Flipping Fantastic (flip book Stuff)

Task 3

Flipping Fantastic

A little history and information

A flip book is a collection of combined linear images intended to be flipped over to give an illusion of movement. This animated sequence is bound together in the form of a small book. The images vary gradually from one to another, so when flipped rapidly show a story in motion.  The first flip book was released in 1868 as a kinegraph by John Barnes Linnett , literally meaning ‘moving picture’. Fashionable in the 19^th century between the invention of photography and the first public show the ‘Lumiere cinematograph’ in December 1895. Scientists at the time were inspired by the notion of movement created by successive pictures and went on to create several optical illusion toys.

How to create flip book

When make a flip book it is important to have the camera set up on continuous shoot mode, so that you can capture every movement carried out but your chosen moving subject. It is also necessary to have the camera mounted on a tripod with the lens pointing in the same direction though out the encounter. This will make for a smooth progression of the objects movement, as it will appear to be moving in the frame. The best starter size for a first time flip book is around 48 frames (more or less if fine). Try to construct how you want the scene to play out in your head to give you a rough idea of how to capture the movement. If the subject is a static object it is best to shoot in manual mode. When taking the pictures for your flip book using a trigger release will come in handy as this will avoid unnecessary camera shake. When directing an object like a puppet make sure to make the object move in a robotic fashion, so that when sped up you get a smooth natural motion. When binding a flip book it is important to get the paper you are fastening together the same size. The image should appear on the right, with the binding (rubber band) on the left. Now all you need to do is flick away.

 Inspiration

My idea mind map

Stop motion and how it inspired me

Ever since I was a kid I have always loved stop motion animations. My first encounter with the media was though morph on the show art attack. Watching to clay figure move on its own was like some form of magic trick. So, for these flip book projects I have decided to create a stop motion baste animation, which will come to life as the viewer flips thought the story. The definition of stop motion is to make a static object appear as if it is moving on its own. This puppet based animation is stull used to day to create movies like Wallace and Gromit.  After brain storming it out my ideas, I decided to go with the ideas of creation a figure in play do (like morph) and the peeling of an orange. The things I will have to make sure of are to set up the camera on a tripod, with the camera constantly pointing in the same direction thought out the entire shoot. The action will have to be performed slowly to give the illusion that the objects in the frame are moving of their own free will. I can tell it will be hard to do but I am looking forward to the experience. 

Evaluation of my flip books

The first flip book I put together was of a bike passing me. The book is made up using 53 frames and was the smallest of the tree books I did. The motion captured in this book is very smooth when flicked fast. My other two flick book are based on stop motion and in the end ended up being considerably larger that my first. Being larger made the binding proses extremely hard and I found that this affected the way the book was flicked. Smaller books are more effective, as my bigger ones make it hard to fully see the movement. Stop motion is hard and I found that my flicker book did not possess as smooth a motion as the smaller one I created. I really like stop motion and would like to take it further if I ever got the opportunity in the future to come.

Task 4 Darkroom Second Artist Ansel Adams

Task 4

Ansel Adams

Adams is seen as a visionary figure in nature photography and wilderness preservation. He is seen as an environmental hero who has dedicated his practice to wilderness preservation. His images inspire an appreciation for natural beauty and his eye for capturing beautiful landscapes has helped to forever preserve the land on the film and earth for future generations to come.  He was born in 1902 in the city of San Francisco, four years before the great earthquake of 1906. The after-shock of that earthquake caused him to breaking his nose marking him to the rest of his life. As a child he found joy in at the golden gate park where he gained an appreciation for nature, which in later life will  became his primary source of photographic inspiration. At the age of 17 was his contact with the Sierra club when he took a job on there. His interest in photography grew often going on climes up the mountains accompanied by mule laden, with photographic gear and supplies. Adam's role in the Sierra club grew rapidly and the club became vital to his early success as a photographer. He also got involved in politics suggesting proposals to improve parks and wilderness. He soon became known as both artists and defenders of the Yosemite. Through this the club involved into a powerful national organisation that lobbied to create national parks and protect the environment from destructive development projects. He learned darkroom techniques himself and read photographic magazines to gain any information he could about the photography world.  He was a dedicated artist who played a role in the growth of an environmental consciousness in the US and the development of environmental movements. He was often criticised for not including humans in his work as it represented an idealised wilderness that no longer exists. However I believe is thanks to this lack of human president that gives the image it's beautiful and undisturbed quality that almost creates a magical feeling to the environment. Adams believed in both the possibility and the probability of humans living in harmony and balance with the environment around us. His professional breakthrough was the publication of his first portfolio, which included his famous image “Monolith, the Face of half Dome”. 

