Still Life

James and I managed to get our Still Life images done on Thursday ... it took three hours! Ellie wasn't able to attend as it had snowed badly, the roads hadn't been gritted and she was unable to drive into College. We had booked the Small Studio well in advance, but unfortunately it had been double booked, so we had to use Rm 315. We managed ok though.

After setting up the "Still Life" which consisted of blue satin material, Ivy, A Bible, Cross and Urn, which all reflected our Artists, we set about getting all the equipment in place. My contribution was the material as my Artists Anthony Van Dyck was a colourist, and used vibrant colours and materials in all of his portraits.I chose colour as I too have a love of colour.  One of Van Dyck's main subjects had been King Charles 1 who dubbed himself The Divine King, so my focus for my image had been a picture of a King in the Bible. The bible also represented my faith.

James and I placed the 5 x 4 camera at an angle in front of the Still Life; one light with a snoot attached was placed on the right to shine through the Ivy, the other light with a medium size reflector attached, was placed on the left of the Still Life.

We first used fibre based paper at ISO 5 to practice our shots. We shot two images, one at F11 using a 4 second shutter speed and the other at F11 using a 30 second shutter speed. Taking the paper to the Dark Room and using the chemical trays to develop them, we found both shots were successful. The 4 second being the better of the two. The 30 second image was too dark but visible. James has taken these to scan and revert them at home.

We then decided to use our film. We loaded the film in the Loading Room taking our time. Then proceeded to shoot our final images. The film was a 100 ISO,  we used F9 at 1/30 of a second, re focussing to shoot our individual shots. On our third attempt, unfortunately it proved a disaster. We had loaded the film incorrectly and when we tried to put the darkslide back, the film was pushed out. At this point, it had taken us three hours to complete our task and both of us were tired and had had enough. So we decided to pack up at this point and return everything to the ERC.

I have the darkslide here with me and I will take it to Spectrum on Monday to have the film processed. I had intended to take them yesterday but due to being unwell I wasnt able to do this.

I am looking forward to seeing the results and hope very much that we have been successful, as I dont relish the thought of having to do them again. I am not a great fan of working in the studio and find the process quite laborious.