Darkroom and Camera Techniques

Double/ multiple exposure:

Double or multiple exposure photography is a technique used in order to have two or more images within the same photograph. The way in which to do this is by using a setting on a film camera which allows you to take two photographs on the same section of film so when you wind the camera on, it just resets the workings of the camera but does not immediately wind on the film. This allows you to take 2 photographs on the section of film creating a layered type of photograph.

Sandwich negatives:

Sandwiching negatives gives the same overall outcome to double or multiple exposure meaning that two photographs are ultimately layered on top of each other. This technique is carried out within the dark room while printing the photographs. In order to carry out this technique, two single exposure photographs are required and when preparing to print the photograph, instead of placing one of negatives into the negative holder, two negatives are placed into the holder at the same time. By printing these photographs in this way means that both photographs will be present within the final end piece. This technique hugely increases the exposure time needed in order to properly expose the images. This is because the thickness of the negative has been doubles so the exposure time is at least doubled.

Scratching negatives:

Scratching negatives is a technique used before the  has been developed. To carry out this technique you have to scratch the negative before using it. When you have the end product which has been created using this technique, the end photograph which has been created will have black lines wherever the scratches on the negatives has been placed. This is because when you scratch the negative, you are removing the emulsion which stops the light passing through the negative creating he image so when this is scratched away it means that the light is able to pass straight through it creating a black line as this would be the most exposed part of the photograph.

Painting with developer:

Painting with developer is a technique used in the dark room and is carried out by literally painting the photographic  developer onto the light sensitive paper then exposing the paper to light then developing the image as you normally would when developing a photograph using the wet process. This technique means that you can draw any design that you wish and this will appear on the paper once the image has been properly developed.  When carrying out this technique, the parts of the image which you have painted with the developer will show up as white when eventually be developed as the developer would stop this part of the paper being reacting when the light comes into contact with it and act like a barrier so this means that the parts of the light sensitive paper which have not been painted with developer would appear black when eventually developed. This technique can be very effective as it can be used as a different way of creating paintings, or it can be used to create unique looking photographs as you could paint onto the photographic paper with the developer then take that same piece of paper and develop a photograph onto it as normal. This technique means that when the photograph has been developed, the places where you previously painted with the developer will be left blank with the photograph showing through in the remaining spaces. This can be more effective than simply exposing the paper to light and allowing the remaining spaces to go black.

Solarisation:

Solarisation is a technique completed within the dark room which gives photographs a silver-ish look to them. Solarisation reverses the tones within a photograph and is very effective if done correctly within black and white film photography. This technique can be done while using the wet process in order to develop the photographs. Solarisation is done by finding the correct exposure for the photograph you wish to print in this fashion then placing it into the developer as usual, then as soon as the image starts to appear on the paper, flash the print under a bright light for around 1 second then places back into the developer for the usual amount of time then continuing with the developing process as usual. The parts of the print which were just becoming visible will now be the parts of the photograph which appear the lightest and have a silver tone to them.

Baseboard distortion:

Baseboard distortion is a technique carried out within the dark room when exposing the photograph. Usually when exposing a photograph in the dark room, the paper is alaid flat on the baseboard beneath the enlarger in order to get an evenly exposed photograph, hoever, when carrying out this technique, the baseboard or paper must be moved or bent in some way in order to change how the image will look. For example if you hold the paper in such a way that the middle is arched up off of the base board and focus the image on the base board this will lean that the left and right of the photograph will be in focus while the middle will be out of focus as this is at a different height so would need to be focused differently.

Image weaving:

This is a technique completed post dark room in which you take two photographs which you have previously developed then cut them into equal strips then weave them together as you would if you were weaving a basket or something else of this nature. Once put together this technique will create one image made out of two photographs and the result will be that the image you have now created will have a checkerboard appearance with alternating from one photograph to the other. This technique would be most effective with two very contrasting photographs as this would make it easier to determine what the two images are.

Photo montage:                                                                                                                            

This is a technique which takes place after the dark room process has been completed. A photo montage is a piece of art work made up of several different photographs all arranged together to create one large image. Often photographs of the same scene are taken from different angles and of different sections of said scene and then once printed, placed together to once again build up the scene which you were intending to photograph. This technique was famously used by David Hockney.

Photogram:

A photogram is a technique in which an image is made within the dark room without the use of negatives. A photogram is created by placing a piece of photographic paper under the enlarger as if you are preparing to expose a photograph, then place some items on top of the photographic paper, after this, run the enlarger for a short period of time with no negatives in the enlarger then remove the objects from the paper and carry out the developing process as usual. This technique creates interesting prints as each one has the potential to be very different to the last. This technique works as the object placed on the paper are stopping the light from the enlarger from exposing the paper meaning that when you come to develop the print the sections which were coved by the objects will be remain white while the uncovered sections will become black.

