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Skills and Employability Photography task - Walk Through.

(1). Research the two Photographers indicated 

From Lens To Photo: Sally Mann Captures Her Love - YouTube

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (metmuseum.org)

Rania Matar - research

 Rania Matar Research

The links in the assignment and on the blog no longer work as Rania is still updating her website. I tried to locate the articles on the internet and failed, so instead I emailed her lunchtime yesterday and by 2pm she'd replied! Here's what she says about shooting the image you need to research and study and explain in terms of the criteria above...

Thanks so much for your email and for your interest in my work. When I updated my website, it was a huge undertaking as my web designer built it from scratch and she is (very) slowly adding the old press. I just sent her a reminder after reading your email. I cannot find that article easily so I will answer your questions:

Film stock - I usually use Portra 400 film - I did however shoot A Girl and Her Room with a digital camera as I was walking into all sorts of lighting conditions and it gave me more flexibility. Most of the work on my website is shot with film. 

Lens focal lengths: Only one lens - 35 mm (sometimes if needed a 28mm) but my lens of choice is the 35mm or equivalent when using Medium Format. 

Camera: For GAHR only: Nikon D700 - most of my work Mamiya 7II with a 65mm lens and recently sometimes since Covid as no one was developing film.... a Fujifilm 50R GRX with a 45mm. 

Whether you used additional lighting: no all natural available light.

Main light source: natural

Whether you use a tripod: no

Whether use reflectors: no

I use very little equipment. I like to keep it simple and move my body as needed. I also like to keep the shoot intimate so I feel the less I am encumbered with equipment the better it is. 

I hope that helps! Thanks again!

All my best, Rania

All you have to do is research these materials and equipment and explain where they fit in with her technique. Why does she use them, why do they suit the theme 'Girl and her room' e.g. why are they fit for purpose? What is Rania Matar's intention. 

Analysis to attain higher grades

 In order to attain the higher grades you have to do more than simply describe what you've done. Within the work you have to analyse what you've done or what you're looing at if you're doing your research.

At level 3, much of the 'Describing' aspect of the work can be done by simply photographing what you've done, or what you're using. If you produce images in a sequence showing the process, this'll help limit the amount of annotations you'll have to write. 

1. Photograph every stage of your work

2. Photography all the equipment and materials you use

3. Photograph the sequence in which the work is produced, showing the Process

4.Photograph wide shots of what you're doing showing the equipment, set up and where all the components of the shoot or work you're doing are, as this'll help with identifying your technique.

To Analyse...

You need to pick one of the more important learning aspects from your work and ask the question what if and then go into detail looking at an alternative way of approaching the learning. What this does is; demonstrate that you've simply not done something or worked with it at a basic level, but questioned its use or how it can be applied, therefore applying a deeper learning approach to the work.

In Unit 4 you'll be shown how to make 'Photographic paper' out of Colorama background roll paper. It's expected that you'll photograph the process and annotate the images helping to explain the process and identifying the materials and the technique. What you should then do is - in the weekly reflection/evaluation when you explain what you've learned during the week in the analysis part ask the question what if I was to apply this to another support (type of material) and then independently do further research and discover/learn if this is possible and what the potential is. 

*Note - when you do this use the prompt 'What if' as a prefix and add the bibliography reference to the work to. Do this a few times within the Unit and you'll have shown that you're working at a much higher level, learning independently. This will help secure the higher grades. 

Research - Thomas Ruff & The Bechers.

 Your research changes from this point onward to a different format. 

Over this unit you're required to research 5 Photographers (More if you wish) starting with Thomas Ruff and The Bechers. 

The written component requires that you identify the creative intention of the Photographers... 

• Why are they making these images, what is their purpose, how are they used and what is the story/narrative?

The other part of the research is to explain and anlayse...

• why the materials, techniques, process and equipment have been used in this Photography, why has the photographer opted for this approach?

Watch the following videos to support your research work 

 

The Bechers (2) Becher - YouTube

Thomas Ruff Objectivity  (2) Thomas Ruff / The Renewal of Contemporary Photography - YouTube

Thomas Ruff  (2) THOMAS RUFF - photographs 1979-2011 / Official Trailer - YouTube

TOP TIP

I would create an A3 - three column word document and name it Unit 04 Research and use the document for your intro and the Photographer Research only. 

For each of the photographers you'll be instructed to research each week, you need to produce a column of images/diagrams supporting your work and at the most a column of written work, but you might find you produce less written work which is fine as long as it addresses the points above. 

Both of the Photographers work with the idea of Objectivity - another example of Objectivity that you might be aware of is passport Photography. Similar to the work of Ruff and the Becher's,  passports are subject to a rigorous, mechanical approach to how they are made. This is one of the key aspects of working in an objective way. This needs to be applied to your first set of images shot on the Pentax K1000 camera using film. Photoguidance_v7.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

More here on the Bechers

Poodle: 1st year Research Task The Bechers (secphotofun.blogspot.com)

https://www.clarkgoldsberry.com/teaching--scraps--notes/category/bernd-hilla-becher

Basics of Unit 04

 Similar to your previous Unit 09, this assignment requires that you demonstrate the use of a good range of different materials, techniques and processes used within the production of Photography and Art and Design. The techniques are varied and involve mixing art techniques with Photography in processes and techniques known as 'Mixed media'.

