LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

EVALUATION

After researching landscape photographers and their work to gain inspiration I have created 5 final prints using a 5x4 medium format camera to shoot the photographs and then using the darkroom in order to create my prints.
  After researching the work of the likes of John Blakemore, I felt inspired to create rich and contrasty prints by ensuring my exposures were correct and that I concentrated on the developing process. When beginning this project, I had little knowledge on medium format, yet I feel I have developed by exploring the camera and independent time in the darkroom. I still feel there is room for improvements with my prints and imperfections with my prints but they have progressed massively from the start of the project.
  When starting the project I felt quite confident as my first negatives came back with good exposures yet after this a lot of my film came out blank and therefore I needed to learn more about the camera but after taking the camera out alone and taking my photographs in slow steps using the light meter my negatives became to come back with better exposures making it a lot easier to make prints.
  Although I feel confident with taking the photographs, I have occurred a lot of problems with processing which means that my negatives can sometimes become scratched from being handled too much due to my hesitation and this is something I believe I have developed in but I believe I need to develop further.
  Despite the problems that have arose for my during processing my film, I feel I have developed the most in the darkroom after spending time in the darkroom alone and taking my time whilst deciding on exposure times and doing extra test strips in order to gain accuracy I think that my prints are a lot better exposed after this project which I hoped for after looking at the quality of colour in other photographers works and how it affects the over all feel of the print. I tried to time my prints perfectly in the developer, stop and fix for this project whereas in the past I have not concentrated on this greatly.
If I were to improve my prints and project on a whole, I would definitely do a lot more shooting in order to gain more and more confidence with the camera and become really familiar with medium format so that it would be a easier process in terms of setting the camera up and setting it to the right exposure and shutter speed. I would also shoot more in order to gain more experience with my processing as I think that this is the thing I need to improve most as it has a huge effect on my over all prints if my negatives are damaged in anyway and most damage caused is during processing.
I feel I have improved over all on printing, which is something I am not new to but I have widened my knowledge by learning how to print with medium format, I have also gained skills on a whole by being introduced to a medium format camera but I would like to become more familiar to the processing process in order to become a more skilled photographer