Instructor's Blog
This is an informal page of stuff that I made, stumbled upon, found interesting, or thought was worth sharing with the class for whatever reason, but did not incorporate into any of your assignments. Art Teachers get to indulge whims sometimes.
January 2019- Old dogs, new tricks. (Or is it old tricks, new dogs?)... Wait no, Old dogs that know old tricks. Yeah.
Darkroom magic is full of handy tricks. Photographers used to invert printed images (for example, a pinhole camera pic that is inverted, a.k.a. a negative) by placing a unexposed piece of photosensitive material (the modern stuff is resin coated paper with a photosensitive emulsion) underneath the negative image. They would then expose it from above with a light, then proceed to develop it.
I took this digital selfie (which I modified in Photoshop for use in a block printing project) and printed it out as a negative and followed the process described above with that inkjet printout. The result is a series of experimental darkroom prints. More iterations are in the works. Play with the light you expose through the negative onto the positive. Play with how you develop it in a chemical bath. What if you drip the developer liquid on the paper or spray it what a misting bottle? What if you have a mosiac of RC paper that gets exposed together and you develop each piece individually to a different state of value?
I'm not sure where this is all going. I just know that it's definitely fertile ground for experimentation.
Below: Left and right are images I created this way. The center image shows the inkjet printout I used as my negative alongside both positives.
I took this digital selfie (which I modified in Photoshop for use in a block printing project) and printed it out as a negative and followed the process described above with that inkjet printout. The result is a series of experimental darkroom prints. More iterations are in the works. Play with the light you expose through the negative onto the positive. Play with how you develop it in a chemical bath. What if you drip the developer liquid on the paper or spray it what a misting bottle? What if you have a mosiac of RC paper that gets exposed together and you develop each piece individually to a different state of value?
I'm not sure where this is all going. I just know that it's definitely fertile ground for experimentation.
Below: Left and right are images I created this way. The center image shows the inkjet printout I used as my negative alongside both positives.
October 22, 2018- Classroom
Drawing from Abelardo Morell's "room with a view" series, I wanted to experiment with the camera obscura phenomenon for myself. The classroom was already blacked out with black plastic for a light painting project anyway, so why not? Here are some results.
In complete darkness, the outside is projected indoors, inverted by the nickel-sized hole in the black plastic covering the windows. These are 15 second exposures at 6400 ISO, f1.8 on a Canon 60D. Once I uploaded these to the computer and could see them a little better, I realized that I probably could have improved focus by switching to manual and making that adjustment manually when the lights are on. I'll try that in the future. Our iris was about the size of a nickel. I'm going to experiment with a larger iris in the future as well. But overall, for a first attempt, I'm pleased with the results. Big thanks to all the students who helped me cover every window, door crack, clock, exit sign, and other forms of light pollution! |

We're enjoying an unseasonably warm and sunny autumn. It's a great time to get out and take pictures. Here's a shot from a drive to a (TOP SECRET) hunting spot I took my son on this weekend.
If this were a part of the elements of art/principles of design scavenger hunt assignment, I would categorize it in the BALANCE part of Principles of Design (symmetrical balance).
Or I'd also put it in with COLOR or TEXTURE in the Elements of Art.
Experimenting with zoom, crop, and rotation are the only Photoshop I did on these images, which I took with an older 12mp Canon point-and-shoot that I keep in my pack because it's lightweight and effortless to use.
Can you tell which side is water/reflection and which side isn't? Peeking at a similar original will help. (Below.)
Shot on 10/20/18 and posted on 10/22/18.
If this were a part of the elements of art/principles of design scavenger hunt assignment, I would categorize it in the BALANCE part of Principles of Design (symmetrical balance).
Or I'd also put it in with COLOR or TEXTURE in the Elements of Art.
Experimenting with zoom, crop, and rotation are the only Photoshop I did on these images, which I took with an older 12mp Canon point-and-shoot that I keep in my pack because it's lightweight and effortless to use.
Can you tell which side is water/reflection and which side isn't? Peeking at a similar original will help. (Below.)
Shot on 10/20/18 and posted on 10/22/18.