Distressing images:

Distressing images is a technique completed after leaving the dark room and once you have physical copies of your photographs. Distressing images has the same sort of effect as scratching negatives but only in reverse. When scratching negatives you are letting more light through so dark lines are printed onto the image whereas when distressing images you are scratching and intentionally damaging the physical print this means that when you scratch the print itself, white lines will be present within the print as this is the colour of the paper and essentially you are scratching away the top layer of the paper and revealing the paper underneath the print. 

Part 2 - artist research:

Man Ray:

Emmanuel Radnitzky, also known as Man Ray was an american visual artist who spent most of his career in France. He was known for creating a wide range of media but considered himself a painter overall. This said, he was very well known for his photography and was a renowned fashion and portrait photography. In addition to this, he is also known for creating photograms within the darkroom which he liked to refer to as 'Rayographs' in recognition to himself. Man Ray was a very private man and did not let many aspects of his life be known by the public. he was so private that refused to acknowledge that he even had a name other than Man Ray as this is what he changed his name to later in life. Along with his photographic assistant, Man Ray recreated the art of solarisation and created various prints in this manor as well as creating his 'rayographs'.

Here are some examples of Man Rays work:

David Hockney;

David Hockney is an English artist and photographer born in 1937 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. David Hockney was a massive part of the pop art movement in the 1960's and is considered to be one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. David Hockney was born and grew up in Bradford and he studied at Bradford College. David Hockney is well knows for a number of types of artwork, two of the most notable ones are pop art and his photo joiners. In the early 1980s, he began to create photo collages which he called 'joiners'. These were photo montages constructed using several photographs all taken of the same scene from slightly different angles so when they are put together they create an image of the scene which has been made up of a lot of different images. Hockney first started doing this using polaroid photographs and then moved onto 35mm film which was then commercially printed in colour. The creation of Hockneys joiners was accidental as he found that photographers during the 1960s were using wide angled camera lenses and he did not like this as he thought this made photographs look somewhat distorted so when working on a painting of a living room and terrece, he took a few polariod photographs and stuck them together. after doing this he looked at it and saw that it looked as though it was taking the viewer on a journey through the area which was photographed.

Here are some examples of David Hockneys joiners:

Half Term Task

Over the February half term I was asked to carry out a task in which I would photograph a different building each day but in two different ways. The photographs I took are all located within the Baildon and Shipley area as this is the area which i live in and with limited founds, it meant that i was not able to go further afield at this time. For the first few days, I focused on photographing buildings in Baildon village as this proved to be the most accessible for me and once I felt that i had photographed the majority of the buildings with any interest within this area i then branched out to Shipley town centre as this is also nearby and easy for me to get to. Over the February half term, the weather was not the best and the sky was overcast and cloudy meaning that the lighting within the photographs which I took during this task are not the best however there was nothing which could be done to alter the weather and as the photographs had to be taken within the time scale provided, i had to make the best of what I was given. 

Here are the photographs which I took during this task:

Day 1:

For the first day of this task, I chose to stay close to home, as close to home as I could get, and take the two photographs for this day of the exterior of my house. For both of these photographs I went out to the back garden and took two shots which are essentially the same, however the two photographs here look completely different. These two photographs were both taken from the same angle and they were both taken in the same place meaning that they are both showing the same section of the building which I chose to photograph. The first photograph shows a general shot of the side of my house showing the back door and the door into the outhouse whereas the second photograph which it took shows a close up of the brickwork. The first photograph has been quite heavily affected by the lighting which was present at the time of photographing. As I was relying solely on natural lighting, this means that as the day in which i was taking this photograph was overcast and cloudy, the photograph which i took looks quite flat and lifeless. This would be corrected if the weather had been different as the sun had been out, If this had been the case, the photograph would look a lot brighter and more interesting to look at. With the second photograph however, the lighting did not prove to be as much of an issue as this photograph is a close up of the brick work and the sky is not visible within this photograph. The lighting within this photograph is sufficient as it allowed me to to take a well lit photograph of the brickwork without unwanted shadows being cast by myself or surrounding objects. I chose to take these photographs from the same angle because it meant that although the photographs were different in some ways, they remain the same in others

 Day 2:

For the second day of this task i chose to photograph the Moravian Church in Baildon. I chose to photograph this building as I feel that it has some interesting features such as the detailed hinges on the door and the overall shape of the door and it is near to where I live meaning I was not requited to go too far in order to take this days photographs. A with the previous days photographs, the sky was overcast and cloudy meaning that the lighting provided for these photographs is somewhat dull and not very interesting and I feel that this is the case for both of these image, the second one more so that the first though. For these photographs i chose not to photograph the building head on and I chose to take two very different shots of this building for this days photographs. The first photograph is of the door which leads into the Moravian Church. I chose to take this photograph as I thought that this was a very interesting part of the building as the shape of the door within the archway is quite unique and I found the shape of this door very interesting. In addition to this, I also liked the hinges which are on the door as they are both practical and do the job they are intended to do and decorative as they add a nice amount of detail to these doors. I feel that this small bit of detailing on the hinges of this door really make  difference as they prevent the doors from being plain and boring. In addition to this, the handles on the doors are quite large, however from this photograph, they look relatively small. This gives the photograph some scale and shows that the doors are a lot larger than they might first appear when looking at this photograph. The second photograph which I took was taken in a completely different way and was taken using a small mirror which I found lying around the house. I chose to take this mirror out with me when I took the photographs as i wanted to experiment with reflections within photography and i felt that this would be the perfect way to do it. To take this photograph I placed the mirror on the floor and positioned it so the Moravian Church would be in view, then I photographed down onto the mirror and focused on the church itself meaning that the ground surrounding the mirror dropped out of focus. The mirror which i was using had a couple of stubborn streaks which did not want to be cleaned away on it making it difficult to properly focus the camera on the building in question. I found when taking this photograph that this technique of taking the photograph via a mirror was very effective and I liked the way it came out so I then went on to take photographs using this technique on later days. 

