Panorama
This picture (see below the article) combines old and new techniques. It started as a multiple exposure experiment. The original shot was taken in the studio on film. The camera used allowed me to make a number of exposures without winding the film on. Each image is superimposed on to the previous one. The black paper background was sprayed with gold paint to give visual interest. The model was asked to bend forward slowly, as if she was trying to touch the floor. The camera shutter was fired at several points in the action cycle. The plan was to take five exposures. To prevent the finished result from being washed out (overexposed) the basic exposure was calculated as if it was a normal picture. Each shot had a fifth of that so the overall effect was correct. The camera, loaded with transparency film, meant the end result was hard to predict until the film had been processed.
The picture lay around for some years. When I saw it again, it was dusty, marked and scratched. With digital techniques and computer technology now available I thought it might be possible to revive it. First the blemishes were carefully removed via an image management programme. Then the girl’s hairstyle was updated. The next step was to posterize it, which is a simple process using the computer. Then the colours were changed to further enhance it. Finally, the image was put in a layer on a larger plain white background. It occupied half the area available so a copy of it was flipped over to fill the other half. Blended together with the original it makes an unusual panorama. It has been captioned as “witches dancing in the mist.“
Examples
This image was the starting point and was made in the way described in the text. It does not show quite all the available picture area. The camera used was a basic 6x6cm twin lens reflex with no exposure interlock which made it easy to take multiple exposures. The model was lit by electronic flash but any lighting source would have worked just as well.
The original image has now been posterized (reduced to three separate tones). In this case they were dark red lighter red and yellow. I did this before the digital age so had to do it the hard way in the darkroom. Fortunately it is now a simple and quick process to do in a computer and you don’t even need to get your hands wet.
The final result; a flipped copy of picture B blended with it to make a much larger panoramic image.