You'll need to explore and experiment with a range of different Photographic papers and films and there'll be a cost aspect to this as films are not cheap, so over the duration of this unit 4 or 5 different films are going to cost you in the region of about £40 and the specialist papers are also expensive. The total cost will be around £50 - £60 spread across the duration of the unit. 

You'll be using the Pentax K1000 camera and you'll initially be shooting each other in the college using a deadpan approach. After the first week, once you've been introduced to the camera you'll need to pick someone who you're going to Photograph on a regular basis as your final set of images will need to depict your chosen person in a range of different places and situations aiming to show who that person is, what they do, where they live and what they are interested in. The final two pieces are to be produced as A3 composites made up of many images using some of the techniques you've learned during the assignment.

The research you'll be doing will give you ideas of different ways you can approach your own images.  The written work will need to focus on how and why the photographers  have used their materials, techniques and processes to produce their images, what impact does it have on the images and how does the use of MTP's help to convey meaning, message and narrative? 

The work will be produced in the usual A3 design sheets in the way that you have been working on Unit 09. See your assignment for more details. 

Unit 04 - Weekly Evaluations (Reflective practice).

At the start of the Unit 04 assignment before your research you need to write up an introduction that establishes that you're fully aware of the requirements of the brief. 

Each week read over your introduction or read through the assignment and familiarise yourself with what it is you need to do in order to meet the requirements of the brief. In these weekly evaluations explain and evaluate why...

• what you've done during the week has met the requirements of the brief

Also look at the work you've done and identify weaknesses and mistakes you've made and make...

• Detailed suggestions as to how you might improve the work.

Make the work analytical by pre-fixing your response with the words What if and then analysing what might have happened if you'd gone about your work in a different way.

Also explain...

• What value is there in the work that you've produced

TOP TIP Each week when you write this work up use the bolded text as headings for each of the sections where you reflect on your work. 

Unit 04 - The Final Evaluation

Updated 18/12/21

Keep in mind your final evaluation makes up 1/4 of your whole grade.

Generally, students will address the criteria for all of the other parts of the work quite well, but then let themselves down by producing weak evaluation work.

You would have been instructed to produce weekly evaluations looking back at your weeks work explaining...

(1). How your use of Materials, techniques and processes has met the requirements of the brief.

(2). How your exploration into Materials, techniques and processes has developed your own Photographic (Art and design) practice.

(3). What you could, or need to do to improve your Photographic skills

Give yourself a whole day to do or do it over a series of days as you approach the final deadline...

Make sure you cover the top 2 sections first. The more in-depth the response is, the more likely you'll produce the work at a higher grade. Once you know that you've covered 4/DP7 and 4/DP8, then look at what's required to get the work up to merit and distinction level. 

Then go on to explain where you have used your techniques and processes in conjunction with your composite work in detail along with page numbers of where the work is evidenced.

The more you do and the better the detail, the higher the grade. 

4/D.P8 - Skills development. A list of skills that you might need to improve. You just need to use some of these and explain what you would do to improve these. Aim to write a paragraph on each one you choose suggesting how these improvements could be made.

• Basic camera handling knowing how to use your camera in Manual mode.
• White balance, knowing when to use it and how you use it.
• Bracketing - how to do it, when to use it and why.
• Exposure - knowing how to take accurate light readings and make judgments on what constitutes a mid-tone.
• How to use a Flash meter correctly in the studio and with ambient light.
• Using studio flash - how to achieve the affect you need - where to position the lights to evoke mood, or highlight texture, shape and form or reduce it.
• How to use your lens focal lengths and knowing when their use is appropriate.
• Using your aperture to control depth of field.
• Using shutter speeds to either freeze the action or allow blur creatively.
• Understanding light, knowing the difference between point and diffuse light and how to use it appropriately in your images.
• Film processing
• Choosing the appropriate film for the situation your shooting.
• Using enlargers.
• Printing images in the darkroom - dodging, burning in and pre-fogging.
• Cropping images using easels.
• Using materials to enhance/reinforce the narrative
• Using techniques to enhance/reinforce the narrative
• Using appropriate processes to enhance/reinforce the narrative

TOP TIP

(1). Use the intro that you wrote at the start of this Unit where you explained what the requirements of the brief were. Copy that explanation into the final evaluation as your starting point.

(2). Takes this seriously - go back over your weekly evaluations, read them and copy some of the points you made from them into your final evaluation. If you use the prompts above or from this blog page here don't write them up as bullet points, form them into full sentences and paragraphs.

(3). Once you're done if it's less than a page, make it look more impressive by changing the text size so that your evaluation fills the page. 

Film processing times.

 Film processing times for Rodinal (R09).

