Analogue Camera Experimentation

To gain an understanding of how to make photography successful, I experimented with using a Canon A1 35mm camera, with a variety of film.

Kodak Colour Film ISO 400

This was my first ever experimentation with using an analogue camera. After receiving my developed film and prints, I decided to experiment with distressing the negatives in order to produce more interesting final pieces.

Burning

For this example I burned the film. some of the distortion is due to the film warping, and the discoloration is due to areas being burned and losing their colour. I really like this effect and would consider using it in a final piece.

Scratching

I scratched into the film below using a sharp pencil. I don't really feel as this was very successful, as the scratches are too random and grainy. I attempted to scratch words into the second frame, but it just caused some areas to go yellow, because I did not push hard enough. If I were to write text on film again, I would do it much smaller, as the final image is much larger than the original frame.

Turpentine 

I rubbed turpentine into this strip of film. This caused the colours to fade a bit, and also resulted in scratches across the surface, giving the images a weathered look. I really like this effect, as it gently ages the images.

 


Creasing

I crumpled up this piece of film before scanning it. The creases and wrinkiles are effective in making the image more interesting. I would like to try more of this effect, but with more creasing and scratching.

     
Scratching

I scratched out portions of the film, trying to make the image 'horror film-esque', but it was not entirely successful. I could have done with scratching a bit more.