Printing of Best Pics from Margate

 - The Abandoned Beach: Margate was once great and packed with people who were on their holidays, or just on a day out/stroll. Now the beach is abandoned and lifeless.

Final Print

I'm really pleased with this image. I love the colours. - They're really bright and fresh, which makes this beach look as if it has potential.

'Dreamland': Apart from its packed, fun-filled beach, Margate was well known for having a 'Dreamland' arcade and play center for kids of various ages. I wanted to document the drastic change of the well-known Margate town, and what a shame and a waste it is, that it is now abandoned and run down.

F.22. 5 sec step. 70M / 80Y.

5 sec. 70M / 80Y. - Too Cyan.

5 sec. 50M / 60Y. - Far too dark.

Due to the image being too dark, I changed the aperture to F.32. 

F.32. 10 and 5 sec step on 50M / 60Y.

Final Print - F.32, 5 sec.

Closed Shops: The main strip of the high street along the beach front used to have loads of shops. These shops used to be busy and full of people. Due to the dramatic and disastrous change to this town, this is the result.

 F.22. 5, 10, 15 step. 70M / 80Y. - Too Cyan.

5 sec. 50M / 60Y. - Too dark & slightly too cyan. 

5 sec. 45M / 50Y. - Too dark & slightly Magenta.

By being too dark I changed the aperture to F.32 again. This is a 5, 6, 7, 8 step.

Final Print - F.32, 6 sec.

Graffiti: I wanted to capture this main graffiti marked area, which is also along the sea front, to show the gradual deterioration of this town. 

 F.32. 60M / 70Y. 5, 10, 15 step. - Slightly too Cyan.

10 secs. 55M / 75Y.

5 secs. 50M / 70Y. - Very slightly too yellow.

5 secs. 47M / 67Y.

Final Print

Overall, I'm pleased with these image and the colours, although if I had the time to re-print and play around with the colours with the above image in particular, I would see if i could get a slightly darker and detailed sky, so it doesn't look like a plain, near enough white square within the image.

Re-Shoot & Print of Cliffs

1) 5 sec step at 70M & 80Y (F.16)

2) 5 sec 30M & 40Y

 3) 5 sec 50M & 40Y   4) 5 sec 50M & 60Y

5) 5 sec 40M & 50Y

 6) 5 sec 50M & 50Y

7) 5 sec 50M & 55Y

 8) 3 sec 50M & 55Y

 Large Print

I really like the different colours within this image. The harsh lines and texture of the rocks compared to the soft, subtle sky and the smooth lines of the sea, give this image contrast, not just with the colours.

 Up an F.stop (22) for 6 secs

Best Pics from a Re-Shoot of Margate

I wasn't very happy with my final images of Margate, to show how run-down this once great town has become, so i went back for a quick shoot, to recapture what i originally intended, with a clearer idea of exactly what i wanted to take pictures of.

- Abandoned Beach

- Dreamland

- Closed Shops

- Graffiti

Set-Up

Printing; Image 3

5 second test strip on G3;

5 second strip;

10 second strip to compare;



I felt that 5 seconds was best as I could add grades to darken areas of the image to how I wanted a lot easier than trying to lighten areas.

I also wanted the image to have a sky to it, so I done a 5 second step wedge on G1 as I didn't want the sky too dark;

The 10 seconds looked best. Any longer would be too dark

I then tested the sky at G1 for 10 seconds with the rest of the image being exposed at G3 for 5 seconds, with the added 2 seconds of G5 and G0;

I was pleased with this, so made a full print;

Printing; Image 2

5 second test stripon G3, Aperture f16;

20 second strip;

This was too dark so I tried G2 and G1 each for 20 seconds to test the result;

After testing numerous amounts of grades with different burning in techniques that I threw away because they were no good at all, G1 for 20seconds overall was best. So I made a large print of this;

Printing; Image 1

I first done a test strip on Grade 3 for 5 seconds;

5 seconds was best;

I thought 5 seconds made the image too dark so I tried 3 seconds;

This made the image really dull and grey. I wanted some contrast in there so I tried adding G5 for 2 seconds;

This was a tad too dark so I tried G3 for 3 seconds and G5 for only 1 second;

This made the image too light. I liked the greyness of the sky and the subtle tones in the sand but the buildings looked flat and boring.

I now tried G3 for 3 seconds overall and added G5 for 2 seconds, but only on the buildings and central area;

I was happy with the middle but felt the sand was now too dark.
So I made a full print using G3 for 3seconds overall and G5 for 2 seconds on the buildings, whilst blocking the sky and sand with my hands;

Printing; Pastiche

After looking through my negatives, I decided on my favourite image and started to print.

First I done a 5 second test strip on Grade 5 as I wanted my image to have contrast.
The aperture was set to f8.

The middle image was a test of G5 for 25 seconds, which I thought was too dark, so for the second test i done G5 for only 20 seconds. 

- G5 for 18 secs; Which I printed in full to see the different areas of the image.

I then tested;

- G5 for 18 secs & G0 for 10 secs.

- G5 for 18 secs & G0 for 5 secs.

- G5 for 20 secs & G0 for 8 secs. > To get the contrast and all of the tones on the cliff i used G5 whilst blocking out the sky so it wasn't bleached. Then to get the sky, clouds and sea in the image, I used G0 whilst blocking out the cliffs. I kept my hands moving and as close to the lens as possible to avoid getting lines.

 

Full print;

I was really pleased with this effect. It showed the Contrast, midtones and sea/sky that I wanted. But I changed the size of my image to a square shape instead..

I felt this looked better and fitted the pastiche more.