The exact details for HC 110 are to be found here on the Kodak website

https://imaging.kodakalaris.com/sites/uat/files/wysiwyg/pro/chemistry/j24.pdf

Ilfosol 3______________________________

35mm film

If you're using Ilfosol 3. The ratio required is 1:9. Therefore if you're using 35mm format film mix 

270ml of water with 30ml of Ilfosol 3 and this'll give you a working solution at 20 degrees Centigrade. Then simply look up the required time for your film on www.digitaltruth.com

120 (Medium format film) 

If you're using Ilfosol 3. The ratio required is 1:9. Therefore if you're using medium format film mix 

450ml of water with 50ml of Ilfosol 3 and this'll give you a working solution at 20 degrees Centigrade. Then simply look up the required time for your film on www.digitaltruth.com

Delta 100  is 5 mins. 

Delta 400 is 7 mins

FP4 is 4 mins and 15 sec's

Tri - x 400 7 mins and 30 sec's

TMAX 400 6 mins

HP5 + 6 mins 30 sec's

TMAX 100  See below. *Note digital truth recommend using the film at 80 iso rather than 100 iso then processing at 5 mins for the 1;9 ratio. 

Unit 04 - Photographer Research

Research 

Going forwards from now, on you can adopt an easier way of producing your artist research. The important thing is that you research the right things. In your assignment brief, in the criteria boxes you'll find the criteria that relates to the research. For this unit it demands that you do the following...

Therefore, it is possible to produce the research for each of the artists in as little as one column if you use 9 point text. As previously advised try and use images to show the equipment, materials, techniques and processes used. You're not limited to one column, so if you feel it needs to be more - perhaps you find loads of useful images, by all means use two columns or more.

Look at the layout of this example here to see how you might do this. 

The artist research must be done at the start

It's important that the artist research is done at the start of your projects, so, you need to make this the first thing that you do before starting on the practical activities. The research informs your work. 

Here's an example of how your research might look...

In terms of what you're looking for when reading about the artists is stuff that required to meet the criteria...

• Materials - Look for any evidence of whether it's film or digital or something else? Why do they choose one over the other? A lot of the time this is historic e.g. the images were shot before digital e.g. around 1993. Is the film B&W or colour - what kind of film is it, what ISO is it and what do these differences make? (This is where your general knowledge on Photography is important along with your willingness to learn independently e.g. look on line and learn about films and ISO and the impact they have on how the image looks). What papers are the image printed on - do this via the auction website as directed and taught in the lessons "Sold at auction". 
• Techniques - This relates to how the images are shot and made. For instance were the images shot hand-held, or shot on a tripod? Is the style informal or formal, what is the style - fly on the wall, candid, structured, orchestrated and planned? Is the view-point relevant - is it from above or below or at same eye-level? Is 35mm, Medium format or large format - why, how does this impact on the images? 
• Process - Is the work planned and organised with the help of the models or is it real-life documentary, what might be involved in getting these image together? Does the photographer say that the work is printed by them or do you know/think the work is commercially printed? (Generally if the photographer prints their own work they'll mention it). Does the process involve any interesting techniques itself? How is the work used - what's it's purpose - is it mainly art to be sold as individual pieces or is it commissioned work?
• Equipment - What camera or equipment is used?

One or two of the photographers you're given to research needs to be done in more depth than the others. It maybe your unable to write your response up as concisely as the example above. A column of images supported by a column of written work addressing these points above will probably suffice. The links that you're given or shown generally have enough information for you to write this work up, make sure you also thread throughout your response the use of the phrase Creative Intention saying what the images are about and what the photographer is trying to convey in terms of meaning and what part the MTP's play in that process. 

To some extent speculation is allowed, but it needs to backed up with actual facts as well. If you do speculate, this needs to be done on the basis of some knowledge and experience of your own or observations of others work with supporting evidence and cross - referencing. 

Often, it's beneficial to add more research to the work as you go along. In the example above, the first 4 columns feature Photographers who might have been researched at the start of the project, the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th columns are research into some of the techniques that have been used in Unit 04 and these could have been added mid-project. 

If you love doing the research and want to stick to the 2 page method or do even more that's up to you. But this might suit some of you, the important thing is to address the criteria.

Agfa Pan APX 25 Characteristics and properties

 I was looking for this on the internet and like all thing internet if it's half decent it's not there. So this comes from a book that is now out of circulation.

The film is as rare as Rocking Horse pooh, but if you've sourced some this might be of some use to you.

As far as my students are concerned they have to understand why photographers use certain films. In this case it's the legendary Bechers.  

ISO 25 - Panchromatic

Reciprocity effect - For exposures between 1/10,000 and 1/2 sec no compensation is required. Add 1 stop for 1 second exposures and 1.5 secs for 10 second exposures; add 2 stops for 100 sec exposures.

Grain - Extremely fine.

