Photography Shoots Keypost
After coming up with the new cinematic idea shoot idea, we made sure everyone was happy with it, to which everyone in the group agreed. Group work proved extremely difficult after this point. Antony and I met up everyday in the week before the deadline, to discuss places to shoot and ideas that would look great.
We aimed for 8 final images for the exhibition, averaging at two each day of the week.
Day 1, I went into the AV store to collect any equipment we may have needed for the following week. I picked up a tripod, shutter release cable, lightmeter, medium format camera and some digital cameras (D810 and GoPro). I double checked for studio slots, to which there were none all week apart from that particular morning from 9:30 until 11. This was an opportunity not to be missed. Antony and I quickly went and bought a blind for the shoot and had barely any time to set up the lighting/backgrounds etc.
Using a bar handing from the gliderails we started with a softbox. To which, this gave shadows/contrast which were too soft. We then tried a spotlight (second image). Shooting on my digital camera first, here were the images.
DSC_0007 was the composition we were going for, so I transferred the settings over to my 35mm film camera with colour film in at ISO 400. Same again for the Mamiya C220 twin lens medium format camera. Here were the outcomes of the negatives that we scanned in at high resolution, the day after. The images are very grainy but when we added blacks after in post production this was barely visible. See bottom final image in black and white.
We also tried this in medium format. With this camera being held at waist level, it was too difficult to get the right composition for this shot. Ā See below.
This was one shot in the bag for us, which was a great feeling with only a week to the deadline. Working with analogue was such a risk as its not just a day to shoot, its also a days work developing in uni and scanning them in at high resolution.
We went around the Northern Quarter to try and find some locations we could use. We found the old Picadilly train station that were abandoned which would have had great cinematic qualities, and we also found a street, Mangle Street which looked similar to a block in New York.
WeĀ couldn'tĀ gain access to the old station so we focussed on the back street.
We went back there when it was dark so the street lights illuminated the details in a strange way. The morning after we went back in to develop the film and scan them in. We only used 35mm for this shoot and we continued to use this throughout the project to keep it uniform. Here are the images we got. We went to Mangle Street on one night, and the images were completely blurred, as we did not have a cable release handy. We went back a second night and still the subject (me) was still blurred. A lot of time was spent in this location with no good shots in the outcome, it was very frustrating but that is what it is like working with analogue photography. With the size of printing we discussed for the exhibition we could not use any of these images, evening with sharpening and adding contrast the subject could not be saved from motion blur.
As we were unsure about these images from Mangle Street we decided to keep walking around the streets of Manchester looking for new locations for the next day. I photographed a few locations, separate from the group for individual inspiration.
These could have been possible locations if the other shots didnāt come out more successful at the end of the week.
Firstly, we went back to Mangle Street in the Northern Quarter to try again. See Day 1- shoot 2 for the images from this shoot.
Next up we drafted up a scene in our heads using a telephone box, rain and a mysterious figure walking away from the phonebox, with the phone hanging off the hook. We tried to look for a classic red phone box and found one in Deansgate.
This was ideal if we were to shoot down to the left hand side to avoid advertising and distractions in our images. We tried many different compositions and set ups for this image. This was on a roll of fujicolour 35mm film at ISO 400. See images from below.
The images that came out best was img031 and img070. Using a landscape orientation allowed the images we could have work more complimentary as a series. The images arenāt quite straight but easily straightened in photoshop. The images may still not be part of the final images for the exhibition as they arenāt as strong as the studio images.
After finding the telephone box, we started to panic about how unsuccessful we thought they was going to come out and the lack of images we had obtained from day 1. We only had 1 image out of an averaged 4.
Using Martin Usbourneās Dogs in Cars image, we thought we could also use classic cars for a shot. We had a look onĀ GoogleĀ for classic car companiesĀ around the area and come across Hewittās Classic Cars, Didsbury.
We phoned up the company, to which the owner accepted our request for the same afternoon, to go and photograph a car for a cinematic shot. Shots below.
This shoot, we felt was extremely successful. Some of the shots we definitely could not use, as you can see the cars down the street in the background, such as img012.Ā
Some images were on the same roll of film from different shoots but the majority with this red car had great impact with good narration indicators. The red of the car was picked up so well by the colour film, none of these images were edited in post. For these images we used two large reflectors, a flash gun and a small, but powerful LED light in the car to illuminate Karimās face. The images we decided to pick from are img069 and img 068.
With post production we will increase contrast and darken the blacks to create cinematic editing effects.
At the end of this day, we stumbled across a small cafe on Oxford road that looked like a great location to shoot. It had tungsten lighting in, and looked very similar to Edward Hopperās work. We went in and asked permission to photograph here, to which the owner again, accepted, for the following day.
