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A Monk So Hurt
5th of February 2010 (Fri), 01:30
I thought I would share one of my images from about 7 years ago when I was in high school and we were using trusty old Nikons and a full developing room and darkroom. I took the course because I needed an arts course, and it changed my whole life. This course, and especially this image, was what really got me hooked on photography and made me realize just how much you can experiment and just have fun with it!

This particular assignment was the create an image using darkroom techniques we had learned, to create a surreal image. I came up with the idea to take three images: a shoe, my friend with an oar, and a closeup of a sink of water, and combine them somehow to create the illusion my friend was paddling around in the sink.

In order to achieve this effect I had to do several fairly simple, yet frustrating tasks. First I had to create "stencils" of the shapes of the shoe and my friend, which essentially allowed me to develop each image onto a single piece of photo paper one at a time, without exposing the rest of the paper. First I processed my friend by covering the rest of the paper with a stencil of him, then I covered the area I processed him onto with a reverse stencil, and followed this process for the shoe, and then the sink. There was LOTS of dodging, burning and trial and error that went on and I think this project probably took me the better part of 2 weeks of class and time after school as well, but I absolutely LOVED the result and since have never stopped with photography.

I appologize about the poor quality of the image, I matted it and framed it after getting 100% on the assinment, and because it was film I had to scan my print, and did not want to remove the matte (was easier to crop it) so the image quality isn't the greatest but you get the idea! Also, my scanner seems to have put a few large specks in the middle left and I don't have the energy right now to start up my computer with photoshop and load the image yadda yadda hahaha.

Anyway any feedback would be awesome!

http://i49.tinypic.com/14kb30h.jpg

JimMcrae
5th of February 2010 (Fri), 03:28
I can see why you got 100%. Nice work!

vk2gwk
5th of February 2010 (Fri), 03:35
Very nice.... Reminds me of the time I got brown fingers handling the chemicals in the dark room. I can very well imagine you dodging and burning, positioning the stencils and keeping your fingers crossed while the timer was running....
Digital is different, not necessarily easier... :)

A Monk So Hurt
5th of February 2010 (Fri), 04:47
thanks Henk and Jim...it was a bit of a race to try to get all the stenciling/dodging/burning done without overexposing areas!

Apollo11
5th of February 2010 (Fri), 06:03
Phenomenal job. The outcome proves the hard work that went into this. Very interesting to read the facts about how you created it.

A Monk So Hurt
5th of February 2010 (Fri), 13:27
Thanks, glad you like it!

Mu Eugene
5th of February 2010 (Fri), 22:49
Jerry Uelsmann (http://www.uelsmann.net/)

Above is a link to the master of photomontage.

Like you, I discovered a whole new aspect of photography through the use of darkroom (except for me, it was 20 years ago). Photoshop has made much of the image manipulation accessible (although not necessarily easier) but I do miss the appreciation for physical and manual craftsmanship - the subtle changes in edge sharpness one can make by holding a stencil a mere 1/8" closer to the paper, for example, and/or how much one 'shakes' the stencil; a fraction of a second of exposure of the entire paper under the enlarger just to take the edge off the pure whites...

I'm glad you had the experience to appreciate darkroom fun. Even if you do your PP on digital, always remember the lessons learned in the darkroom.

Sondra
5th of February 2010 (Fri), 22:53
OMG this pic made me giggle! Good job! :)