 Day 3:

For the third day of this task I again chose to photograph a church, this time it was St. Johns Church also located within Baildon meaning that this is also extremely close to where I live so it was easily accessible by myself when I was not able to travel much further afield to take these photographs. The first photograph was taken as a head on shot of the church and the whole of the front of the church is on view. This means that when looking at this photograph, you can see exactly what the photograph is of. This church is a typical old church which I find looks simple, yet appealing to look at. Within this building there is no elaborate stonework or intricate detailing however i chose to photograph this church as it is simple in design and i feel that this is part of the buildings charm. As with the photographs which I took on the other days, the weather proved to be an issue once again as the sky is over cast making the photograph look dull and less interesting than it could be had this photograph been taken when the sky is blue and the sun out. The second photograph was taken in the same fashion as one of the photographs from the previous day and was taken by shooting the photograph of the church via the mirror. I like using this technique as the mirror flips the image which you see and i think this gives a different look to the photograph in question. In order to take this photograph, I positioned the mirror on the wall seen within the first photograph and took the photograph in this way. I focused my camera on the reflection of the building so this meant that the wall which the mirror was positioned on dropped out of focus making the reflection of the building more prominent. I feel that this photograph would look better if the sun had been out and the sky being blue as this would add more colour to the photograph making it more interesting. Either this, or if the sky had been a lot darker as if a storm was about to come. I think this would look good as it would add a lot more atmosphere to the photograph.

Day 4:

For the fourth day of this task I chose to photograph the Baildon medical practice. I chose to photograph this building from two different angles in order to get two different photographs of this building. The first photograph which I took was the easiest for me to take as I took it from standing in my back garden as the medical practice was built on the land just beyond the garden. This means that I have an unobstructed view of the side of this building from my garden. As I have this view, i thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take this photograph as after taking this photograph i was then able to leave my house, turn a corner then be at the front of the building where I was able to take the second photograph. The second photograph is of the front of this building. This photograph was taken head on in order to show off what the building is as i did not want to obscure the photograph and make the subject unrecognisable. The day on which these photographs were taken was, like the other days, cloudy and overcast meaning that the photographs appear quite dull and would be improved if the photographs had been taken when the weather might have been better. A bright blue sky would cheer the photograph up considerably and make the two photographs a lot nicer to look at however, like stated previously, i was not able to take a photograph in such weather conditions as the photographs had to be taken within a certain time scale. 

 Day 5:

for the fifth day of this task I chose to photograph Shipley train station. This was the first day in which I chose to photograph buildings which were not in Baildon. The first photograph which I took was of one of the archways leading onto one of the platforms. I chose to take this photograph from standing on the platform itself and looking out onto the car park. I like this photograph as I think that this archway is nice to look at and it also photographed well as the skylights at the top of the tunnel let in a lot of light meaning the entire archway was well lit and easily photographed well. The second photograph which I took was the front of the ticket booking office. I chose to take this photograph from a slight angle as taking it head on meant that I would have had to stand in the middle of the road in order to get the shot and this was not safe for me to do this. Both of the photographs which i took on this day are simple and neither have used any different techniques rather than photographing other sections of the building to shoot this photographs. As with the other photographs taken throughout this task, the lighting is not the best as I was relying only on the natural lighting and the day which i was taking these photographs was quite dull and this was not the best for the photographs i was taking as i feel that a brighter sky would have made the photographs a lot more interesting to look at.

 Day 6:

these are the photographs which I took on the 6th day of this task. These photographs are of the clock tower in Shipley town centre. The first photograph which I took was taken from the bottom of the clock tower looking up at it. This was a different angle to those used when taking the other photographs from this task as with the others, I did not take any other photographs from the bottom upwards. Taking photographs in this way gives the object in which you are photographing, in this case the clock tower, more importance as it appears that the object is towering over you as if to possibly intimidate you when in reality, it is just a simple clock tower which hold little importance other than time telling within its surroundings. The second photograph which I took is revisiting a technique which I used earlier on in the week which is photographing the building via a small mirror. This technique flips the image making it look unique as the photograph shown is the right way up however the building has now been tunred on its head. in order to take this photograph I focused on the clock towers reflection meaning that the ground has dropped out of focus. i feel that this works well as the texture within the pavement which the mirror was placed on may have caused a distraction and taken away from the building itself which is what is intended to be the main focus of this photograph.

