digital photograph you wish to use. This could be in colour, or in black and white. Click Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Invert. This will create a negative version of your image.

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duotone Using Photoshop, open a colour or black and white digital photograph that you aim to tone.

You will need to change the Image Mode to ‘Duotone’ You will notice that this is greyed out at the moment, and you cannot click on it.

First, click Image > Mode > Grayscale. You will then be able to click Image > Mode > Duotone.

Change the ‘Type’ from ‘Monotone’ to ‘Duotone’. Double-click on the black swatch of ‘Ink 1’, and change to your choice of colour. Double-click on the white swatch of ‘Ink 2’ and choose a second colour. At this point, they will just layer up. To create some interesting effects, double-click on the diagonal line next to the colour swatch. This is actually a curve graph. Try leaving one colour curve graph as it is, but changing the other to the opposite shape, so you have one with a straight diagonal line going up, and the other with a straight diagonal line going down ( / and \ ). Press OK once you like the effect – you could add some curves to the line too.

To save as a JPEG, you will need to click on Image > Mode > CMYK color. You will not get .jpg as an option when saving your work unless you follow this step.

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Dodging and burning Using Photoshop, open a colour or black and white digital photograph that you aim to tone.

The terms ‘dodging’ and ‘burning’ come from processes in the darkroom. ‘Dodging’ in the darkroom is where a piece of shaped card is moved over an area to reduce the exposure of the paper to light. ‘Burning in’ is the opposite – where an area of a darkroom print is underexposed and light, a large piece of card with a hole positioned over this area let more light onto that area of paper, therefore increasing the exposure of that area of the paper.

Use the Dodging tool on Photoshop to lighten dark areas, and the Burn tool to darken areas, ensure you use these tools with a soft edge to make them more subtle (right-click on your image and adjust the ‘Hardness’ to 0%).

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collages/photomontages Using Photoshop, open the digital photographs you wish to use. Decide which to use as your base image. Opening the other images, use selection tools well (neatening selections with the mask mode or Refine Edge) and copy and paste over onto the base photograph.

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Capturing light trails To capture light trails, you will need a tripod.

Take your photos in a dark studio, or outside in the late evening or at night when the sky is dark.

Set your shutter speed to a long exposure, start with 5 seconds and increase or decrease this timing if you need to. Without a tripod, you will get camera shake.

Use a mid aperture to begin with (f8) and a low ISO to gain an image with the least noise.

You can adjust these if the exposure is not quite right for your setting.

The Photography department have tripods that can be loaned for short amounts of time to Photography students. Ask your teacher or a technician if you need one.

Light Trails: Michael Bosanko, ‘Night Trails’

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Projecting images over objects You are able to set up a projector in the studio. We have an old one that uses OHP acetate sheets, or a newer digital projector that will project a computer screen. You will need a laptop that has a slot for a VGA cable.

It is not advised to also use the flash in the studio with your models/objects if you are using the projector, as the brightness of the flash will bleach out your projected image.

Projected images over a model: Lee Kirby, ‘Pro-ject’

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Pixel explosion Click on this link to follow a YouTube video instructing you on how to do this.

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Screenshot from Pixel Explosion YouTube tutorial.

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Fisheye lens effect Using Photoshop, open the digital photograph you wish to use. Click on Filter > Distort > Spherize. Adjust the settings to give your photograph a fish-eye lens effect.

The Photography department also have some fisheye lens that can be loaned out. These fit on lenses with a 52 or 58mm diameter lens (eg. our Canon DSLRs and Canon AE-1film cameras).

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Creating a photo mosaic Click on this link to follow a YouTube video instructing you on how to do this. One thing to note is that the image that the instructor is creating would print pixellated as it is only at 72dpi. You need to make sure when you open a new image that it is at a resolution of 300dpi and the appropriate size in cm. 300dpi is minimum print quality.

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Example of a photo mosaic.

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Creating a text portrait Click on this link to follow a YouTube video instructing you on how to do this.

