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I had my workshop this week in Collodion wet plate ambrotypes, here we learnt about the history of different processes, the benefits and disadvantages, health and safety and then made our own ambrotypes. Below is a video which shows the method we done for this: 

Workshop week

Here are a few images from the workshop of us taking the shots, the exposures had to be guessed and luckily Andy Lock had already done a lot of test shots with various lighting and found a good exposure time for us. Therefore all portraits came out extremely well, the first one below is the one I made. 

I also done a workshop in Advanced Black & White printing, here we learnt a lot about various paper types, dodging and burning and toning our images. I had a bit of trouble with mine as I couldn't seem to get any in focus however once scanned they were sharp so I think it must have been a problem with the enlarger lens. Therefore I will give this another go as I love the affect toning has on my landscapes. 

Second workshop

I wanted to venture more into the Urban environment for this shoot trying to capture where nature is fighting through I thought motorways were perfect for this these are laid straight through natural beauty and the nature stil continues to grow around them. I find it interesting that we have such a huge obsession with accommodating vehicles as well we're obsessed with having places to park and have the quickest routes and road to our destinations. We dont even consider the damage that is done when these mass amounts of concrete are laid onto our delicate land. Not even mentioning the sheer damage the emissions do. 

 

Here are some shots from this workshop you can see the range of chemicals we used in order to make blue tones and sepia tones but we also mixed them and experimented resulting in a variety of colours. 

Below are some photographs I took of the prints once dried and trimmed.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Shoot 3

This was a dark print to begin with hence the dark sepia tones, this was only mixed in a sepia tone and then salt water to bring the whites out. 

This was also a dark print however I left it in the bleach a bit longer to make it lighter and make the tones softer. 

I mixed this one in Sepia and Blue tone and didn't add it to salt water. This gives the highlights in the image the same tone as the rest, and I love the colors this effect gives. 

This print was a bit of a mistake with dodging and burning however I quiet liked the effect it gave and it demonstrates what vast effect the toners can give on differently exposed prints. 

This was just sepia but I clearly over-exposed the print and didn't leave it in the bleach long enough to counteract this.

This I just blue tone and I really like the soft effect this gives and would defiantly like to use this toning on my work again. 

This is sepia and blue tones mixed, I'm really happy with this print and the one below as I like how they show the different between mixing the tones changes the atmosphere of the print however I would like the sky a bit whiter so this should have been washed in saltwater longer.

This again is just a blue toner, but was however on different paper and when you compare the actual prints you can see how the toner takes to different papers very differently. I was really pleased with this one. 

This image shows the size difference between prints and the tonal difference well. I really love the effect these have given to my prints, and I think I would defiantly do this on a set as it really compliments the landscapes. 

This one if my favourite of the set I love the horizontal lines and how the man-made looks so neat and tidy with the treses and bushes fighting upwards in a mad struggle behind. 

I really pleased with how most of this shoot some are a bit off focus and the exposures weren't great I think this may have been due to how overcast it was. However with a bit of post-production they look a lot more effective. I like the shots in the derelict urban areas where nature is growing back over the man-made things left behind. This along with motorways are going to be my future direction for my next few shoots. 

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