Day 7:

These are the photographs which i took from the 7th and last day of this task. Both of these photographs were taken of the row of shops in Shipley market place. The first photograph which I took is just a general shot of the shops and the building which they are all incorporated into. I chose to take this photograph in this way so it was clear enough to tell what it was and recognise the building it is clearly enough so you can then make out the second photograph, The second photograph that i took is of the exact same row of shops and was taken standing in the same place however this time, i have taken the photograph of the building in the reflection of a spoon. I chose to take this photograph  in this way as earlier in the week i found that i enjoyed taking photographs in the reflection of a mirror and i liked the way the photographs looked done in this manner so i decided to get a little experimental and try to find other household objects which i could capture a reflection in. The first reflective household object which sprang to mind was a spoon as i thought i would be able to capture a good reflection in the back of the spoon and although when it came to photographing, this probed difficult, this was still possible. When i was taking these photographs the weather was dull and gloomy which i found actually helped with the second photograph as i feel that direct sunlight would have made the whole thing a bit too bright and taken away from what i was trying to achieve however on the day i was taking these photograph it was actually raining quite heavily which proved to be a problem, not only because of my fear of my camera getting wet and being damaged but also because the rain on the spoon distorted the reflection which i got. this was not intentional, however it was not a major disaster as i feel that it adds to the distorted effect which would already have been present as a result of the curvature of the spoon. The second photograph which i took on this day proved to be the hardest of the photographs which i captured throughout this week and it was the only photograph which i needed assistance in taking. As i was taking the photograph and holding my camera with both hands in order to press the shutter and properly focus the camera, I asked my dad if he wouldn't mind coming along with me in order to hold the spoon in the right place so i could capture this photograph. He was happy to do this for me (even if it did mean him standing in the rain for a while when he could have been inside watching football or something!) so I was then able to get the shot which I wanted to get. when focusing for this photograph i made sure to focus on the spoon and the reflection of the building only as i wanted none of the background behind the spoon to be visibly in focus as this would definitely have been distracting from the main subject of this photograph. overall i think this is my favourite photograph which i took during this week as this is the photograph which took the most planning and came out the way i wanted it to. if i could reshoot this photograph i would maybe shoot it when the sky is clear and blue, but i would definitely wait until it is dry and there is no rain to further distort the image.

Task 2 - Historical Photoshoot Planning

On Tuesday 24th February 2015 I will carry out a photo shoot of old buildings around the Bradford area. For this photo shoot I will be photographing using conventional film cameras and I will be shooting on black and white film to then develop into prints in the dark room. The location in which i will be carrying out this photo shoot will be Bradford city centre and I will be photographing the old buildings in this area. Throughout this photoshoot, i will be aiming to capture the age and beauty which is present and can be found within the architecture found within the city of Bradford.
The buildings which I plan to visit during this photoshoot include:
Bradford cathedral,
St. Georges Hall,
City Hall,
The Wool Exchange,
The Alhambra,
The old Odeon,
The Bradford college old building
and any other old building which can be found in and around the city of Bradford
In order to capture photographs of these buildings I will be using experimental techniques when photographing. The techniques I plan to use when photographing include photographing architecture in reflections, close ups of buildings and head on shots of buildings. using techniques such as these when photographing will give each photograph which i take a unique and interesting look to it and it will eliminate the possibility off all of the photographs i take being the same. I want to eliminate this risk as i am photographing on black and white film and this means that i will not be able to go back and reshoot the photographs which i take if i am not happy with the way they turn out. In order to take some of the photographs in reflections, this means I will either have to use a reflective surface which i can find near a building such as a hand rail or carry a reflective item with me and use this. reflective items which i could use include a small mirror, the back of a spoon or a window of another building near by. In addition to this, depending on the weather on the day in which I take these photographs, if it has been raining and there are puddles on the ground, these could also be used to reflect the building. Furthermore, photographing buildings close up will also add more interest to this photoshoot as it means that any detailing found within the buildings can be captured easily. As i will be photographing the architecture of bradford, this means that i do not necessarily have to photograph the entirety of each building and photographing parts of each building close up will focus on the detail which has been put into the building which would be lost or made less prominent if i was to photograph the building as a whole. This said however, it does not mean that i will not photograph some of the buildings as a whole as there is a lot to see when buildings are photographed in this way.

I also drew out a story board briefly showing my ideas for this photoshoot and roughly how i would like some of these photographs to look. My drawing skills are not the best so this means that the diagrams within this story board do not represent the photographs I am hoping to take very well but I hope they give an idea of the images I wish to take.

