Art 250 News: Assignment #4 is Multiple Exposure.

Duane Michals -Magritte with Hat

For this assignment, I want you to experiment with long shutter speeds, blurs, and double exposures. Hand in 6 images of your choosing, concentrating on interesting accidents, compositions and juxtapositions of subject matter. You will be graded on the print quality as well as the creativity you present.

Remember the grey card test and how you were asked to shoot without looking through the viewfinder? Think along those lines, when you are shooting, but always looking for interesting and unusual subject mater to layer on top of one another. Look for contradictions in texture, light and subject.

Here are some ideas on how you can create these affects:

BULB

When you press down on the bulb feature, your camera’s shutter remains open until you release it. Some cameras have a lock you can use to keep the bulb open while you run around and paint with light…

There are many ways to utilize the painting with light idea. You should make these pictures either at night outside, or in a darkened room inside. Take some images with the camera stationary and some with the camera moving.

For the stationary version, set up the camera on a tripod or solid object, if your camera does not lock in the bulb position, get a friend to help or go with a very long exposure (5 seconds or whatever your meter might say the ambient light is). Walk into the scene and flash (with a small hand strobe or a flashlight) objects or people in that scene. If the scene is dark enough, you can leave the shutter open long enough to light much of the scene. Be careful of exposure- overexposing could ruin the affect.

Another way to use bulb involves moving the camera. Hold the camera shutter open on bulb and walk around in a dark room or outside and flash in something. In other words, you could open the shutter on a city or street scene outside keeping your finger on bulb, cover the lens move the camera and either shoot some other scene (on top of the old one) or flash in something into the scene.

Experiment with these ideas and see what you can come up with. I would like to see your subject matter transcend daily existence and become fantasy, poetry and down right strange! Three prints to hand in with any technique that excites you.

Joseph Galli (Bulb assignment -camera stands still- Spring 2007)

Nightmare (bulb-camera moves) Levon Parian

RE-SHOOT A ROLL

After shooting a roll of film, re-shoot it by pulling out the leader, and loading it again. If you want the frames to match up, mark your camera and roll of film where the teeth of the take-up roller and your sprocket holes meet. Do this the first time you load it, so the second time you shoot the roll you have a guide to match up all the frames.

Mind Ray (film marked and re-shot to keep frames consistent) -Levon Parian

Swedlund's Barn, 1979 (Re-shot with unmatched frames) -Levon Parian

DOUBLE PRINTING YOUR PAPER

For added interest, you can double expose your paper under the enlarger. Find two images that work together and print them on the same piece of paper making them into a single image. The way I would want you to work this technique is to sandwich two negatives on top of each other in your negative holder. Do this on the light box so you can see what might happen... remember to place highlights over shadows to get interesting combinations and be careful not to pick up every piece of dust on the light table, also be careful of fingerprints.