Degree of enlargement - Very High

Resolving power - 200 lines/mm

Exposure Latitude -  +/- 2 Stops

Contrast -  Medium

Processing - In Agfa-recommended developers at 68 degree F. Agfa Rodinal  1:50, 10 mins

The Bechers (Unit 04)

 The info you need is here - Poodle: Hilla and Bernd Becher (secphotofun.blogspot.com)

General over-view of Unit 04

______________________________________________________________________________ 

Unit 04 is a core unit with a high value in terms of your overall grade and points for University (UCAS points). As such you should aim to attain the higher grades.

The general learning aims which you must evidence in your work are seen here in the grid below...

When you submit your work at the deadline you must be sure to have addressed these learning aims within your work on a consistent basis.

_________________________________________________________________________________

A. Understand how materials, techniques and processes are used by art and design practitioners.

Learning aim A relates primarily to your research and you're going to be given 4 photographers to research over the duration of the assignment - (1) The Douglas Brothers, Ed Drew, Rania Matar and Richard Avedon. When you do the research the main thing you need to keep in mind is that you need to demonstrate that you... Understand how materials, techniques and processes have been used by each of the photographers and why they have been chosen for the job and are fit for purpose and suit the subject and help convey the meaning and message within the image/s.

_________________________________________________________________________________

B. Explore art and design materials, techniques and processes to develop practice.

Learning aim B relates to your use and identification of the materials, techniques and processes. The images you'll be shooting will be - portraits of someone you know and have access to a lot, as you'll need to shoot pictures of them several times using a range of materials (Films). *Note at the start you can shoot anyone, but as the project develops you will need to make a decision of who will be your main subject, so it makes sense to make this decision as soon as you can. Technique relates to the different ways you shoot the images e.g. whether you shoot in daylight, ambient light or studio; whether you use a long focal length or short focal length, composition, using tripods, film or digital etc. Process relates to the way you do things and how you do it and can include planning your shoots and reflecting on your shoots, but also the photographic processes you use - Contact sheet prints, developing the film, making the prints in the darkroom, hand colouring the images, damaging and degrading the images etc.

_________________________________________________________________________________

C. Apply materials, techniques and processes to a brief.

Learning aim C requires that you produce images that fit the brief (See below) and use some of the materials, techniques and processes in the production of the work. Over the unit you'll be exploring numerous ways of using MTP's to manipulate your images... adding colour to the images in a variety of ways, distressing the images so that they look older and potentially damaged and using a variety of different materials to enhance these processes. You simply need to incorporate some of these techniques with your final outcomes in order to pass, or experiment with them consistently, leading up to the production of your finals in order to attain the higher grades. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

D. Review own use of art and design materials, techniques and processes

Learning aim D requires that you review your work in terms of the effectiveness of your use of the MTP's. This must be done at the very end of the assignment in the final evaluation, but if you're looking to attain the higher grades you're advised to reflect on your work and learning at key stages over the duration of the assignment. 

__________________________________________________________________________________

The Brief...

You will be required to produce 2 final images (A3) that feature someone you know. The idea is to photograph them in a variety of situations/places/poses etc to try and capture a sense of who they are and their moods, persona and what they do. This can include work places as well as leisure situations. 

The final images must be "Composites" e.g. multiple images of the person created using techniques that give the same feel as the work produced by the Douglas Brothers https://www.thedouglasbrothers.com/home/254  in their composites. The composite can include images of places and things associated with your subject (Model), but the majority of the images should include your subject in the photo.

One of the images should be finished with a predominantly blue tone and the other a sepia tone. 

Getting organised with your folders and files.

____________________________________________________________________________ 

Unit 04 is a big unit with a lot of varied work and it'll be useful if you organise it well within your folders. I would do the following... 

1. All of the work that you've done for the first two projects (Unit 09) Create a Unit 09 folder and put all of the work in that folder.

2. Create a new folder for Unit 04, the current unit.In this folder create the following sub-folders as above. Use these titles or your own. It's important to be organised so that you can find the work easily. 

• Design Sheets
• DSLR photo-shoots
• Scans of hard-copy work
• Research images & text
• Final Images

3. These Sub-folders can have their own sub-folders. For instance within the DSLR Photo-shoots folder I would save each individual digital shoot that you do in it's own folder.

You could have either another folder for film shoots where you put the contact sheets and prints scans or put them in the same folder and maybe just call it Photo-shoots.

The important thing is to be organised and methodical. 

It's also useful to name files with suitable names to allow you to use the search function to find the individual files. 

TOP TIP... At the very start at the project create the Design sheet folder and make a template for your design sheets. Then save the design sheet six times with the follow titles as below and include the use of the number using the zeros. This will help with sorting the files into one big PDF at the end of the project.

Try and write up all your work as you go along so that it's in the order that you do it. Before you leave college each day make sure you scan all of your hard copy work and file it in the 'Scans' folder. It's good practice to name the files and have them in sub-folders within the scans folder - name the images by their technique, each lesson you'll be learning and using 1-3 techniques. Remember to scan the images at fairly low resolution e.g. 100 ppi/inch as they're for your design sheets.

IF you like any of the images that you produce during the unit well before making decisions about which images will be finals scan these 'Good ones' at 300 ppi and save as TIFF files and save them in the 'Finals' folder. 

