This week, we learnt about traditional methods of experimental photography. The lesson was divided into two main parts: image transfer via printing on transparency and light painting.

Before getting started on the methods, however, we were taught how to take potraits under the right lighting, and how we can rig the lighting using something as simple as styrofoam boards. Here is a potrait of me that someone helped to take using my camera. We were required to each have a potrait of ourselves taken for use later on.

This was a really fun and simple exercise. All we had to do was to insert a transparency sheet into the printer and print it normally like a piece of paper. After being printed, we only need to place it facedown on a piece of paper to transfer the print over. We could even layer multiple prints over one another to create special effects. In this picture of me, I transferred a print of my photograph over first, and then added the layer with flowers over it later.

Afterwards, we learn how to do light painting. I was amazed that such a thing exists - I would've never thought of using slow shutter speed to create effects such as these. This lesson reminds me of the lesson we had back in Week 2, where we similarly used slow shutter speed to create special patterns using light. I was pretty impressed by the results myself, and by how using slow shutter speed in a dark room helps to hide the hands or torchlights that would normally be seen when photographing someone carrying a torchlight. I used my iPhone torchlight for this. I didn't exactly expect it to work too well at first, but to my surprise, it did!

I decided to utilise the method of printing on transparency for my series for this assignment. This series consists of three works, each featuring a stuffed animal with three merged layers, each from a different perspective.

The image that I first worked on was of the cow plush. I set the opacity to 100% to all three layers, so it was a little hard to tell each layer apart from one another.

The next one that I worked on was of the lamb plush. This time, I tried setting the persectives from the left and rights sides to 50% and 75% to make it easier to view the separate layers. I think the result was an improvement over my first image!

Finally, my last piece is of the unicorn plush. I employed the same methods I used for the lamb image in this piece.

These were the photographs I took for my assignment. I removed the backgrounds before getting them printed.

Some pictures of my step-by-by process:

This week's lesson was really interesting, as I got to learn new creative imaging tecnhiques I would have never thought of myself. I liked the effect given off by print transfer from transparency - it reminded me of a crayon drawing. While doing this assignment at first, I was worried that I would be unable to do it as I was unsure if my printer was a laser or inkjet printer. However, I was relieved when I found out that it worked with my printer! Using slow shutter speed to draw lines, shapes and messages was a unique and novel concept, too, though a little difficult to pull off. I enjoyed myself a lot going through the process transfering prints from transparency, and I hope to continue using this techniques in my future works!