Coffee Can Camera

Top/middle left: positives  Middle/top right: negatives  Bottom: light test

           I made the coffee can camera by taking a coffee can, painting the whole thing black (including the lid), and coating it in black paper and aluminum foil. This makes sure that there are no light leaks, which would ruin the photograph. Next, I poked a hole in the side with a nail and covered the hole with electrical tape, again, so that no light leaks.
          Before actually taking a photo I did a light test with the hole covered. The paper came out grey on top so I covered the lid with more aluminum foil and did another test. This one came out white so now I can actually take a proper photograph. I went outside and put the can on a stool facing where another student was sat and peeled off the electrical tape and covered it again after thirty seconds. I repeated this until I was satisfied with the quality of the image. I then (tried) made a positive of the photo by placing the negative face down on the photo-sensitive paper and continuing as normal with the steps of the enlarger. I never could get the positive quite right.
          I felt as this project was very easy apart from the process of creating a positive. It didn't take very long to get the hang of using the coffee can camera. The first negative that was produced came out very good but off center so we taped the test paper to the back of the can so it would stay in place. Other than a few technical mishaps with placing, I wouldn't do anything different with this project.

Photograms

Left: magazine Top: symmetrical Bottom: landscape Left Strip: magazine Right Strip: value scale


         I think the strongest technical aspect of my work is how I was able to achieve black, white, and grey in all my photograms. Especially in my magazine photogram, due to the magazine paper not being transparent, I was surprised to see black. It took me many tried to get the current colors, so this was the hardest part of the activity.
         In my value scale, there were too many variations of black and not enough variations of grey. I probably could have set the timer on the enlarger to :04 or :03 instead of :05. This would have let the light affect the photo paper less, causing it to be more grey than there currently is. The landscape photogram was the easiest to make because the materials used could be slightly strayed and still look good, unlike those of the symmetrical photogram.
         I demonstrated the objectives of this activity by having a range of values from black to white and everything in between. And if I were to do this art activity again, I would choose a different type of magazine that had thinner paper.

Polaroid Framing

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Artists Reflection

1. The strongest technical aspect of my work is the way I made the image appear to be more three dimensional. How I trimmed part of Light's left and right arms so they appear to be coming through the polaroid frames.
2. The technical aspect I could've improved on was how my lines could be more crisp. I could've used the polygonal lasso tool closer to the lines of the polaroids on his left upper arm.
3. What was easy about this activity was that it was just placing and trimming polaroid frames for the most part. We didn't have to keep close to lines with the paint brush.
4. What was difficult about this activity was trying to find just how to place the polaroids on the photo. I kept feeling that they were unbalanced between the parts of the photo.
5. I demonstrated the objective in this activity by having more than eleven photo frames =, some having Light breaking through them, and having a background with symbolism of the character.
6. If I could do this activity again, I'd chose a real person, rather than a character. This would be helpful because the character has an outline, where a real person doesn't.

painting

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desaturation

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Facial Retouching

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