Liquid Emulsion

This is a technique that I'd advise you to use at least a couple of times each year if not more within your projects. This is one of those techniques that you'll only really get a chance of seeing and using if you go to college and therefore if this technique is used and ends up in your portfolio is one that'll be noticed. 

*Notes for lecturer 21/5/21. Having done this session with L4's with less time, the paper was coated while it was still damp having been hung up and partially dried in a drying cabinet and the results were better than normal. In addition do not waste time trying to allocate the paper the students have prepped to them as individuals. Cut the paper up into quarters, double bag and box.

There are several boxes of pre-prepped paper in the cupboard on the 3rd floor that can be used in exams and for developmental work in later units. As of 2021-2022 with the cost of the emulsion the paper may have to be paid for? The chemical is currently £43 a bottle one bottle does about 15 x A3 sheets. So a ball park figure of £3.00 each covers students using about A3's worth of paper/emulsion. 

Using Liquid Emulsion (Paper Prep) 

Initially, you'll be introduced to this at a basic level - you'll be instructed to pre-prepare a number of different supports giving the impression that they are degraded/old. You may have already done this before at school, normally in conjunction with making a pirate map...

Get together a number of different types of A3 sized supports for experimental reasons, make a note of the papers and where you sourced them from. - mark the back of the paper with diagonal lines using a biro. The reason you do this is so that you can differentiate the side that has been treated with the emulsion. Also write a letter to indicate what type of paper is what

a. Cartridge paper from sketchbook.
b. White Colorama background roll paper

and so on...

Then at home or in college, prep some of the papers in order that they look degraded and old. Fold the paper randomly or screw it up making sure the folds are good quality, not halfhearted attempts at folding, you want the creases to be obvious. 

Get a large dish and a number of tea bags, run hot water over the tea bags and or use stewed tea from a tea-pot and soak the paper in the tray. If you do several at the same time move them from the top to the bottom so those that are in the centre get a good soaking too. 

You can fold the paper when it's wet and that creates very obvious fold that have a chance that they might tear, but you might want this? 

Once it's had a good soak place the paper somewhere where it can dry. We usually place the paper on a window so that it drip dries and then remove it and place it on some old paper or newspaper, this helps to absorb more of the moisture. Do not leave the prepped paper on the drying paper as it will stick to it and be difficult to separate. 

Additionally, once the paper has dried out, you can treat it further. Using vinegar, bi-carbonate of soda in some water, orange juice squeezed from an orange or lemon juice, flick and splash the solution on to the paper in a randon way to make it look like accidental spills. 

Health & Safety warning.

This next stage is potentially dangerous and if you're a student you're advised to seek adult guidance when working on this next stage... Once you've treated the paper with one of the afore-mentioned liquids and it's been allowed to dry, the paper can be placed in an oven or beneath a grill on a very low setting so that the paper is heated and singed a little. Before the paper starts to singe, the liquids you've splattered/dripped on the paper should go dark brown, leaving some nice marks that make the paper look even more convincing as aged paper. The other thing that you can do is tear round the edges so that the paper is an irregular rectangle. This is optional and is best done once you've cut the paper into halves or quarters. 

Unibond (PVA Glue)

To massively increase the chance of your paper working first time, mix Unibond (PVA Glue) at a ratio of 1:4 (1 part PVA, 4 parts glue) and apply this to all of your papers. Allow this to dry fully before applying the liquid emulsion. What this does is seal the paper, the papers you've chosen will all have differing levels of absorbency and if the liquid emulsion is applied direct, the paper will absorb a great deal of the liquid emulsion diminishing its performance. 

Once dried you should now have a handful of supports onto which you can apply your liquid emulsion.

Application of the emulsion 

As far as I'm aware all or most of the liquid emulsions solidify and become jelly-like under normal room or refrigerated conditions and prior to using them you need to warm the bottles up so that they chemical becomes a fluid again. I simply place the whole bottle in a large graduate (Measuring cylinder) full of hot water and leave it for 10 or 15 minutes. 

While that's warming up, I take another graduate and two developing dishes, one of which is a 10"x8" and the other a 7"x5" into the darkroom. On a table set up in the darkroom specially for coating up the paper, I place the larger dish on the table and pour some hot water into the tray. The smaller tray sits in the larger tray resting at one end on something that raises one end up. Once under red light conditions the liquid emulsion is then poured into the smaller tray so that it collects at the warmer end that's partially submerged in to hot water. This keeps the liquid soluble and prevents it from solidifying and returning to its jelly state.

Using a Jiaban brush the pre-prepared paper is then treated with the liquid emulsion. I tend to use two light coats and try and leave an impression of the brush strokes at the top and bottom of the paper. This stage and the effect is something you learn through trial and error and it may take you a couple of attempts before you have a sense of how you like to treat the paper in your style. 

Drying the prepped paper

Once the paper is coated, it then has to be dried and stored in a light-proof bag. At our college this is probably the most difficult stage as it takes a good hour or more to get the paper dried to the point where it can be bagged up. You need to liaise with the technician and the lecturers to establish a good time to get in the darkrooms and prep your paper and more importantly dry it without someone turning the lights on!