Task 4 Darkroom First Artist Weegee

Task 4

Weegee

Prince of the Night

Born in 1899 under the name of Ushier Rellig in his native land the Ukraine, his family immigrated to the “Big Apple” (New York City) at the tender age of eleven. Were he was given the name Arthur. Growing up he passed thought many types of occupations, but finally settled as a darkroom assistant (Squeegee boy) at Acme Newspictures. At thirty six he chose to leave in order to go out and make a name for himself as a tabloid photographer. Choosing the night as his canvas making for little competition, photography speaking, as after all, there is no “engraving with light” associated with the night time world at the time. New York was a tough town during the depression years when he made the night his domain. He called his subject “The Naked City” exploring and exposing the meanest the streets had to offer. Often depicting the city as a seething and chaotic place filled with violence. This brutal realism in his work, at the time, made him one of the most inventive figures in America.

“Many photographers live in a dream world of beautiful backgrounds. It wouldn’t hurt them to get a taste of realty to wake them up.”

He chose the name Weegee, as in the Ouija board, for having the uncanny ability to come across the diseased souls and there onlookers. Using a flashbulb to illuminate the night. He developed his film in the trunk of his 1938 Chevy. This gave a whole new meaning to the word “Hot of the Press”, as he could make instant his film printable from his make shift darkroom at any location. He could get his images to the papers faster than most this way making his a truly fascinating, if not efficient, freelance photojournalist.

This is an image of his make shift office / darkroom as he works.

To make it so he could capture his subject, he would monitor the police band shortwave radio, often he would beat the cops to the scene, to capture the gawker and all the gory details. Live in the shadows of the city he would dive around the more shady parts of town looking for his next scoop. I think being a man gave him the power to be the photographer he was, as a woman at the time he wouldn’t have been taken seriously in the eyes of society. Meaning his work may have not been published and making work hard to come by. Not to mention the danger of being a woman in night life community. I must say he has more guts than me for the amazing work he did. I feel that his work influenced how violence and disorder are publicized today. It has become such a normal thing to hear and read about that I feel we take are peaceful life for granted. Whereas at Weegee’s time in sure his images had more of a shocking impacted as such things where not captured in the way he did it. Some of his images where too graphic too print. He highlighted the danger of the glamorous city, from its urban life to its drunken, homeless or dead night time occupants.  Weegee would often say “murder is my business” if one was to ask him why he did it.

“He will take his camera and ride off in search of new evidence that his city, even in her most drunken and disorderly and pathetic moments, is beautiful.”

-William McClerry in ‘Naked City’

Listening to an interview of him I found out that he was true perfectionist often taking up two years to find the perfect shot to emphasise his outlook on city life. I learned from observing his work and reading about him that whenever you come across a situation sometimes it's best to point the camera in the other direction, in order to capture the expressions of the people around you. It's not always about the situation at hand but also the people that it's affecting. I like how he captures that sometimes in his work often taking photos from interesting and unique perspectives in order to get the most out of the scene.

I really like his work he captures the dark side to life that has always fascinated me, as its mysterious nature helped shroud all evil doings in its embrace. There is fun nightlife filled with drink and laughter. Then the violence and murder that hides away from our view. I like how he has captured this unseen truth that there is always two sides to two sides to the life that we live.

It's not all doom and gloom though he is a freelance photographer he was also hired to capture events that didn't always depict someone's untimely end or tragic car accident for example:

Coney Island at Noon, Saturday the 5^th of July, 1952

This image was not the intention when he went to the beach that day. He was simply hired to capture images of a relaxing beach. Later that day this colossal amount a people show up and being the opportunist he captured the sceptical. I how the image was taken from I higher point and down word angle. The spectator in the foreground awareness of the camera is funny because it’s like he’s taking the photo from a stage and the crowd are cheering for more.  After an interesting life in capturing life’s uglier side he died in 1968.

 

Article: Weegee’s World

By: Clavdia Glenn Dowling

Website: www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/weegee-murder-my-buiness

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.

Evaluation

My overall evaluation of this project

Throughout this project I aimed to capture the effect of motion within photography. I feel that through practical research, trial and error I have found out how to properly achieve this. I think I have improved greatly throughout this project and have learned a lot in terms of what I want to get for my images and how to capture it. Next time I need to be more organised when doing my work so I don't have to ask for extra time all the time. I believe my project was successful since I was able to capture motion within my photographs. If I could change anything about this project it would be that I do research first before trying something new out in order to save time, but I like the fact that I also work that way because then I feel like I'm learning from my mistakes. By doing this project I have learnt to use the darkroom properly and effectively in order to create well exposed prints.

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Kodak media Quiz