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Circular landscape Open up the landscape photograph you wish to try with this technique. You need a slightly stretched square image to work with this technique, so click on Image > Image Size, then unlock the link between Height and Width by clicking the ‘Link’ icon (looks like some chainlinks). You can now adjust the height and width so they are the same size – if you are printing on A4 paper, 20x20cm at 300dpi is fine. If you are planning to print on A3 paper, 28.5x28.5cm at 300dpi is what you will need. Press OK. You will now have a stretched, square image.

Go to Image > Image Rotation > 180˚.

Now click Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates. Ensure that ‘Rectangular to Polar’ is selected. Click OK.

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You may find that you wish to adjust the image before applying the Polar Coordinate filter to get the image you require. You can then use the Healing Brush and Cloning tools to get rid of the seam where the image meets.

* * * * * There are so many techniques you can develop to manipulate photographs on Photoshop.

Most of these will take basic techniques and combine and stretch them to create new images. If you want to continue developing your Photoshop skills, search for ‘How to Photoshop’ on YouTube for loads of step-by-step videos.

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DARKROOM EXPERIMENTS

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photograms Collect objects to use in the photogram. Natural objects and translucent objects work well.

Prepare your enlarger by clicking the aperture down 3 times, using 0 magenta and set the timer to 10 seconds.

Get a piece of photographic paper from your bag, placing it on the baseboard of the enlarger. Arrange your objects over the paper, and expose for 10 seconds. Develop, stop, fix and wash your print. This should result in a deep black background with white objects – translucent objects should produce some mid-tones. If your photogram needs to be darker, test this using a test strip and increase the exposure time.

Photogram: Man Ray, c. 1930

Instead of developing a black background, you could also make a test strip as usual, and add objects onto your paper before exposing the final images, blocking areas off. This could also work with images and text printed onto acetate.

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Image reversal You will need a normal, dry, positive print for this technique.

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Try the following instructions out with a test strip first. Decide on the correct exposure time and repeat with a whole sheet of paper.

Place an unexposed piece of darkroom paper, emulsion (shiny) side up onto the baseboard of the enlarger. Position your dry print face down on top of it. Flatten the two pieces of paper with a sheet of Perspex to hold them in place. Expose your image for the correct amount of time. The dry print will act as a negative and the light will have to travel through this to expose the paper underneath. Develop, stop, fix and wash your print as usual. You will have an image reversal/negative image.

This technique is especially useful to create a positive version of a pinhole image.

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Painting on developer As usual, do a test strip to work out the correct exposure for your photograph.

Instead of placing it in the developer tray, place it in a small, dry tray and paint on developer with a brush. You may also wish to flick developer on, so that only certain areas develop; or splash some developer on, then tilt your small tray, so your image appears through drips.

You are using a chemical, so ensure you are being careful with it, avoid excessive splashing.

Stop, fix and wash as usual.

Painting on developer: Timothy Pakron, ‘Silver Drips’.

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Folding the paper As usual, do a test strip to work out the correct exposure for your photograph.

Fold your full piece of photographic paper so that it is uneven when you expose the image.

This will distort your image.

Folded/curved paper: Nigel Henderson, 1950s.

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solarisation As usual, do a test strip to work out the correct exposure for your photograph.

Set up a second enlarger with no negative in. Click the aperture 3 clicks down, magenta to 0, and set the timer to 10secs.

Expose your photograph as you would do for a normal print. When you place your image in the developer, make sure it is submerged, but do not rock the tray. As your image begins to appear, quickly place it in a plastic tray, take it over to the second enlarger, and expose the paper a second time to the plain light. Place back in the developer for the remaining development time, then stop, fix and wash as usual.

Solarisation is tricky, and works better with some negatives than it does with others. Do not be put off if your first attempt isn’t great, try another! A good solarised print will show a ‘Mackie line’ – a thin but obvious outline around the photograph’s original shadowed and highlighted areas.