In our darkroom we string up a line and peg the A3 sheets onto the line and then dry them in the dark as quickly as possible using an air con unit that moves the air around and aids the drying process. 

We're then ready with our opaque paper storage bags and old photo-paper boxes and we cut the paper into quarters so each piece is A5 ready for out experiments. The drying process with the air-con unit takes around 20 minutes to dry.

Printing

Printing is done in exactly the same way as you would with normal photo-paper, test strips etc. A top tip is to do the initial test strips using RC VC Kentmere paper and then once you've ascertained the exposure time for the print try a test strip using the liquid emulsion and tweak if need be. 

The only added time might be at the fixing stage 5 minutes and washing might be good for 6 minutes. The only other factor you need to consider at the processing stage is that some of the papers because they are so fibrous may tear very easily. It's advised to make your prints fairly small to combat this eventuality - hence the suggested A5 size. The larger the prints are, the more difficult it is to handle the paper without it disintegrating as it's moved from one tray to the next at the processing stage. 

Drying the prints

You guessed it, this bits not easy either! This is a lot more difficult than the drying stage in the darkroom (In different ways). One thing you cannot do is dry the paper using a method that puts the paper in direct contact with metal, so metal drying cabinets with metal racks are of no use to you, your drying rack needs to be a wooden one like the ones we use in the prep room. 

There are a number of approaches at this stage and things can go wrong, so you need to watch your paper and monitor it at the initial stages. The main thing you need to do is get the excess moisture out off the paper. 
(1). Carefully put the paper on a window, place it vertically on the glass, the fact that it is wet will mean that it'll stick. The excess water will then drip off the print and you can move the paper from one place to another and each time you do so, some of the excess is left on the glass (Clean this as you go - so that the window is left clean). 
(2). Get together sufficient sheets of paper A3 copy paper for instance (or newspaper), and lay the prints out flat on the paper, so that the paper absorbs the excess water. With this technique you need to move the prints every now and then otherwise they fuse together (Stick) to the paper beneath.

Once the paper is relatively dry and less likely to fall apart and tear, it can then be put in the drying cabinet on a low heat to dry either hanging up using pegs/clips or lying flat in the wooden racks.

At this stage the paper when it dries, tends to screw up badly and may need ironing/flattening out at home. 

That's how you do it, the more you do it and the more you experiment the better you'll get at it, as with all things photographic. It is tricky and it is a pa lava, but if you persevere with it, it produces unique images that are beautiful and allows you as a Level 3 photography student to identify experimentation at a very high level and the fact that it will take a couple or more stages to get it right identifies 'Development'. Record what you do and how you do it, using images and a diary approach to identify the 'Recording' aspect of your work.

If it's gone wrong...

Don't worry, in photography and especially with Level 3 a degree of experimentation that doesn't yield results is good, it allows for development of practice and skills. If it has gone wrong it'll probably be due to the choice of paper

Top tip

If you read this all the way through before under-taking the project this bit is going to be helpful. Not all papers work that well with these techniques and you have to go through a process of experimentation/trial and error before arriving at a point where you know what papers do actually produce consistent and reasonable results. Two that do work are... Mount board card; which is thick, but despite this, works really well. The other is Colorama background roll, used in photographic studios. If treated with Unibond before applying the liquid emulsion these are almost guaranteed to produce good quality results.

If you don't like the degraded paper approach, try it on the paper without staining it?

If you need to see work that is produced by contemporary photographers using liquid emulsion and other experimental approaches check out http://listofphotographers.blogspot.co.uk/ and search using  CRTL F and then typing in 'Liquid emulsion'.

Presentation and layout of your work.

Start this section with your Intention (Plan) use this as your heading. Then explain what you were hoping to do during this session. Then put in your images and the details of the techniques, processes and materials used. With this section again try and use images as much as possible to identify the MTP's. Try and use diagrams as well. Then at the end write a mini Gibbs Reflection  in the analysis section of the Gibbs (1). Explain why this activity meets the requirements of the brief. (You wrote up the requirements in your intro).  (2). Analyse what more you needs to learn or could do or improve with regards this activity. 

Design sheet - A3 Template (3 column) 2020

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See the link below to upload a new copy of the 3 column A3 design sheet.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1adoWzaxL4cZvpe05kaKrMPPmm4GBia5v/view?usp=sharing

When the document opens do not work with it in Google docs download it to your USB or hard-drive and work with it in Word. 

As soon as you have downloaded the file re-name it for the purpose that it's going to be used for. If you're downloading it at the start of the unit you'll need several copies of it e.g.

• 001 Douglas Brothers (Research)
• 002 Rania Matar (Research)
• 003 Ed Drew (Research)
• 004 Richard Avdeon (Research)
• 005 Practical work (Main part).
• 006 Final Images
• 007 Final Evaluation

If you name the files with the numbered pre-fix as above this helps when converting the whole project to one big PDF at the end of the Unit when you have to upload it to Turnitin.

