Amber Strickland Photography Portfolio: 2011

Saturday, December 3, 2011

My 35mm Pinhole Camera Fail.

So after I made my pinhole camera i had a look at exposure times on the internet and was experimenting with it. I was inside so did it for 10, 20 seconds at first, but then used the flash from my DSLR so I only had the shutter open for a few seconds. I'd done about 10 photos, and the film seemed to be jammed, by the time I'd tried to wind it to get it to unjammed I think I jammed it more. So anyway I locked myself in the darkness of my bathroom and cut open the camera. Luckily I managed to just cut through the tape and not the box. Unluckily I managed to slice some of the film. I then removed the film from the camera and put it in a black bag so I could take it to the darkroom the next day. Then I developed the film.
Unfortunately there weren't really any photos on the film, I think it must have been jammed up for longer than i thought. there was a small amount of film with part of an image on though, so I printed this..

Part of it is a Tomato Ketchup bottle, I think another part of it is my panda bear, Miles' ear. But I'm not sure about the rest. I'm hoping to try again, and hopefully I'll get something better next time.

I tried to make a 35mm B/W fim pinhole camera..

After experimenting with pinhole cameras using light sensitive paper, I decided I wanted to try and make a 35mm B/W film camera, but using a pinhole instead of a lens.

I started by getting a small cardboard packet, took it apart and drew around it. I gave it extra flaps to make it more light-proof.

Then I made two small flaps and stuck them down with 35mm between them for the film to sit. You have to make sure you only stick down the top and bottom of each flap allowing the film to slide through.

I made two sticks by rolling card

and covering them with black duct

tape. I have two film canisters one

with the film in, and an empty one

that the film with feed into. I put

sticks into opposite ends of the film

canisters, these will be used to wind

the film on.

Using an aluminium drinks can I made a Pinhole and stuck it over a hole I made on the front of the box.

I made two holes in the top of the

box for the sticks to go through

to wind the film on.

I then fed the new film through the flaps and taped it to the spiral of the empty canister, I then put the canister back over the top and taped it back together making sure it would still wind on. I then pushed the sticks through the holes on the top and put them securely in the ends of the film canisters allowing me to wind on the film. I then closed the box up using duct tape, making sure no light could get in at all.

I drew two arrows on the back of the camera to remind me which way to wind it on.

From experimenting I realised that one turn of the stick winds the film on one frame. I cut bits from a sticker to mark the front of the stick so I knew when I'd wound it all the way on. I finished it off by sticking the rest of the sticker to the front, and a piece of duct tape over the pinhole.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Cyantone and Sepia.

Today we had a workshop showing us how to make sepia and cyantone photos, I used digital photographs that I've taken, resized them to A4, desaturated and inverted the colours, making a negative. These were printed on to acetate. I then used these negatives to print on to watercolour paper, that I had painted with either the sepia or cyantone emulsion. They were exposed outside using sunlight, it took about half an hour to forty minutes.

Sunset in Bangor - Sepia

Watch - Cyantone

Pebbles on Charlstown beach -Sepia

I've tried to make a Pinhole camera using a Pringles tube..

So after my success with the beer can pinhole camera, I've decided to try and make another one, using something else. The diameter of the pringles tube isn't much bigger than the beer can, so hopefully the hole won't be too far away from the paper.

I started with a 'big sharing pack' of pringles as a piece of 8x10 light sensitive paper fits perfectly, I then cut out a section of aluminium can.

I cut a 1cm square halfway down the tube.

I then made a tiny hole in the aluminium using a pin and filed down each side, I duck tapped this over the hole in the tube. Then I made a lid for the tube using black card and more duck tape.

I can't wait to try out my new pinhole camera, and hopefully it all goes well.