Craft Tintypes

Since we just tried our hands at tintypes and ambrotypes last Sunday for Craft, I thought I'd spend some time looking at more of them. I kind of stole this idea when I saw Emily's blog, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to blog about this week so she gave me some direction. I have to admire John Coffer for doing what he does. I think the tintype process would be pretty much lost without him. Yes we might have some surviving images and have a basic idea of how they work, but I think it's great that he is still working with this process and keeping it current-in his imagery anyway. He follows everything from how it was back in the day, everything is old-school and more authentic. He definitely is dedicated to his technique and work and seems to enjoy it and his way of life so he deserves credit for that. Especially after trying it myself, he seems like a pro. You really have to get the hang of the process and have patience when coating your plate with collodion. It's a much more intensive process than film printing. I was happy to get one semi-ok tintype; it's a bit dark and grainy, but I like the old-time feeling to a recent photo. It seems almost other worldly. I also tried to make an ambrotype on glass, and coating with collodion was much easier on the glass but I needed a slightly different exposure time, possibly a few seconds less to better see the image, but by this time I was at the frustrated stage. It was still a good experience though and I'm glad I did it so I can be one of the few in the group that has made images like this. So onto the tintypes that actually work and look good:

John Coffer Random ones on google:

This site has all kinds of photos: dagurreotypes, ambrotypes and cases. They're for sale, but still give an idea of the feeling of these types of images.

Michael Kenna

I've always liked Michael Kenna's work and I was just browsing through his work and found that he does quite a bit with water and reflections. His work has a much more dramatic feel to it than my final project, probably due to his photographs being in black & white but also the way he incorporates clouds into the sky, or from the way he burns the sky in. I don't think his images are necessarily about the reflections, they just add a nice touch to the picture. I also like the glassy look to the water. The images seem almost dreamlike.

More product images

This week I found Brad Kevelin, a photographer at Adonis photography in Seattle, Washington. There were only a handful of product images on the website because he does all kinds of work including portraits and other commercial work. I like that he keeps the setups simple so the object is the main focus of the photograph, but I also like the couple where other elements are incorporated as well. Like with the red shoes, the grass background works well because of complementary colors and it's a scene where the shoes seem more usable and a more realistic setting. The chopsticks image works for me because of the variety of shapes and colors, but still unified in their use. The black as a background also looks nice with this. I may try to incorporate other little pieces to my final, that would add to the product and not distract. I might also see what other color backgrounds would look like since all I've tried is white so far. Just some things I'm thinking about.

Even more water

Looking again for more ideas or inspiration on where my reflection project might go. I like that these images are a little more abstract but simple. I think I may try doing simple set ups next week, like one object. I also like this first image with just the colored lights. So I may also try going more abstract, and not worrying about what the reflection actually looks like or if it is recognizable, because I'm not sure that recognition is important to my project.

More product photography

Once again I'm looking at product photography & commercial photographers to get ideas for my final project. I took some photos in the studio to get my project rolling and I think they turned out ok for my first time being in the studio. I kept the setup simple and just tried to make the objects look good. One photographer I found was Rob Greer and I liked what he had to say about commercial work: "As a professional product photographer, I know that an important part of creating a successful photograph of your product involves capturing the actual image, conveying subtleties and textures in the product's materials, and maintaining color fidelity. I pay close attention to lighting, color management,
and other technical considerations to provide superior product photography for my clients. Many of my projects involve photographing objects on black or white backgrounds. However, some projects are more complex and require specialized backgrounds, custom sets, props, or product styling."

I think that pretty much sums up the basics of product photography and are the key things you need to look for when setting up a shot. Of course his website was flash so i couldn't save images to post here & all I could find on google was his wedding photography, which he also does.

Another photographer I found-who finally doesn't have a flash website, is Marty Kelly from San Francisco. He is a primarily a food photographer, but also does some product work as well. I like how he incorporates other objects with the main product so the whole image works together and it's not necessarily just a thing sitting on a white table, which I think can help sell an object because it's the whole package. I may try to incorporate this into my work.

More water reflections

Again this week I am just searching the web for what I can find about water reflections, anything to help my project move along. I think I am getting some new ideas so far, but I'm not exactly sure if they fit my project with how it looks now, but I suppose I can try them out and maybe make them fit. If not, then maybe I'll learn something useful at least. Most of these images didn't have names attached since I got most of them from google, so I can't give credit specifically, but I'm glad someone put them out there.

Actually this morning when I was out taking pictures, I had an idea to buy flowers this weekend and see what sort of reflections I could make out of them. I think they will bring a lot of color.

I still like the feeling of the puddle mixed with the road, its the different textures I think.

I also had an idea about floating toys in the bathtub or a puddle- also different from how my project is now but it could help my project expand.

I have also been thinking about incorporating people's reflections into my work, but I'm not exactly sure how to, or where I want to go with it so that will take some experimenting to figure out.

I do want to try something like this with glasses. I don't think it will fit my project overall but I think it would be something interesting to experiment with.

by Donna Albers

Also a few links featuring water reflections for me to look at further:

http://digital-photography-school.com/20-effective-reflection-photos

Photos by someone named Henry Wong and photos by someone named Francis Toussaint

Michael Jones

This week I'm starting to research product photographers since that is what I will be focusing on for my Craft 2 final project. I'm looking forward to spending more time in the studio and really working on getting the lighting setups correct so that I can make ordinary objects look beautiful and like people would want to buy them. The few websites I looked at so far are flash, and I'm not sure how to save the images so I'll have to keep working on that. There also wasn't much of either photographer's work on google so I'm stuck with no pictures for this post. Here is both their websites though:
Michael Jones and Mathew Zucker

I have started to make a list of bookmarked photographers doing product photography so I can reference them often. I also need to check out some magazines to see what's being published. So that's where I'm at currently on my final project-only a few weeks left!

Reflections

I am not sure who these photographs were taken by, but I still like them. I decided to google "reflection photography" and see what I could find since that is my final project. I really like the use of color in all of these, they're so vibrant. I'm going to keep looking online for more things like this, maybe find a specific photographer. But these so far have given me a few ideas; I'd like to do more with buildings I think so I need to find more riverfront-type areas. I also really like the ones with the glasses- but I'm not sure if that would fit in with my project so far. I also like this first one a lot, with the puddle; I like the clarity even though it's on some sort of sidewalk.