FUJIFILM STUDENT AWARDS-Experiments with layering techniques

wIn the darkroom I began by getting two separate images, a flower one and a body one to the right exposure, using the same aperture.

This is a test strip of the flower images, looking at 5,10,15,20 and 25 seconds left to right, I decided that the 20-25 seconds were the best and if anything it could do with a little longer, I repeated the test strip at intervals of 2, beginning at 20. the last two were the best, 28 and 30 seconds so I decided to do a confirmation strip at 29.

On my initial full print I noticed so marks on and around the flower, I cleaned the negative up and did another print, which was much better, this image was now ready for print.

I then followed the same procedure with the second (body) image, this image took much less time to expose correctly, with the best being just 4 seconds. I found this difference of time strange, as I used the same type of film for both shoots, however I have realised that this could be due to the lighting I used in the second shoot.

I now had both images that I had exposed correctly, but separately. Now came the challenge of putting the images together.

I started by measuring where I wanted the body to go, in relation to the flower image. I made a paper cut out template to roughly guide me of size and position of the flower head in relation to the page. Firstly I prepared the body image to the size it needed to be and set the enlarger board into it's position, I then exposed the paper to the body image. I then took this paper and put it in a light-proof packet that I had saved from an old box of light-sensitive paper. Once this was secured I could turn the light back on without it affecting the process. I then needed to swap the negatives and re-size the enlarger so that it fit the whole page of the board. Once sized and focused I turned the light back out and got my paper back onto the board. Making sure the paper was in the same place, using the masking tape markers I had put down, I then exposed the paper again, this time with the flower image, I used this home-made dodging tool to dodge around the head of the flower, hopefully revealing the body.

Unfortunately this did not happen how I thought it would, as you can see, the part of the page that has been doubly exposed is obviously much darker than the rest of the image. I needed another way of making the image.

I decided to swap the exposures around, so that the body could be projected onto the existing flower. I made a template out of card that could be placed onto the paper, so not to expose the flower more than wanted. Into this I cut a small shape in the position of the head of the flower, so that the body could be let to shine through this area. Using the same technique with the dark bag method, I exposed the paper in this new way. The image in the middle is very obviously different in tone, it is much darker and the line between the two is very harsh, I wanted it to blend in more with the flower.

I then did the same process using  the same template but this time I decided to dodge the edges to make the line less obvious. Although this helped the line it didnt get the effect that I wanted.

I decided to change the template back to the larger rectangle which uncovers all of the head of the flower. I then set it up in the same way and exposed a new sheet of paper whilst doging around the edge of the page. Making the body image bigger, matching the body of the flower made it blend in more however it was still not how I wanted, I needed to dodge the edges more to create a softer blend.

I tried this same technique but dodging the edges again, I tried this many more times and this was the best image that I made.

This is an example of where I mixed the paper around in the bag, and when putting it back on the board to re-expose it went on the wrong way.

This process, whilst exciting was very time consuming and I still didn't manage the deired effect. I have decided to try to make the image that I have imagined with the use of digital technology.