Primary Reflections - Devon Photographic Clubs Battle
Here is a short account of how we dreamt up the original idea for the 2008 Panel, and how we finally managed to produce it, despite a few challenges along the way!
Following a workshop on lighting at one of our
evening meetings Peter
had brought along his studio lights and a large piece of black
perspex.
The reflection
of the brightly coloured objects were fantastic and Marion had an idea of
a theme "Primary Reflections" using glass and the colours Red Green
and Blue. We organised a
day in the village hall to set up and see if
this could work.
A second day was organised much later when the Panel became a
priority and once again we spent a whole day trying to get it right.
we felt that there was a possibility but more work was need so we
set up a permanent studio in
Discussions were held regarding layout and Mike
came up with the idea of mounting the pictures diagonally which
helped to reduce the "Domino effect" of five pictures on the board.
Over discussions about the colour plan, (only three primary colours,
five pictures) Peter had the idea of using complimentary colours
Yellow Cyan and Magenta, so now we had a definite plan.
Things did
not go well using the black Perspex. It was very hard to get the
reflections bright enough, so we had to think again and it was Peter
who suggested that we should try using a mirror instead and pull the
black background (a black sheet) over the top of the mirror so it
appeared black.
At last it worked! All we now had to achieve were the right amount of reflections in the glass by playing with the lighting and the use of black card as "barn doors". They went up, down, backwards, forwards but ended up towards the back with white sheets to diffuse the stark light. We used food colouring for the water as this was the only solution that did not go cloudy. Eliminating unwanted reflections in the glass objects was a continual problem. In the end we overcame this by screening the camera position with matte black card and using the cameras on “Timer” so the photographer (and reflection) could move out of the shot.
Now we were on a roll, the hunt for coloured glass resulted in to Peter's wife Jane missing half of her glass collection for 2 months so many thanks to her. Mike found a suitable goldfish who was prepared to do the catwalk; sorry fishwalk! Now we had to organise the individual pictures. This was done in pairs as the "barn doors" were hand held depending on what was needed. Most of the work was done “in camera” but some Photoshop work was involved. Layers were made out of the individual elements (vases, fish, etc.) so that small adjustments could be made to their final sizes and positions. The entire picture was then rotated through 450 so that it could be printed to fit the diamond-shaped mounts, but with the main composition still vertical.
Finally, a lot of care was taken to ensure the background (mirror surface) was a perfect black with no blemishes or dust showing. The printing size was very difficult fortunately Mike was able to dig out his geometry skills and a very detailed plan for mounting and printing sizes was designed. Norman volunteered to cut the mounts and Marion did the printing. The prints were made on A3 Ilford Galerie Classic Pearl paper, trimmed square. The mounted prints were attached with sticky “Velcro” to a backing of 3mm mdf board (which was pre-painted matte black). This enabled us to set up the final panel quickly and accurately at the competition site.
Judges Comments
“You can look at, for example, the purity of one concept - Crediton Camera Club's winning panel (Primary Reflections) which was impeccably produced.
An incredible idea, immaculately put together. It was easy to imagine just one person had produced their panel, when in fact it was a number of people showing careful thought and control, its success depending on its Mondrian-like control of colour. The framing and presentation showed this panel to their very best".