Research Material - Professional Practice

The list of books below are the main referencing for this assignment, along with my written dissertation;

Hicks and Schultz/2000/Darkroom Basics and Beyond/Collins and Brown/London

Blakemore/2008/Black and White Photography Workshop/David and Charles/Cincinnati

Langford/1999/The Darkroom Handbook/Ebury Press/London

James/2008/The Book of Alternative Photography/Delmar/New York

AOP/2003/Beyond The Lens/The Association of Photographers Limited/London

Internet

http://www.harmanexpress.com
http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/

Whats Next - Professional Practice

I have further experimented with salt prints. However, I'm still not getting enough detail into the image. I had a thought of using a digital scan of the original neg and a scan of the salt print and combining them in photoshop. I discussed this with the lecturing staff (Andy) to see if this could be achieved. Well, Andy suggested why not experiment around a bit. He merged the two images but slightly out of alignment, which created a shadow effect. This has shown the possibilities that can be used. I kind of like the thought of using different photographic processes for the different era of photography. The image below has been taken with an 1850's petval lens. The film is Adox CHS, the same production as in the 1950's. Developed with Rodinal developer, then digital scanned. Finally imported into photoshop and digitally enhanced. This is definitely another avenue I would like to explore.

The Final Images - Professional Practice

The final images for the Professional Practice are presented below. I am pleased with the results and feel I have moved on in my own photographic practices. Following on from the Final Major Project in year 2, I have experimented with both creative and photographic techniques.

These included:

- Theory gained in writing my dissertation has been applied in the capture of these images.  I was somewhat reluctant to use a digital process in this assignment, wanting a purely analogue approach from concept to presentation. However, information gained from both research and provided  by professional photographs changed my mind.

- I have used old photographic lenses that produced a certain effect in combination with modern large format cameras, combining this with film of the 1950's. This was in search of a different aesthetic look from the conventional photographic practices.

- When printing the images consider low-fi, this can produce innovative images that are different from convention. Experiments with various papers not considered the norm e.g brown paper, graph paper and tracing paper, these provide very interesting and exciting images.

- I have never submitted a full film portfolio. I have researched different film types, and chose one for the certain look it provides and then used appropriate developer and fixer so the best and stable results can be obtained.

- I chose a theme (The Beauty in Death and Decay) that would meet external competition brief criteria. The images below I feel could be entered into a number of competitions that are currently running. I will definitely enter the AOP Student awards in the Still Life Category. The other is the Black and White Spider awards.

Petval Lens - Professional Practice

In the final experiment for the Professional Practice I had taken two shots using a 1800's Petval lens. The lens in question is extremely fast at f2.8. To have a workable shutter speed (as the petval has no shutter) a combination of shutter and aperture would be around 2 seconds. So that I could control light better I workman like taped a 4 stop filter to the front of the lens. Taking a lightmeter reading I could then work out when the light coming into the room was appropriate. The images below show the amazing swirly bokeh you are able to obtain with these fantastic old lenses.

Ink Aid - Professional Practice

If you want to print on hand made paper there is a fantastic product  called ink aid. This product came to my attention when experimenting with handmade paper for my professional practice assignment. One of the lecturing staff noticed how dull some of the images were printing. This is caused by too much ink penetrating into the paper fibres, causing loss of detail. Ink Aid produce a product that allows you to coat a whole host of substrates prior to ink jetting.  By using a sponge brush simply take a small amount of ink aid and coat the paper with vertical lines. Follow this by brushing horizontal lines. Allow to dry for 24 hours and repeat the process to give the paper a second coat. Allow to try for 24 hours and then you are ready to print.

There is a definite improvement to image detail when ink aid is used. It's a pity this can't be shown on the print produced - you'll just have to take my word for it.

Market Research - Professional Practice

What to do with the final image is the hardest part of the Professional Practice assignment. The type of photography that both interests me and that I produce falls into the fine art category. This is arguably the hardest to break into. When researching the market for fine art photography the photographer has two main choices. To sell at a low cost but higher sales in small local galleries, or high cost but low sales in large city galleries. The smaller galleries offer a better chance of work being carried but also carry the stigma of labelling the photographer as a lower worth (not personally). Large galleries are nigh on impossible to carry your work unless you have a reputation.

Other avenues open for the fine art photographer are large establishments such as hospitals, hotels or office complexes. Target any new build, find out who the facilities buyer is and ask for an appointment. All new buildings will carry some form of pictures whether that paints or photography. Find out who is the decisions maker for purchase and make contact.

Agents are another way the photographer can get images carried in both galleries and large establishments. They will take a commission for every image sold but have an array of contacts. There are a number of good agents around the UK and for the really proactive photographer look at the USA.

Winning competitions is probably one of if not the best way into all that I have described above. Winning or being placed in one of the many national or international competitions opens all kinds of doors for you. This is why entry is so high and  quality is so good.

The other avenue is education. As photographers I feel we have a responsibility to part with our knowledge  to the next generation. Although there will be a small number who are interested in the alternative practices of yesteryear, we must  keep the candle burning before they become lost to us all. Arguably alternative practices still provide some of the best fine art photography produced, and definitely the accidental master piece!