My Research in 5: Jacob Handley
Insight into Photo Science 📷 🎞 🧪
Hello! My name is Jacob Handley. I am a student at NAU currently pursuing a Bachelor of Photo Science. I currently have two research projects centered on different aspects of photographic chemistry.
Research Projects
I currently have two research projects centered on different aspects of photographic chemistry. The first project deals with developing and printing color images using traditional darkroom processes.
This picture shows me measuring Triethanolamine — a component of color paper developer.
The second project is focused on building an 11x14 camera to shoot large format “Polaroids.”
Photo Work
NAU used to offer courses in both black & white and color film photography, but since the introduction of digital photography the color film course was discontinued.
My research didn’t begin in the photo lab at NAU, but rather on my shower floor in my house. At this point my project was self funded, but I still managed to produce decent results like this picture of a sculpture outside the Communication building.
I received funding for my project a few weeks before last semester ended and began working on the much more complex part of my project which is printing from the color film I’ve developed.
When most film is developed you don’t see the final picture immediately, instead you see a negative image. In order to see the positive — you have to shine light through the negative and onto photosensitive paper.
This can be a very tedious process as you have to make slight adjustments in order to achieve the correct color in the final print, all while trying to move around in complete darkness as any light would ruin the special emulsion on the photo paper.
My other photo project explores instant photography on a very large scale. An Instax mini picture, one of the most common instant photo formats available, is about 2.5" x 2". My homemade camera will shoot photos that are 11x14, meaning you could fit almost 36 Instax mini photos inside one large format photo.
There are a number of different methods to produce an instant photograph.
This video showcases the RA-4 reversal process, which begins with a paper negative developed in darkness.
The negative is then introduced to light which primes the areas that weren’t developed in the dark, this is the “reversal” step as it allows us to turn the negative image into a positive one. When the negative is redeveloped in the light the positive image appears on top of the negative image , which is later removed with a bleaching agent.
You can find more of my work here — I work in a variety of styles including photojournalism, lifestyle photography, conceptual, and portraiture.
