15. Printing

Printing

When I showed my lecturer my contact sheet, he pointer to one image which I should print out first, as it had an even exposure throughout, on the contact sheet. In doing this, I would have a general idea of the timings I would be looking at for my images.

Filter Grade -2        F5.6        25 Seconds

My Final Images

I completed and developed my three films rather successfully, at first thought, but successfully enough to not have to consider using my digital images. My Contact Sheets look good, but they are fairly average, as most of the images are quite distant and very far away from the subject, which I feel brings the quality of the film down. 

Print No. One

Grade two filter - f 5.6 - 24 Seconds

This is one of my favourite images from my three films which I took with the Cockle Pickers. I feel that this single image captures the essence of this back-breaking livelihood.

I am very happy with the composition of this image; it shows us the process of riddling the cockles, which is one of the most difficult things to do as the riddles are full of cockles and sand, which need to be sieved to make sure any small cockles go back. The image also shows us the equtment that is used when they go out to pick cockles; including the riddle, two rakes, buckets which are filled and then emptied into sacks which are also brought out with the cockle pickers. 

The photograph is full of textures, including water and sand, the sacks and also the clothing which is nice to have visible in the image. I am also very fond of the detail of the sand falling through the riddle.

Print No. Two

Grade 2 Filter - F 5.6 - 17 Seconds

This is an image which I feel has to to be a part of the project. I did have a similar image, which I had included in my start of year presentation, but this was a one off which I took last year. I was fond of the image, so I aimed to recreate it when out with the cockle pickers. It was fortunate that I went out when I did, after severe weather conditions, especially windy conditions, a lot of cockles are brought to the surface. This gave me a chance to photograph a mass of cockles.

I found the exposure of this image quite difficult to work with; as much as the overall image looks dark, if I'd done it any lighter I would have lost the derail in the lightest part of the shells. This does make it difficult to see the details in the darker areas, although the details are still present.

Print No. Three

Grade No. Two Filter - F 5.6 - 27 Seconds

This is also another photograph which could be considered for my final three images. I knew I wanted a photograph which focused on the equipment itself, as this is something that hasn't changed in the industry for decades, and this is something which I feel makes the whole process special and unique.

I am very fond of this image. Much like the first image in my series, the textures are something which really stands out, this is also emphasised not only in the equipment and nets of the image works very well.

I thought the exposure of this image was good, as the blacks of the image were very black but you can also make out the details in the lighter areas, such as tag on the bag, which I thought was a nice touch.

Print No. Four

Grade No. 2 Filter - F 5.6 - 27 Seconds

I really liked the composition of this image, which is the main reason why I wanted to print it.

Unfortunately once I'd printed this image on a larger scale, it became apparent that there were several water droplet marks on my first original film. I always find this to be a larger problem than it seems because once the film has been cut into strips of six it becomes very difficult to re-dry the negatives, as there isn't enough space around the images on the negatives. This is fairly risky because it means there is a bigger risk of the negatives getting damaged.

Overall I did really like this image. We have our subject matter quite close to the camera, emphasizing on these full sacks, then in the background you can see the cockle pickers and the horizon.

Print No. Five

Grade No.2 Filter - F 5 - 37 Seconds.

This was another strong compositional photograph from my films. I did try to mix up my images as much as I could, so I did spend some time photographing the vehicles they used to go out onto the cockle beds. It is very essential to the Cockle Pickers, but this is also one of the only things that HAS changed about the technique.

I jumped out of the four by four at this moment because a rainbow had appeared amongst the mix of weather, so I wanted to photograph it. This image would have been stronger if there was a better pattern in the clouds, unfortunately it's quite a flat image. 

I also noticed, once I'd enlarged this photograph that there were visible lines running through the image, which I believed was caused by the squidgy. Unfortunately this has damaged many of the images on the third film.   

 Print No. Six

Grade No.2 Filter - F5.6 - 21 Seconds

Again, another strong compositional shot, which I saw from my contact sheets.

Much like print number four, I like having the subject in the foreground, in focus and clear, with an interesting background, with cockle pickers dotted along the horizon. This is good because it also mixes up my range of images and different approaches to the subject.

I would have defiantly considered this image to be one of my final prints if the bucket in the foreground had been more central. At the moment the bucket is much too close to the edge of the frame, this was a problem with my approach when taking the image, not in printing. Might be worth retaking this image if I were to go out with the Cockle Pickers again.