My time Line In the Dark Room

Task 4

My time in the Darkroom

After filling my film up of images from Knaresborough and Harrogate, I wound the film back into its protective case, by pressing the release button underneath the right hand side of the camera. Then I proceeded to wind the film rewind crank till I heard a click. Then by pulling the crank up I open the cameras back to remove the film. After removing the film I returned the camera to Keith and got him to develop my film for me at the cost of the pound. The development process is very time-consuming, so I would not be able to collect my film until the next day.

(The next day)

 After collecting my developed film the next day, with a negative bag I got from Keith, I proceeded to go us the light board, so I could cut up/observe my film. I cut the film after every six frames, so that they will be long enough to fit in the neg- bag. From observing my negative on the light board I could see that my negative were very dense due to the images being over exposed. When film is developed everything that was white turns black and vice versa which is why it’s called a negative. So, I made the decision to reshoot my motion film task because I felt that I was lacking in images to use to enter into the competition and to present as my final pieces for this project. The film was so dense that I didn't have a lot to work with in the darkroom and this made me feel frustrated. Feeling very frustrated I decided to go outside with my digital camera and set up one of the image frames from the time keeping sheet and test the exposure. By recreating one of my images digitally I determined that anything above 1/8 is too overexposed, so this leaves me with a 1/8 to 1/30 window to work with if I want to capture any blurred motion. It also leaves me with the option of ‘panning’ to capture motion and night photography for any longer exposures above 1/8.

 After my film was ready to be enlarged in the darkroom (and in its neg-bag) I sat round a table with Gemma and she went through the health and safety procedures with us on what not to do in the darkroom.  After that we proceeded to enter the darkroom and I have to say I was extremely excited as I haven't been in a dark room for over two years. I found entering the darkroom kind of tricky because you have to knock on the door first to let the people inside know that you are entering and once inside the small enclosed space before entering the darkroom you have too close the door you just entered before opening the next (this keeps the room light tight). Once in the darkroom it took my eyes a bit to adjust to the red light, but once they had I felt fine. Once in the darkroom Gemma showed us all the equipment and how it worked, from how to work the timer to how to properly use the focus finder. I found it extremely funny because when she demonstrated how to use the focus finder and asked if anybody wanted to observe the grain nobody moved. I felt a little bit apprehensive in the darkroom for the apparatus I was using was fairly new as it was a digital clock rather than a turn dial one. I was very nervous at first but after playing with the new toy a little bit and from the research I did on what the little knobs do, I found myself feeling more relaxed the only problem I had was interpreted in the time on the digital clock. I thought at first that 0.3 was three seconds to a minute, but it turned out that it was 0.3 of a second. Gemma is the one that pointed this out to me. I like the darkroom, but I felt very nervous and rather rushed in doing my work. I think it was due to the amount of people in the darkroom which made me feel very uncomfortable to being surrounded by so many people in such a small space.  I felt I was rushed in doing my work, but I think this was due to there not being clock in the room. One thing Gemma did mention is that we have to sign in and out of the darkroom and write down what apparatus we were on the time by the number. From looking at my negative in the darkroom I decided that the first frame of the train was best to use as it was very well exposed and I could actually see what it was. It took me a couple of tries but I finally understood how to put the film in the neg-carrier properly, so that it was the right way round when projected onto the easel. The easel on my enlarger was already set up for printing the final large image (7 ½ H to 9 ½ W with a boarder of ¼). I really hate repeating myself on the technicalities of how I tested and printed my images. So, if you want to find out please read my technical folder. Over all I really enjoyed my time in the dark room, but I really did feel hopelessly slow when working. So, next time my goal is to try and remain calm whiles I work. The only thing that really got under my skin was that when I had made sure my images were drying safely, somebody had move them on top of one another when wet. This meant my images stuck together and as a result some of my test strips where too damaged to analyse.

Second time in the dark room

My second time in the darkroom was far more pleasant and felt I was working at a much faster pace, as I was making less mistakes compared to the last time I was in the darkroom. I was able to rectify the problems and create work at a much steadier pace. I also think it helped that the number of people in the darkroom was significantly reduced as not many people had images to print at that the time. I proceeded exactly the same way as I did last time in the darkroom and set my enlarger the way I had last time (everything’s in the technical folder). I selected images that I felt would best express motion and proceeded to test, and then finally print them in the darkroom. I really enjoy the darkroom. I hope I get to experience it again sometime in the near future. I know i am still learning many things on how to properly expose and take photographs using a film camera but I hope that by practising I will become better as a photographer, but also as a darkroom printer.