Lighting Pt. 1: Diary Entry

All in all, this project was quite succesful. Surprisingly, I was able to get all 6 of my prints done (and done well, for that matter) in a rather short period of time. My experience in the black room was very positive- I managed to put my film onto the reel in record time. Developing my negatives went through without a hitch, and my nagatives all turned out wonderfully. I think this is because we put up the lights for the portraits and all of my other pictures were well lit, so I didn't have any problem with bad negatives as I used to. All of my developing of my prints worked very well since my negatives were all good. It was also very relaxing to be in such a small class, since not many people were fighting over the chemicals and the darkroom wasn't very crowded. The only frustrating part of this project was the first landscape picture I worked on. Since the negatives were very dark, I kept having to add more time, eventually ending up at 105 seconds. It took virtually the entire block to get one print done, and I was very ready to be finished with it when I finally got it. However, it was easier than it could have been because I was only adding more time instead of changing the aperture and adding a filter. It was also frustrating that I hadn't read the directions carefully, so accidentally did an extra portrait, wasting probably about a full block doing so. This gave me a chance to choose which print I wanted to use, though, which is good. All in all, I was very proud that I barely had to use a filter throughout this project since I was used to having a filter of 5 not being enough. This was very satisfying. Also, it was great showing all of my friends my prints and having them gawk at how nice they were. I even had one friend begging me for the extra print of my flower still life (which I gave her), which made me feel extremely proud of my prints. This project was a very positive experience for me, and I hope that other projects turn out as well as this one did.