After going into university to develop the film and scan in from the previous days shoot, we only got one image. The telephone box image was not as strong as the car and studio images. We really needed to do a lot of work on this day to get at least two more shots done, we gathered as a group that 8 shots at this quality, was not really possible and decided that 6 is a number to now aim for. We decided to split up into two groups of two today to try and get more area covered.Ā
With the cafe shoot organised for 6pm that day we decided to leave this with Karim and Alex. It was very difficult working in a group of four but this needed to be done in order for us to get successful shots and quickly. While they met up and did this, Antony and I decided to take a trip to Formby beach, an hour and a half away from Manchester by train. This was a huge risk as it was a whole days work with unknown results, until the morning after upon developing.
Zoe & Antonyās Shoot in Formby- Shoot 1
When we started to walk from the station to the beach, we had to walk through a National Park. We took advantage of this too. Shots below.
As we scanned through all the rolls of film, we found the above images were ones to consider. We ran out of colour film half way through, so we switched to black and white. Once we got to Formby we had 14 shots left in colour, this was part of the excitement we gained from working with 35mm. The images we worked on to try for final pieces were:
img044, img056 (flipped horizontally) and img066.Ā
Alex and Karimās Shoot in Manchester- Shoot 2
Meanwhile back in Manchester, Alex and Karim were left to shoot in the cafe. We scanned in the images the day after and these were the ones we chose to consider.
The composition of these shots were great, using the rule of thirds and photographed with a landscape orientation. The eye level that these have been photographed on is effective too. Out of these images I prefer img052, img048 and img049. Unfortunately these were not usable as the person in the photograph is blurred. We tried to use img052 by sharpening and adding tints of colour to mimic cinematic effects but these could not be saved or compromised with.
At the end of this day, we managed to gain two shots from the beach, both looked like different locations so this was good in terms of variation of location.
At this point we only had 4 final images. Back to the drawing board, we needed to think of other ideas that we could get the props for. We discussed a small burrito place just off of Oxford Road called Panchos Burritos. Antony had lunch there earlier in the previous week and we talked about the decor and dim lighting that could dramatise an image. We used models Callum Latimer and Annabelle Marshall. See below. Unfortunately this final image looked too posed and didnāt match the quality of the others.
We also discussed an idea at the beginning of the week using an old traditional mirror with bulbs around it that you find in dressing rooms for a shot, using a sad lonely actress on the night of her show as the storyline. We rang up every theatre in Manchester city centre and Salford, with each one requesting we sent an email to management. We had no time to do this and await replies. We contacted the theatre of MMU university, and they declined as their dressing room were being prepared for a show. Antony and I then proceeded to Canal Street and went in every club/bar to try and find a dressing room that drag acts use with said bulb/mirror. No success.
I then remembered that a place in Mytholmroyd where I used to work had a mirror like this, so we hopped on a train there. Antony, Karim, Aynoa (model) and I arrived there after my boss, Peter, granted permission to shoot there that afternoon. Here are the images we considered as finals.
This image looked great for our series and it was a successful trip to West Yorkshire. It was difficult to get this shot as there was a backdrop behind the model meaning we could move back to get more in shot. We had to use our initiative with another mirror to capture the bulbs around the mirror.
At the end of this week we had 5 final images that complimented each other well and were all correctly exposed, followed the rule of thirds with great composition and all five were colour corrected and adjusted to fit cinematographyĀ ārulesā. Here are the final images.
These images were incredibly difficult to get and have taken the same amount of time that a small film would have taken to compose. I am extremely happy with the images we gained and I feel each one has a potential story that people can read into. The images are exposed well and are sharp, they were worth the effort using 35mm analogue techniques. A huge risk with the idea changing a week before the deadline but hard work has paid off travelling to and from places outside of Manchester to add variance in our work. My only criticism about this project is we needed to get a solid idea 2-3 weeks before the deadline to get more of it. I would have been happier with 8-10 final images so there was more for people to look at, at the exhibition. I also feel happy that I worked well with Antony and Karim. Both had never used 35mm in photography before and I felt great internal feedback after teaching them how to load, use and unload/develop film from a 35mm camera. With the lack of time we had in the last week we took many precautions when shooting.
I always took out my digital camera to help me get the right settings on the film camera. Using bracketing (correct f-stop then plus and minus one stop) in order to get at least one correct exposure incase the in-camera light meter wasnāt accurate. Focusing proved difficult if the subject was far away, like in the Mangle Street shoot so we used larger apertures to have a further depth of field, allowing more to be focussed.