Top Tip work in a timely manner e.g. when you finish your day at college make sure you do all of your write-ups that same day or before the next lesson. If you've got hard-copy work to scan, do that before you leave college so that you can input them that evening or a soon as possible. Aim to get the work into your design sheets in the order that you produce it. 

Remember - Scans need to be 100 ppi/inch resolution for design sheet purposes. Scans that might be used for portfolios need to be scanned at 300 ppi/inch resolution. 

Design sheet best practice

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Here's an example of how to layout your work in response to your practical activities.

This is 2 pages using the 3 column design sheet.

As you'll notice it's very 'Image dominant' with a good amount of written content and this is how I would recommend you produce your work in response to any practical activities.

The top left-hand corner Highlighted in blue is the Planned intention/action plan or your plan for the activity. Plans are increasingly important as you go forward and they're one of the key things you're assessed against. Your plans need to outline what you're going to do and can be written up retrospectively - normally I write up an outline of what you'll be doing at the start of the sessions, so you can use my description as the basis for any plans. Things that you can include in your plans include...

• What is it you're aiming to do/learn/improve with regards your practice (Photography).
• What resources/equipment you'll be using (Use images).
• Floor plans if shooting pictures indicating the light type/direction/equipment see below for example.
• Where you'll be shooting/working.
• Who your model or assistant/s will be. 
• What your creative intention is (If relevant).
• If you're shooting images and your idea for your images is influenced by photographers or artists that differ from your main research done at the start of the project, you should include a Micro research element. This might be as simple as one image that demonstrates what you're work is based on. Along with the single image include the Photographers/artists name and the name of the work and where it was seen/published. 

The practical work  this should constitute 75% of the pages. Things that should be included here are...

• Images of equipment, materials and techniques used.
• Wide shots of the environment your working in showing the equipment and set up (Studio/darkroom/location).
• Contact sheets - showing a range of the ideas you tried. *Note if you shot hundreds of images pick out the 48 or 72  of those that represent what you did and make 2 or 3 x contact sheets of 24. if you use 2 or 3 contact sheets you'll probably produce more than one page for the whole activity.
• Screen grabs if using Photoshop showing new learning. 
• Your work from the activity at different stages showing a representation of what you did and how it came together.
• Images that identify processes.
• Annotations that support the images, but as much as you can let the images serve as explanations avoid writing large annotations.

The Gibbs Reflections This is the section highlighted in the salmon colour. This is the other bit that requires the bulk of the written material. (See the link in the sidebar to the right for an explanation). 

Read the explanation first.

The first 3 parts of the Gibbs Reflective method are kept to a minimum - literally 2 or 3 sentences should suffice. The 4th section is the key part and this is where you Reflect on what you've done in accordance with the criteria from the brief/assignment below...

In this analysis section you need to do as indicated in 4/D.P7 and 4/D.P8 above in the grid. 

(1). Explain why what you've done meets the requirements of the brief.

(2). How what you've done has improved your knowledge and understanding of photography - what have you learned and can you see the potential for it? 

(3) Identify areas of skills deficiencies or lack of knowledge/understanding and explain what you need to do to improve.

If you do all of this each time you have a practical session in the darkroom and every time you shoot you will almost certainly be working at a very high level. In time if you adopt this process, it'll become so easy to produce your work to a very high standard. 

"Supports" Specialist Photographic papers

During the Unit 04 assignment you'll be introduced to some of the specialist materials (Photographic papers) used in analogue Photographic printing (Darkroom). 

A generic terms used in Art for materials you draw or print on is "Supports". The process of painting or printing onto the 'Supports' is known as 'Mark making' (Even Photography).

Double click on the link above to access the website this image is sourced from. 

These are high-end papers for use with professional applications – two of them are especially worthy of your attention and it would be great to see some of this paper being used in your finals. One of them combined with drawing or painting or some other mark making approach would be exceptionally well received by anyone marking the work showing exceptionally high knowledge and advanced use of MTP’s. (Providing the written support was evident).

These papers are very expensive, so we sell them in smaller packs. The packs contain 3 types of paper and the price of the paper will be added to the price list on the door of the technicians office on the 3rd floor.

 A ‘Multipack’ of specialist papers will include papers that will allow for easy 'Mark making' - drawing or painting on the surface of the print to 'Hand tint' the images and other methods. There will be 3 or 4 sheets of each of the papers to enable you to make test strips and make a few 1/2 sheets sized images. If you like any of the papers and want more you can request to buy packs of 5, 10 or 25.

2020 - The pack contains 10 sheets of paper and costs £12.00. 

4 x sheets of Ilford MG300

3 x sheets of Ilford classic Fibre based 

3 x sheets of one other.

With the specialist papers go on to the Ilford website and use a screen grabs as below for your design sheets - do one for each of the papers you use as well your standard RC VC paper...

Digital Photography examples.

