six hour exposure self portrait

Erik Petersson · Dec 10, 2014

Dear friends, I am taking a photo class and our assignment is now to do a project. There is no fixed theme.

I thought I might take a photo of myself sleeping with six hours exposure. And then one of me eating breakfast, 15 minutes, watching tv, one hour. Etc. One frame for each activity. I might call it a day in my life or similar. Or Ill write something about the constant surveillance in our society (public places, Facebook etc). Ill be very blurry.

Is this practical? What film would you recommend? The sleeping picture will be the hardest, so Ill choose film with that in mind.

I havent actually yet decided if this should be on b&w or colour negative. Street lights outside the window are very orange, but that might be an interesting effect, or is correctable with a blue filter. Or tungsten film.

I have toyed with long exposures before, reciprocity failure and all. But never six hours.

Grateful for any comments, especially about if this is fun idea, and what film to use. Thanks!

/Erik

Dr Croubie · Dec 10, 2014

Nice idea. Reciprocity will either be your friend or foe. A 20 minute exposure might turn into a 6-hour exposure with a lot of reciprocity failure, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The hard part will be with films that don't have published data for failures above 1 minute (and not many would have anything over an hour). Experimentation will definitely be your friend though, good thing that you can just set up to take a shot each night. Either use sheet film because it's easier to process one and see the effects, or 35mm film and cut off a frame or two at a time in a dark bag.

DWThomas · Dec 10, 2014

My one thought on the matter is that a six hour sleep shot might wind up looking like three or four ghosts tangled up in a bed depending on how soundly (and still) you sleep. But it won't cost much to find out!

gone · Dec 10, 2014

Nice idea, but a little late. I think Warhol did this maybe 50 years ago or more. Here's his short called "Eat". It's only 40 minutes or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoQcGAczNTE

Erik Petersson · Dec 10, 2014

Doh! But my last "original idea" was first executed in the 1940-ies so I am improving.

Erik Petersson · Dec 10, 2014

DWThomas said:
My one thought on the matter is that a six hour sleep shot might wind up looking like three or four ghosts tangled up in a bed depending on how soundly (and still) you sleep. But it won't cost much to find out!

Yeah, exactly, that might be fun!

Erik Petersson · Dec 10, 2014

Dr Croubie said:
Nice idea. Reciprocity will either be your friend or foe. A 20 minute exposure might turn into a 6-hour exposure with a lot of reciprocity failure, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The hard part will be with films that don't have published data for failures above 1 minute (and not many would have anything over an hour). Experimentation will definitely be your friend though, good thing that you can just set up to take a shot each night. Either use sheet film because it's easier to process one and see the effects, or 35mm film and cut off a frame or two at a time in a dark bag.

It will be 35 mm, I brought a Nikon F3. Cutting off and developing might actually be a good idea, and I know a photolab that could be helpful. If I go with b&w, that is.

Erik Petersson · Dec 10, 2014

Any thoughts on what film? T-max 100? Portra 160?

MrBrowning · Dec 10, 2014

This may be of help of help to you. You can do a 6 hour exposure while you sleep but if you don't take into reciprocity you may have issues.

If you have an iPhone there is an app called Reciprocity Timer that may be of help to you. I have had good luck with it in the past. I took a quick look

Metered Adjusted
FP4+ 12minutes 5hrs 38min 12sec
HP5+ 15min 6hrs 13min 39sec
Delta100/400 12min 6hrs 13min 39sec
Tri-X 30min 6hrs 30min (Offical)
Shanghai GP3 30min 5hrs 28min 18sec

Now I've gone out and done star trails for 4 or 5 hours without worry, just thinking here, if you has some kind of dim light say a nite light, a window that would provide a constant light (assuming it's bright enough) or a very dim bulb in a lamp on a night stand you may be able to just set the camera and go. If you want me to look up some more films on that app send me a pm.

Sirius Glass · Dec 10, 2014

People move around while they are sleeping.

MrBrowning · Dec 10, 2014

Sirius Glass said:
People move around while they are sleeping.

I think that's what would make the photo interesting.