Juxtaposition

For this task i was asked to explore juxtaposition within photography. Juxtaposition is a technique used within photography which combines opposing ideas within one photograph. For example, in the cases i have used within the photographs which i have taken for this task, both new and old buildings have been photographed within the same frame in order to show this contrast. Juxtaposition within photography shows off the contrast between two objects weather this be the contrast between big and small or old and new or simply just two similar yet different subjects within the same frame. Within this task i was asked to go out into Bradford and take some photographs containing juxtaposition. within the photographs which I took, I mainly stuck to taking photographs of the old and new contrast as i felt that this was the easiest to capture within the location i was in. The top left photograph seen within this contact print however shows the contrast between old and new and also the contrast between bright colours of the 'iCreams' sign and the more muted colours of the surrounding buildings. I feel that this worked well as a juxtaposition as it shows two different contrasts happening without being too overwhelming with too much going on. The top right photographs seen within this contact print shows the Subway building. I chose to use this as a juxtaposition as it shows the contrast between old and new quite nicely as the building itself is quite old however the Subway sore is relatively new in comparison. This means that there is a contrast occurring at all times within this building as the old and new contrast is always present. For the photograph seen in the bottom right of this photograph i chose to again capture the old and new contrast, this time by photographing 'The Pavilion' with the ice rink in the background. Again, this works as a juxtaposition as the old and new contrast is present with the pavilion being new in contrast to the ice rink which has been standing in the same place as it is now for many years. Finally, the photograph shown in the bottom left of this contact print was taken within City park and is of one of the egg shaped sculptures with the town hall in the background. This photograph is my favourite out of the four as i feel that this photograph best displays juxtaposition. This photograph again shows the contrast between old and new as the town hall seen towards the background of this photograph is a lot older than the sculpture seen towards the foreground of this photograph. The colours within this photograph are very muted so there is not a lot of interest within this photograph and i feel that it would look better on a nicer day when the sky is blue. I feel that this would look a lot better as a blue sky would add more colour and more interest into the photograph without taking away from the subject of the photograph. I plan to reshoot this photograph in better weather in order to get the results i would like. 

Here are the photographs seen in the contact print at their full size so they are easier to view:

A little while after taking the original photographs, the weather picked up meaning that blue skies were present within the same day. This meant that I has the perfect opportunity to go back out and reshoot the photograph of the town hall and the egg shaped sculpture. I chose to only re shoot this photograph within these weather conditions as the original of this photograph was, in my opinion, the best out of the four which I took with the other not being as good so i wanted to see what this photograph in particular would look like had the weather been better. Before taking this photograph i predicted that a blue sky would add more colour and interest to the photograph and looking at the photograph which I reshot I can see that the prediction which i made was right. The reshot image is a lot more interesting than the original as the blue sky makes the images colours more bright and interesting and less muted and dull. In addition to the blue sky adding more colour to the photograph, the sun also brightens up the photograph making it appear a happier scene and altering the mood of the photograph. As the sun was out, this means that shadows of the trees branches were cast onto the sculpture. I feel that this works well within this photograph as it adds a little more detail to the photograph and again adds more interest and more to look at to the photograph. Overall I am very happy with the way this image turned out as it is essentially the same photograph as the original however the blue sky and the sunny day had somehow managed to change the photograph and the message it gives across.

Task 1

For the first task I was asked to take the six elements of design (line, shape, form, lighting and scale) and photograph them in relation to architecture. in order to do this I once again went out into Bradford to photograph buildings but this time my main focus was the design elements which I was asked to photograph. Each photograph shown in the contact print below represents a different design element while still being related to architecture as this is what I was asked to focus all of the images which I was taking for this first task. 

This is a contact print of all of the photographs which I took during this shoot. This contact print shows six different photographs showing six different elements of design including scale, form, shape, line, lighting and texture. each of the photographs shown in this contact print is a representation of one of these elements of design. Each of these photographs was taken in and around Bradford city centre meaning that the location for all of these photographs is local and each of these photographs was taken within an outdoor location.

This is the photograph I took in order to represent the design element 'form'. This is a photograph of two of the detailed arched windows features on one side of City hall. I chose to take this photograph to represent form as form is described as 'the 3D version of shape' meaning form to shape is what a cube is to a square. With this in mind, when looking at this building, I noticed the three dimensional archways by the windows on the building and thought that this would fit into he form category for this task. As I was relying on natural lighting when taking this photograph, this means that I got unwanted shadows within this photograph. The unwanted shadows within this photograph mean that the left side of this photograph is quite a bit darker than the right side making the lighting within this photograph uneven. I feel that this photograph would look much better had the light been evenly distributed throughout the entire photograph. 