Those of you that have bought the Print Space sample pack also have the option of identifying digital papers and researching these. If you go onto the print space website (Double click the image above) you'll be able to find the 'Product data' page that gives you the basic information regarding the papers characteristics and properties. With the paper in your hand and the descriptions on-line you'll be able to write up good analysis of these papers - choose 3 or 4 to do this with. 

Simply screen grab (Snipping tool) 2-4 of the papers...

And the screen grab to your design sheets. This includes a basic description. Add the weblink below to show where you've sourced the image and information and if you're working at merit or distinction level - look at the paper, have feel of it and comment on the paper and it's qualities and characteristics... thickness and weight, does it feel high-quality, does it look high quality, how much better than photo-copy paper is it? Also look at the price in the price list on-line - compare with the B&W papers you're using - imagine if the course was digital and you had to produce your finals on this stuff? What would the cost implications be - how log might it take for the work to be ordered and sent by post.

Portfolio - In the second year you'll need to come back to this information again in two of the later Units so don't discard your Sample Pack. You might decide (Depending on what your long term goals are in Photography) that you might upgrade your portfolio that you're starting to compile now by having all of your images printed on one of these superb supports (papers). 

Essential to Pass -4/A.P2

4/A.P2 Explain how materials, techniques and processes are used to communicate creative intentions.

 This criteria relates to your research. 

You're advised to explain it in conjunction with the Rania Matar images "Girl in her room". See the link in the sidebar for more details relating to the work that needs to be done. 

1. Use 3/4 of column worth of images from the series 'Girl in her room'. 

2. Use the heading *Creative Intention with this work.

3. Read the articles relating to Girl in her room and explain what Rania Matar's *creative Intention is. 

• What are the images about?
• What is the message behind the images?
• What mood do they evoke?
• What's the story/narrative of the images?
• Are the images Subjective? E,g., have they been set up with the model involved and are they portraying the subject allowing them to evoke some sense of their personality. Discuss and explain why?
• Are the images objective? Like the Becher's and Thomas Ruff where there's little consideration regarding personality and the process of shooting is almost mechanical?

*Creative Intention is a key word that's used within the criteria. It's useful to use such keywords in your explanations of your work as they demonstrate that your work is addressing the criteria. 

Essential to Pass -4/A.P1

 4/A.P1 Explain how materials, techniques and processes have been used in the work of art and design practitioners.

This criteria relates to your research - 

You're advised to explain it in conjunction with the Rania Matar images "Girl in her room". See the link in the sidebar for more details relating to the work that needs to be done. 

1. Write this up with the other pass criteria see here Both AP1 and AP2 should be written up with the 'Girl in her room' images. 

2. Use the heading... "How materials, techniques and processes have been used in the work of art and design practitioners". 

3. Read the articles relating to Girl in her room and explain what equipment, materials, techniques and processes Rania Matar has used to produce this set of images. You could use sub-headings as follows...

• Equipment - Identify the camera she uses and whether she uses a tripod, flash or other equipment. Find images of the camera and use these in your design sheets too. 
• Materials - What film does she use or does she use digital? If she uses film - use images of the film type, add the product data for the film.
• Technique - what technique does she use - wide shots, close-ups, plain backgrounds, on location, eye level, looking down, or from below, low key, high key, hand held, ambient light, flash, reflectors, objective or subjective? 
• Process - How do you think the shoot is organised, are these girls her daughters? What do you think is  involved in the process of organising of this kind of shoot - particularly on the day at the girls house?
• How is colour film processed (C41) basic description. (Images)?

Key words and phrases to use in the heading (All above that are in bold text). 

Essential to Pass 4/BP3

 Essential to Pass 4/BP3

In order to pass this criteria...

Demonstrate an exploration into art and design materials, techniques and processes.

The main evidence you need to include comprises of images with the support of minimal annotation...

• Your prints with any of the techniques that you've used.
• Spraying
• Scratching
• Weave
• Diffusion
• Burning 
• Grade filters 0, 5 and no filter
• Cut and re-configure
• A small selection of test strips.
• Contact sheets
• Your liquid emulsion prints
• Your Sellotape transfer prints
• Your digital images that you've drawn on with charcoal
• Your Cyanotypes
• Prints that you've painted or drawn on

Processes (Any images that show process e.g. the stages of the techniques you've used). These were mostly shot on your phones and include the following...

• Wide shots of your sets 
• Images of the stage of liquid emulsion
• Images of set-up for deadpan images in the studio
• Image of wide shots of shoots on the balcony
• Images of the equipment and stages for film processing
• Images of the equipment and stage for print developing - trays, enlargers etc
• Images of chemicals used

Technique (You might have already evidenced technique using images above)

• Images of any capturing devices you've used DSLR, Pentax, your Phone, scanner and Photo-copier
• Wide shots of the darkroom
• Wide shots of you working at any stage or your sets
• The results of your techniques

*Note; using image alone will enable you to pass if you get a lot of them in. Make sure you use the images to their full advantage - make sure they fit the width of the columns and occasionally use some of your better images as full size folio image mid-project.

If you add annotations... who knows, you might get the higher grade. 

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