Poisson Du Jour · Dec 10, 2014

Quirky, but worth the experiment. My (new moon) star trails shots are 6 hours, but I don't give a stuff about reciprocity — it's just a fun thing for the camera to do while at camp. And on Fuji Provia 100 the whacky magenta cast can be either startling or horrifying, but no big deal to remove in post.

Of you idea... I really don't think much will register in the sleeping scene, of a person turning every now and then during the night — no human ever sleeps in the one position constantly; it is the nature of things that we might turn more than a hundred times in a night, depending on how restless we are. I think a blurry, ghostly outline of several indistinct overlays caused by movement would be the likely outcome. Repeating the experiment might provide insight into how to improve the outcome, as with everything (even multiexposures). Maybe even try it with a pinhole camera. Colour negative would cast over the length of the exposure and be more profoundly effected by reciprocity than B&W. Portra 160 at EI400 might be worth a poke.

benjiboy · Dec 10, 2014

I hope he hasn't got a weak bladder

NedL · Dec 10, 2014

when I saw the title, I thought you were going to try to sit still in a chair for 6 hours for an indoor pinhole self-portrait. That would take some concentrated self-control! Neat idea. A similar idea would be to set up an intervalometer and take a flash multiple-exposure every 30 minutes or hour. You'd get your sleep positions superimposed, but still relatively sharp...

winger · Dec 10, 2014

By this point in time, I think nearly all ideas have been tried. Here's a sleep one - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...otographs-capture-couples-families-sleep.html

I still think you should do it, though, because yours might be completely different.

mdarnton · Dec 10, 2014

I like the idea. Here's more inspiration:
http://www.wanda.net/fr/news/440

Hey, if you reject something just because one other person, somewhere, has done a long time exposure, how do you feel about your regular photography, with all the previous people who've made exposures at 1/250? If you ask me, that one, 1/250, is WAAAY over done! That shutter speed should be retired from cameras!

Sirius Glass · Dec 10, 2014

NedL said:
when I saw the title, I thought you were going to try to sit still in a chair for 6 hours for an indoor pinhole self-portrait. That would take some concentrated self-control! Neat idea. A similar idea would be to set up an intervalometer and take a flash multiple-exposure every 30 minutes or hour. You'd get your sleep positions superimposed, but still relatively sharp...

That is what I thought too. I figured that he was going to use a head support.

summicron1 · Dec 10, 2014

Erik Petersson said:
Any thoughts on what film? T-max 100? Portra 160?

I would use Fuji Acros because it pretty much doesn't have reciprocity effect, at least as far as I can tell from my pinhole work.

analoguey · Dec 11, 2014

At six hours, even with smallest aperture in 35mm, wouldn't that shot look quite bright? Indoors, w at least one lamp shining in?

analoguey · Dec 11, 2014

NedL said:
when I saw the title, I thought you were going to try to sit still in a chair for 6 hours for an indoor pinhole self-portrait. That would take some concentrated self-control! Neat idea.

Me too! I thought it would be superhuman to do so!

NedL said:
A similar idea would be to set up an intervalometer and take a flash multiple-exposure every 30 minutes or hour. You'd get your sleep positions superimposed, but still relatively sharp...

Some cameras have that intervalometer built-in, don't they? How do you use them?

mauro35 · Dec 11, 2014

Fomapan 100 seems to have particularly strong reciprocity failure. That might help if the light in the room is too strong for a 6 hour exposure.

Truzi · Dec 11, 2014

You could sleep in complete darkness, lock the shutter open, and have some sort of timer fire a flash (or turn on and off a table-lamp) at intervals.

Old-N-Feeble · Dec 11, 2014

Careful what dreams you have... might want to take a little potassium nitrate before bedtime.

flavio81 · Dec 11, 2014

On the other end of the spectrum, i think Neopan Acros 100 has the least reprocity failure of all common films.

Erik Petersson · Dec 11, 2014

MrBrowning said:
I think that's what would make the photo interesting.

Yes, that's the idea. I expect to be very blurry.

six hour exposure self portrait

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