This is a silhouette photograph which I took of city hall in Bradford. This is the photograph which i took for the 'lighting' section of this task. I chose to take this photograph to represent this design element as i felt that the lighting used within this photograph is very different to that used within the other photographs i have taken for this task as this photograph is silhouette and does not have all the detail within the clock tower at city hall on display. In order to take this photograph, I photographed towards city hall while the sun was positioned behind and to the left of the clock tower. As I was aiming the camera directly into the direction of the sun, the brightness of the sun cancelled out the remaining light in the photograph and cast the rest of the scene into shadow. This meant that the scene was silhouetted against the background of the sky. I really like the way this photograph turned out as the way it has been shot means that it is not just another photograph of City Hall and the clock tower, but it is different and unique while still being a photograph of a place which is seen so often by myself. The lighting in this photograph is simple and the source of the lighting in this photograph is the same as in the other photographs which i have taken however the impact which the lighting has had on this photograph is different to the others which i have taken during this photoshoot. 

This is a photograph of a section of the David Hockney building at Bradford College.and i chose to take this photograph for the design element of 'line' as this section of the building is created using several boards arranged in parallel lines with strips of lighting incorporated into this. This gives the building a striped look which I thought would work well if used for the design element of line. In order to take this photograph i was hooting upwards so in order to make this apparent i chose to capture the edge of this building along with a small section of the sky towards the right og the photograph. I chose to photograph this in this way rather than getting closer into the lines on this building as I wanted it to remain clear that it was a building which i was photographing and i did not want to obscure the meaning of this photograph by making it so the subject of the photograph was unrecognisable. 

This is the photograph Which I took for the design element of scale. This a photograph of the Alhambra with Nicole stood in one of the entrances. When taking this photograph I asked Nicole to stand within the entrance of this building as it would give a sense of scale to this building as we are familiar with the general size of a person so when someone stands by something else, it gives scale to the thing they are stood next to. I took this photograph in such a way that I got the entirety of the building into the photograph with the sky showing at the top of the photograph, i feel that this helps to bring scale to the photograph as you can see just how big the building is as when looking at the photograph, Nicole looks quite small and is not the first thing to be seen when looking at this photograph. overall, I am happy with this photograph as i feel that it shows off the scale of this building well and communicates what i was intending it to communicate. 

this is the photograph i took to represent the design element of shape. This is a photograph of a section of the college old building and this section of the building features prominent columns and regular rectangular brickwork. I chose to take this photograph to show off the design element of shape as I liked the way the columns looked when photographed from the bottom upwards but I also thought that the regular pattern of the brickwork was interesting within this building. This as this building has the columns with the intricate stonework at the top of them, this adds more detail and interest to this photograph as if i had wanted to use the regular pattern of brickwork to show off shape, i could have used a veriety of building however, i am happy that i chose to take the photograph of this building as i feel that it is more interesting than some of the others which i could have chosen. i also chose to photograph this building as it features man more design elements such as form, seen in the cylindrical nature of the columns, pattern, seen also within the brickwork, line, seen in the brickwork and the columns and texture seen within the intricate stonework features at the top of the columns. i am happy with this photograph as it not only shows the design element which i was intending it to show, but it also shows many more.

This is the photograph i took for the design element of texture. This is a photograph of a smashed mirrored panel which is part of the old 'mode' nightclub situated next to the Alhambra. I walk past this nightclub most days while i am on my way up to college meaning that I always see the smashed up mirrors on the exterior of the building however I did not think much of it until going out to photograph buildings which contain an element of texture within them. once i was asked to photograph this design element, this building seemed to make sense and fit perfectly as the cracks in the glass are a perfect example of texture as it is apparent from looking at this photograph that there are many sharp edges and it is not something you would want to touch. I like this photograph a lot as the texture is very apparent but also because i think that the pattern caused by the cracks in the glass is very interesting and unique. 

Secondary research

Once I had completed my primary research, I then went on to do some secondary research about old and new buildings. this secondary research is displayed as mood boards. I created three mood boards, two to display old buildings and one to display new buildings. 

This is the first mood boards which I created and it shows a selection of old buildings located within the bradford area. before creating this mood board i looked into some of the dates that these building were built in order to determine the age of the buildings and to see if the buildings which look to be old actually are the age that they appear to be or if has actually been built at a later date and not to be included within this mood board. Each of the buildings included in this mood board is old and was built at least 100 years ago. The buildings in this mood board include Bradford town hall, St. Georges hall, Bolling Hall, The Wool Exchange, The Alhambra and Salts Mill.Each of these buildings is location is Bradford so all of these locations are fairly local and could later be easily visited in order to later take my own photographs which I will be doing at a later date in within this project. There is a lot of history within each of these buildings making them fit perfectly into this mood board as the mood board focus' around old and historical buildings within bradford. This mood board shows us that there are a lot of old and historical buildings within Bradford.

Bradford town hall: Bradford town hall is a grade 1 listed 19th century building which was built between the years of 1870 and 1973. This building has undergone improvements such as general repairs in 1965 and the repair of the bell which stopped ringing in 1992 as a result of decay to the bell frame. the bells were repaired in 1997. The town hall is easily recognisable for the clock tower which towers over the town hall and overlooking city park. The bells in the clock tower chime every hour, on the hour and at the 2005 memorial of the bradford city fire which happened in 1985, the town hall bells played you'll never walk alone and abide with me as a tribue to those who lost their lives that day. 