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‘Solarised Model, New York’, Erwin Blumenfeld, 1942.

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Double imaging (SANDWICHING) Create a print as normal, but ‘sandwich’ two negatives together in the neg drawer of the enlarger. As there is double the amount of negative for the enlarger light to travel through, you will find that your exposure time will be longer than usual.

Thomas Barbèys

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Pinhole photography Pinhole cameras can be made from many things – we have some wooden box pinhole cameras and some made from beer cans in the department.

A piece of paper fitting the pinhole camera must be inserted into it in the darkroom, and any ‘aperture’ closed or covered up. Make sure the pinhole container is light-tight.

The process is a little trial and error depending on the weather and brightness of your environment. A good guide is around 30secs exposure on a fairly bright day. When your image has been exposed for long enough, recover the aperture and take the pinhole camera into the darkroom to develop the print.

Your pinhole image will be in negative. You can do an image reversal to gain a positive.

Pinhole: Nancy A. Breslin, ‘Squaremeals’ (image reversal)

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Working into photographs: scratching Using the point of a compass, or an etching tool, scratch into your digital or darkroom photograph. This could be a seemingly random pattern, or careful strokes to show shape, form, pattern or texture.

Scratching: Dryden Goodwin

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Working into photographs: sewing This technique can be used with digital or darkroom prints. Just ask a technician to set up a sewing machine for you. You can use the ‘free embroidery’ foot to add stitching to the photograph. You could also hand-stitch.

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Stitching: Maurizio Anzeri

Stitching: Jose Romussi

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toning Sepia and other toners can be set up by the technicians. There may be certain days when they are mixed up – check with your teacher or a technician. There are instructions in the toning room on how to use each toner.

Sepia toned print: Andrew Lever

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tinting There are some Fotospeed tinting dyes that you can paint onto your photographs like you would watercolours. The small bottles of dye are very concentrated, and should be mixed up only a few drops to a small inkwell of water. Tinting works best if you use it subtly and build up the colour in layers.

Hand-tinted black and white photographs: Shae de Tar

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cyanotypes In order to make a cyanotype, you will need a photograph printed onto acetate. Prepare a black and white image that has a good amount of contrast. Print to the laser printer and take this copy down to Reprographics (room 135) and ask for it to be photocopied onto acetate. This will cost you 20p per A4.

One of the Photography technicians will then help you create your cyanotype in the Screenprinting darkroom (room 104).

You will use the LED UV exposure unit to expose your cyanotype. Paper will have been pre-painted with cyanotype liquid. You will place your acetate ‘negative’ and paper face down on the exposure unit. It will then be sealed by a technician, and the vacuum and UV light turned on for 60 seconds. In this time, the UV light will ‘fix’ the cyanotype liquid.

Where your negative is black, the UV light will not get through to the paper, and in these areas, the cyanotype liquid will wash out.

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After 60 seconds, wash your cyanotype in water for up to 5 minutes, in order to wash away any ‘unfixed’ cyanotype liquid.

Cyanotype: Anna Atkins, 1843.

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Photomontage/collage In the darkroom, print a variety of images to collage together, or the same image, perhaps at different sizes. Use scissors or a craft knife to slice into sections and reassemble.

Photomontage: David Hockney

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chemigrams This technique does not need to be done under a (red) safelight. Using barrier cream, an image is painted, or printed through use of objects (leaves, lace etc.) onto a sheet of photographic paper IMPORTANT: only use paper that has been set aside for this activity, do not expose your own pack of paper to white light!

There are three trays – developer, soapy water and fixer. If you first place your paper in the fixer, you will get a white background and black image. If you first place your paper into developer, you will get a black background with a white image.

Developer  Soapy water (wash off barrier cream)  Fixer OR Fixer  Soapy water (wash off barrier cream)  Developer Ensure you wash your print in running water for 5 mins afterwards to wash away any remaning chemical residue.

Chemigram: Heleen Peeters

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