Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Last night I started a course at the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh. The gallery puts on exhibitions of contemporary photographs in various media. I'm amazed the place exists [four floors!] right in the centre of Edinburgh, two minutes walk (I can do it in less) from Waverley Station and Princess Street.
They also have classes, and even Darkrooms and Media Suites for hire at £12 per day, with a lot of great gear.
Check out their website.
Here is the description of our first of four classes, each three-hours long:
"Week 1 Capture, technical notes, discussions, art context.
Understand the fundamentals of light and time in balancing an accurate exposure; No longer be a slave to the Auto setting! Know how to utilise the Manual functions of their 35mm SLR camera;Understand film types, film speed, depth of field, different lenses and how to use them creatively; Appreciate photography within an art context - Begin to look at the work of other photographers.
Assignment: You will be given a project and one roll of B&W film to be done for the second week "
Although I did an Open University course, an Intro To Digital Photography, there is much about analogue photography I need to revise or have explained. The teacher was a very confident, knowledgeable and entertaining young woman called Morwena Kearsley [Good website: Morwenna Grace Kearsley]. She pitched it just right for all the students. There were five of us, so it wasn't too embarrassing to ask basic questions, and everyone seemed relaxed and quite vocal.
This first week was just a run through the basics of analogue technique, though much of it is of course transferable to digital photography. There were a number of cameras for students to borrow, should they need to, including a Pentax K1000. I brought along my own K1000 plus my big Mamiya. I turned out to be not the only one with a medium format camera - one guy had a beautiful Pentax (or was it a Nikon?!) something or other - sorry for not catching the details! For me, the best part was getting a good grasp of Exposure - I feel much more confident about it now. Reading about it is one thing, but discussing it and practising it is another.
We were given a film of Ilford HP5 400, and instructed to photograph whatever we wanted over the coming week, as next Tuesday evening we will be processing our film.
The evening ended with a discussion of various classic B&W photos and photographers - what made their work so distinctive, what techniques were used and how to spot them. All very interesting.
I spent some free time this morning wandering around Edinburgh, thinking and seeing in black and white, something I found easier to do knowing there was a B&W film in the camera, rather than a digital process waiting for me in my computer at home.
So, a gentle start, with some messy chemical fun promised for next week.
They also have classes, and even Darkrooms and Media Suites for hire at £12 per day, with a lot of great gear.
Check out their website.
Here is the description of our first of four classes, each three-hours long:
"Week 1 Capture, technical notes, discussions, art context.
Understand the fundamentals of light and time in balancing an accurate exposure; No longer be a slave to the Auto setting! Know how to utilise the Manual functions of their 35mm SLR camera;Understand film types, film speed, depth of field, different lenses and how to use them creatively; Appreciate photography within an art context - Begin to look at the work of other photographers.
Assignment: You will be given a project and one roll of B&W film to be done for the second week "
Although I did an Open University course, an Intro To Digital Photography, there is much about analogue photography I need to revise or have explained. The teacher was a very confident, knowledgeable and entertaining young woman called Morwena Kearsley [Good website: Morwenna Grace Kearsley]. She pitched it just right for all the students. There were five of us, so it wasn't too embarrassing to ask basic questions, and everyone seemed relaxed and quite vocal.
This first week was just a run through the basics of analogue technique, though much of it is of course transferable to digital photography. There were a number of cameras for students to borrow, should they need to, including a Pentax K1000. I brought along my own K1000 plus my big Mamiya. I turned out to be not the only one with a medium format camera - one guy had a beautiful Pentax (or was it a Nikon?!) something or other - sorry for not catching the details! For me, the best part was getting a good grasp of Exposure - I feel much more confident about it now. Reading about it is one thing, but discussing it and practising it is another.
We were given a film of Ilford HP5 400, and instructed to photograph whatever we wanted over the coming week, as next Tuesday evening we will be processing our film.
The evening ended with a discussion of various classic B&W photos and photographers - what made their work so distinctive, what techniques were used and how to spot them. All very interesting.
I spent some free time this morning wandering around Edinburgh, thinking and seeing in black and white, something I found easier to do knowing there was a B&W film in the camera, rather than a digital process waiting for me in my computer at home.
So, a gentle start, with some messy chemical fun promised for next week.
