This week I spent a morning with the Toyo G 5x4 camera, getting my grip on setting the camera up, shooting and developing some slides. I want to explore different ways in which I can produce work and I think that the 5x4 camera responds well to my practice and the way I like to work. Dave walked me through the camera and how to load the dark slides so that I became confident enough to take the camera on location myself. I took the 5x4 down to the Barbican and shot a couple of slides. I wanted to get a feel for the camera, setting it up on location, finding the right composition to focusing and releasing the shutter to take an image. The step by step process tunes you deeper into the composition, therefore you should be happy with the photograph before you have taken the shot. After I shot my slides I came back to college and developed them. After developing I scanned my slides in so that see the final outcome of the process. Unfortunately, I don’t think I agitated the chemicals enough during the developing process which is why there are some lines/ stains on the negatives. I am also not sure of the age of the chemicals or the film which could be the reason for the green tinge on the left-hand image.
Once I scanned the slides in, I put the best image into Photoshop so that I could tidy the image up. I used the imperfection tool to get rid of the scratches and marks on the film. I also cropped the image to get rid of the dark bush it bottom right of the photograph and used the brush tool to try and get the line out of the left-hand side of the image. I am quite proud of the outcome, I have successfully made a well-composed and in focus photograph on the 5x4 camera.
With the timeline that I have left on this project, I do not think I am going to incorporate 5x4 in the outcome of my body of work. However, I am going to look forward to shooting on it in the future as I think that it will push my technical and composition skills. I think that 5x4 camera is the best way to capture the natural world. It captures the detail and textures with a quality that can not be achieved in the digital camera which can make the viewer feel as if they are that bit closure to the space that has been photographed.