Sunday, June 6, 2010

Overlaps - my big adventure

Green bicycles. Photograph by Tim IrvingI had this idea a few weeks ago when I was looking at a viewmaster reel. I thought it would be interesting to create 2 images, similar to stereo (here's the clever part), but not stereo. I worked on this for a while, making sketches until I came up with a sequence similar to a strip cartoon, one image containing several frames of information.

I've been busy, experimenting with overlapping frames to produce a sequence of images and I'm excited about the results. I haven't got everything right yet, but it's progressing nicely.

I'm using an old camera with a red window in the back to count the exposures. Knowing how much to roll on is tricky but I'm getting a feel for it. The difficult part is estimating the spaces between the frames.

The big problem for me is that I use a company to process and scan the negatives. With each film I send, I enclose a note asking them to scan the overlapping frames as one image. It's a lot to ask a busy lab (I wouldn't do it!), and I appreciate that they try and follow my instructions, but so far they've missed a few images from each roll and the ones they miss always seem to be the most promising.

I'll work on my frame spacing and stick with the lab doing the scanning for the time being, maybe write more detailed notes to them, but I can see I might end up forking out for a big scanner to do the job myself.

The images here are my first attempts. I'll keep you informed on my progress.

Green bicycles. Photograph by Tim IrvingOverlapped Cambridge

Green bicycles. Photograph by Tim IrvingOverlapped Bicycles

3 comments:

  1. It's funny that you should post this now. My husband enjoys taking 3D photographs, but it's become nearly impossible to have the film developed. The lab we once used (developing one photo at a time) has closed its doors, and no one else offers that fantastic service. The labs remaining simply put the film in a machine and turn the knob.

    You get what you get.

    Some labs won't even do the developing if they know it's a split image, even if it's developed no differently than a standard sized photo (he's had more than a couple of rolls returned ruined - negatives and all).

    He has used two different types of 3D film cameras, but now owns a 3D lens that attaches to a digital SLR. A bit harder to use than a regular 3D camera, but none-the-less proving fun to play with.

    Have fun playing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tim just as a thought, what about using a half frame camera.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, that's right, it's called a Viewmaster!

    Anyway, love what you're doing. But it sounds like the artistic photographers of the world must soon build their own darkrooms in order to produce exactly what they want.

    ReplyDelete

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