St. Georges Hall: St. Georges Hall is a grade 2 listed Victorian building located within the centre of Bradford. St. Georges Hall was built in 1853 and is the oldest concert hall still in use in the united kingdom and the third oldest concert hall still in use in the whole of europe. The design of this building was chosen from over 22 designs and was built using ashlar sandstone. the interior underwent remodelling after world war 2 and again after fires in the 1980s

The wool exchange: The wool exchange building is a grade 1 listed building originally built as a wool trading centre in the 19th century. This building was built between 1864 and 1867 and was built in a gothic architectural style. The building has not been used as a wool exchange since the 1960's and is not used as a cafe and Waterstones book shop.

The Alhambra: the Alhambra is a theatre built in 1913 for a cost of £20,000. in 1964 the Alhambra was bought by bradford council and in 1974 it was designated a grade 2 listed building. The Alhambra is easily recognisable on the bradford skyline because of its large domes roof making it compliment the domes present on the building of the odeon which is situated right next to it. 

This is the second mood board which I created and this mood board consists of old building in the west yorkshire area. When collecting images for the mood previous mood board i found that there were a lot of interesting, old and historical buildings in Bradford and the surrounding areas so i decided to create a mood board to show the old buildings in Bardford and a separate one to show the old historical buildings in the rest of west yorkshire. This mood board includes photographs again of buildings which are at least 100 years old and the buildings which have been included are Leeds town hall, Kirkstall Abbey, Fountains abbey and the 'Majestic' hotel in Harrogate. Like within the last mood board, each of these buildings has a lot of history and i found that they were interesting and aesthetically pleasing making this the reason I included them into this mood board. 

This is the third mood board which i created and this mood board contains new buildings which are located within west yorkshire, When creating this mood board, i was originally going to create a mood board just for new buildings in bradford and another for new buildings in the rest of west yorkshire however i was not able to find enough photographs of this nature in order to create a mood board of each so i combined the two and created a mood board containing photographs of new buildings from areound bradford and the rest of west yorkshire. the buildings included in this mood board are all new and this can be seen by the design of these buildings. the design of the buildings within this mood board all differ greatly however there is a reoccurring theme of a large amount of glass being used within the construction of these buildings. This is a give away that these buildings are new in comparison to those included within the other two mood boards as when the other buildings were designed and constructed, the use of large amounts of glass was not as popular as it is now and the main construction material was brick and stone. These materials are still used within the construction of buildings today however a lot more modern looking materials such as glass and steel are used in the construction of buildings today. some of the buildings included in this mood board include The David Hockney building at Bradford College, Titus Salt School, westfiels bradford and trinity leeds.

David Hockney Building: The david hockney building is the most recent addition to Bradford college and it was opened in 2014 after 2 years of construction. This building was named after the photographer David Hockney who is a former student at this college and is now an extremely successful and well known photographer. This building has a modern design with a large glass exterior making it clear by looking at it that it is a modern building.

Westfield bradford: Westfield is a new shopping centre which i due to open this year. it is still currently under construction meaning that this is clearly a new building as it is still yet to be completed.

Titus Salt School: formally known as Salt Grammar School was completely rebuilt in 2008. The original building which was built in 1945 was proved to be not fit for purpose anymore so it was rebuilt on the same site in 2008. This building has a typically modern design with the use of curved walls and a lot of glass. these features are give aways that the building has a modern nature when looking at it without the need to do much research in order to know this information. 

Primary research

As primary research into old meets new architecture, I was asked to go out around Bradford with 3 of my classmates and photograph examples of architecture which fit into four different areas. The four areas I was asked to photograph within this task were a building built before 1913, a building built after 2010, a reflection of all members of the group taken in a building and a photograph of one of the members of the group stood in front of their favourite building in Bradford. For this research I was asked to capture four photographs, one for each of these areas, however I decided to take a few more than this as I felt this would give me a selection of photographs to later choose from.

Here are the photographs I took when carrying out my primary research:

Once I had taken these photographs, I then decided on the best four photographs, the four photographs which I felt best showed off the four areas I was aiming to capture. Here is the contact print which contains the four photographs which I chose:

This contact print contains four photographs, one for each of the areas i was asked to photograph when carrying out my primary research about old meets new architecture. I feel that I have captured the essence of each of the areas I was asked to cover within these four photographs as the top left photograph, of St. George's Hall is a building which was built before 1913, the top right photograph is a photograph of Natalie stood outside of her favourite building, the bottom left photograph is a photograph of the new Westfield shopping centre which is currently being built meaning this is a building which is built after 2010 and finally the bottom right photograph is a photograph which was taken in a shop window and is a reflection of the entire group. 

