User:THY/ Focal camera

10.10.2019

Before coming to this class, I always shoot images with the available functions of the digital camera without fully understand how it works. With this workshop, I become conscious of every choice I made to build my own camera. I built a slit-scan camera without a shutter speed and I count the exposure time manually.

First tryout

Location: Rotterdam central station

Why: The Metro always go through a black tunnel to get to the next station and it gives me the feeling of time and space displacement. Therefore, I want to try achieving that visual effect through my slit-scan camera.

-Shutter speed time for each photo: 15s - 30s

-Distance between camera and subject: 2 meters minimum

What did I experience?

-Because I have to roll the film strip constantly, it got stuck halfway and I had to come to a dark place, open the back and fix it.

-My slit slide was wobbly made out of cardboard, which was thick and did not has a straight slit line

-Out of focus

-I didn't have a tripod, my camera was shaking when I rolled the film

What do I do next?

-Replace camera slit slide (thinner than the previous one)

-Find a box or something to keep the camera stable

-Reduce the shooting distance to 1 meter

First roll