Photo Tutorials

This is a short photography tutorial on creating impressionistic pictures using film. I have created impressions on film, mainly slides and chromes and a few on print film. This photo guide is mainly for creating impressions on slide films.

Digital imaging softwares like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw and others have various built in features and functions that could help you create impressionistic pictures in your digital lab without even having the need to go outdoors. They use layers and various brush styles and blurring techniques.

Creating impressions

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This short guide is a quick tutorial on how to create impressions and impressionistic pictures with the film cameras. These techniques of creating impressions on film are proven methods. All you need are a camera where you can control the shutter speed and you can control exposure with the ability of multiple exposure. Even an inexpensive SLR camera would be good for making these pictures. Along with that you need a flash that you can run on rear sync mode.

As a side note, all the nature impressionistic pictures on this site are made on chrome (or slide film, also known as E6). There are several ways in which you can also do painting like pictures digitally using digital imaging softwares like Adobe Photoshop or Corel or any other softwares.

Quick Links: Multiple Exposures | Long Exposures | Composite Exposures | Flash Exposures

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The term Impression was coined by a French artist and art critic of the 19th century, Louis Leroy, who used the term impression in a satirical way in a review in Le Charivari. The painting by Claude Monet that used this term, is Impression, Sunrise. It later turned out to be an art movement in Europe with pictures demonstrating vivid usage of changing light and composition with characteristic angle and openness.

The one thing that the Impressionist Movement of the 19th century did was provoked artists to break the academic patterns of art. It took the art form from an aristocratic, set-up, studio based approach to a more daily life imagery.

Photographers have also attempted to mimic hand painted impressions with their camera and film. Although the digital age has probably made some of these techniques very quick, simple and mechanical with the few clicks of a button. I have still remained a film based photographer and my techniques are all film based. While most of the work in case of film, is done during the short time span of the shutter speed, a lot of it is achieved by planning and properly designing the image.

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The steps for a successful impression is much like a painter creating a painting on a paper. The steps and the approach are very similar and I shall try to keep the analogy close.

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Like any painter, its very important to visualize the scene you are trying to create with your camera.
Once you have the final image in your mind, disintegrate the image into composites that will all merge into this picture.
Shoot these composites carefully. You may decide to shoot them separately, one over another or in one shot. Each of these techniques could create an amazing picture. There are a few technicalities that you need to remember for each of these methods.

Multiple exposures

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Since slides have a very narrow margin of exposure tolerance, multiple exposures have to be carefully timed to prevent poor saturation or allow enough brush stroke effect on the final gate. The two commonly used methods to keep the final slide within acceptable limits of exposure are:

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Ramp up the film ASA manually so that you do not have to adjust exposure on each exposure. This technique is very useful when you are exposing over 15 times. However, you might need to compensate for such many exposures to achieve a saturated final image.
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Manipulate each individual exposure so that the combined exposure remains within acceptable limit at the nominal ASA. This method is easy to follow if you are exposing about 5 - 7 times. Usually such number of exposures do not need any additional compensation of the nominal ASA.

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Long exposures

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This is a very effective technique when you are trying to create a sense of motion. In order to extend the exposure, you could use a polarizer while stopping down the lens to 22. Should you need to have a shallow depth of field, you could either use a polarizer alone or in combination with neutral density filters. The typical spiral or vortex effect in water is created with a combination of high DOF, a polarizer and often an additional ND filter. Exposures longer than 5 seconds need to be compensated according to standard manufacturer recommendations.

Camera movement during the long exposures also yield stunning images. You could use the focus tracking system of your SLR to move the camera in the direction of the subjects movement, creating a panned image. Coupled with a sharp snapshot over exposed by 2+ stops and montaging the slides. The other creative way is to keep the camera in motion while the shutter is on. Zooming in & out during the shutter run creates a blurriness with a sense of motion, giving creating images especially of flowers. Similarly, the camera movement can be aligned to patterns that you are trying to photograph.

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The flash remains a vital component in any of these experiments. You would find the rear sync flash, underexposed by 0.3 or 0.6, to be an excellent option for creative impressions. I am used to TTL flashes, however, manual flashes can also be used with some amount of calculations.

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Composite exposures

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When shooting multiple frames, one needs to be very sharp and over exposed by 2+ stops while the other needs to be slightly out of focus and over exposed by 1+ stops. Combining these two frames will render a brush stroke effect with the correct exposure on the combined slide. You could try variations in either shooting the two images from a slightly different positions or keeping one out-of-focus while shooting from the same point..

Because you would not be able to find how the ambient light and shade plays out on the final image, this is a trial and error method. However, since you are re-enforcing the colors by combining the slides, the saturation could be kept high. Sometimes you could achieve dramatic results by combining two completely different slides or different images. The colors of each of the individual slides need to be complimentary and not compete for attention.

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Flash exposures

While this is not a suggested method of creating impressions, flash does help in creating strong brush strokes. The method involves in setting the flash on a rear-sync mode and firing the flash at normal shutter speeds or low shutter speeds. At speeds lower than 1/15 of a second, the rear-sync flash will create strong “follow-in” lines that appear as brush strokes. This is quite different from either panning or camera shake. You either hold the camera steady while the subject slowly moves or you move the camera slowly in the direction of the subject’s movement but lagging in speed, all the while the shutter is open.

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This image is done by using the TTL flash set on rear curtain sync and used on very slow speed. The poppy in the front, as well as the shrubs, were gently swaying in the breeze. In order to get shutter speed close to 1/15 of a second, I increased the aperture to f/16. The camera was hand held steadily and the shot fired.

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