This is a photograph of St. George's Hall in Bradford which is a concert hall built in 1853. As this building was built at this time it means that it fits nicely into the "buildings built before 1913" portion of this research. I chose to take this photograph to fit in with this section of the research as it was built within the correct time and also because I find this building appealing to look at. I chose to photograph this building at a slightly different angle to what might usually be photographed as I chose not to stand directly in front of the building and instead to stand slightly off to one side and as I was stood close to this building and looking up at it when taking this photograph, it means that the photograph was taken from a low angle. I think that the angle at which I chose to take this photograph works well as because this photograph has been taken from a low angle it makes the building look as though it is towering above you and the low angle which the photograph was taken from makes the building look as though it has more importance. In addition to this, by not taking this photograph head on, I feel that this adds a bit more interest to the photograph as not all of the building can be seen within the photograph as some parts are hidden by others and this leaves a little up to the imagination to fill in the gaps on what the hidden part of the building look like. I think that this photograph works well as although there is not much colour within the photograph as the building is predominantly a sandy beige colour, the parallel lines where the brickwork on the bottom half of the building adds a lot of interest to the building and this is one of the most noticeable features within this photograph. That said, the brickwork which has been used within this building is quite blocky and does not include a lot of texture, this means that there is a contrast with the intricately detailed stonework which is features within this building which can be seen towards the top left hand corner of this photograph. The lighting within this photograph is solely reliant on natural lighting as I as photographing in an outdoor location during daylight hours with no additional lighting support. The day on which I took this photograph was overcast and cloudy and for this photograph, I feel that this worked well as enough light was present but it was not too bright as to cause harsh unwanted shadows within the photograph. In addition to this, the colours which are present within the building itself are quite muted and as the sky at the time was also a muted colour and not bright like it had the potential to be on some days it fits nicely with the colour scheme of the building and the colours within the photograph compliment each other well. In addition to this, I used a landscape format in order to capture this photograph as I felt this was the best format in order to include each part of the building which I wished to photograph. If I had been to take this photograph using a portrait format i think some of the features captured within this photograph would have been lost such as the row of the pillars fading into the distance slightly seen towards the top of the photograph.

This is a photograph of Natalie stood outside of the book shop Waterstones. This is the photograph which I took for the section of the research in which I photographed a member of my group stood outside their favourite building. Natalie told us that her favourite building in Bradford was Waterstones as it is related to her love of books and the building itself is appealing to look at. The building used for this Waterstones is the building which was once used as the wool exchange in Bradford and was built in 1864 and the intricate stonework which was popular within the construction of buildings at this time is present here making this building particularly attractive and I can understand why Natalie chose this building as her favourite in the area. If I could, I would change the angle at which I took this photograph at as looking back at it, it is clear that the photograph is slightly uneven and unsymmetrical. Had I have stood slightly more to the left so I was viewing the building and Natalie more head on, I feel that this photograph would look slightly nicer as the framing would be better and this would make the photograph look more symmetrical. In addition to this, the format in which I chose to take this photograph was landscape however I feel that this format is slightly limiting and a portrait format may fit this photograph better as it would allow me to get the entirety of the archway into the photograph and this would give a better sense of perspective to this photograph which would also help to frame this photograph more.

This is the photograph I took of the new Westfield shopping centre being build in Bradford town centre. I chose to take this photograph in order to show of the section of this research in which i photographed a new building which was built from 2010 onwards. I chose to take a photograph of this building as it is currently still under construction therefore I know for a fact that it was built after 2010 and fits into the section of the research which called for a photograph of this nature. This photograph clearly shows that this building is currently under construction, I chose to photograph the building purposely to show this as this means that even if someone looking at this photograph not knowing the age of the building, they can see from looking at this photograph that as it is still under construction that it is obviously newer than 2010 so it is obvious which section of the research this photograph fits into.  This said, I do feel that this photograph could be improved had had the weather been better and the sky had been blue rather than a cloudy sheet of white in the sky. The blanket of white cloud above the building makes this photograph look quite dull and I feel that had the sky been blue, this would have added more interest to this photograph and the blue of the sky would have complimented the shaded of blue and purple currently seen within this photograph. In addition to this, I feel that the lamp post seen towards the left of this photograph is slightly distracting and i feel that this photograph would benefit greatly had this lamp post not been in the way.

This is a photograph of myself, Natalie, Rebecca and Nicole taken from the reflection found within a window of a building. I took this photograph in order to complete the section of this research whcih called for a photograph of my group taken in the reflection of a building. This photograph was taken in a window of a building opposite Santander bank near Kirkgate and i felt that this window would be great for taking the reflection of the group in as behind the window were black blinds. The black blinds behind the glass of the window caused a dark background of the window and this then acted as a mirror making it easy to get a good reflection to take a photograph of. When attempting to take this photograph I found that windows which had lighter backdrops did not work as well as reflective surfaces as those with darker backdrops like this one did. I feel that this photograph would work a lot better had the window been cleaner at the time of taking this photograph as the dirty streaks on the window are very obvious within this photograph. I found that this was a common problem when trying to take this photograph as each of the windows which I saw as reflective enough to take this picture were all quite dirty and had a lot of marks on them and at the time of taking these photographs it was not possible for me to get the window clean in order for me to be able to take a better photograph for this section of the research which I carried out