Phillip Toledano Artist Study

When I first looked at Toledano's photographs in 'Days with my Father' I was reminded of an article I saw a while ago about a technique called free-lensing. This technique creates selective blur and focus by detaching the lens and holding it in front of the light sensor when shooting. I don't have concrete evidence that this is the technique Toledano used in his images, but I think it's the best way I can recreate his style.

Before shooting, I printed a couple of photos from 'Days with my Father' and annotated the parts that were in focus, as well as lighting.

At first, I thought Toledano might have just been using a small aperture to achieve his look, so I tried to do this too. I used a 18-105 Nikon VR lens and an aperture of around f/14, with natural light coming in from a window. Using such a small aperture meant that I had to use a slower shutter speed (around 1/20s) to compensate for the lack of light, but this caused motion blur. I quickly realised that this couldn't be what Toledano did, so I moved onto free-lensing.

I went in with my very limited knowledge, and tried to just do what felt logical. I switched through all my lenses, and decided I wanted to use something with manual aperture so I could control it. I ended up using the lens from my 35mm camera, an SMC Pentax-A 50mm lens, and this worked a lot better. It was a lot more comfortable to hold this lens in front of the camera body because of how small it is, and it was easier to get a good photo, although there were still mixed results.

I took portraits as well as photos of personal items, as Toledano did. I annotated my favourites to find out what I liked and what I wanted to improve on. I got a couple of nice experimental/ abstract photos, which I actually quite like. I think they were caused by a combination of light leaks and me not knowing what I'm doing.

It was pretty fun to play around with my camera and lens, but ultimately, I needed more knowledge, so I did a bit of research on freelensing.

Sam Hurd (samhurdphotography.com) described it as a "poor man's tilt shift" so I learned what a tilt shift is from a YouTube video by CreateLive. It's a type of lens that can be moved with dials while still being attached to the camera body. It allows you to change the plane of focus, minimise/maximise depth of field, and alter perspective, which makes it helpful for taking photos of large things like buildings and trees.

I watched a couple more videos, and learned that I should tilt the lens to get the focus in different places, that I shouldn't be afraid of light leaks because they can create some interesting effects, and to bring the lens closer to the body the further away the subject is, and vice versa. One video recommended using live-view when shooting free-lens, but I found it too difficult and unfamiliar.

I decided to shoot again, but I went outside to get better light. This worked a lot better, and I felt a lot more confident about shooting with the lens unattached. I also knew that I had to be a lot closer to the subject than I first assumed, which is annoying because I wanted a wider frame, but it is what it is.

I don't think my images achieved quite the same effect as Toledano's photographs, but I'm still glad I did this experimentation, as it has prompted me to think about other unconventional ways to use a camera. This is particularly interesting to me since I can only use a digital camera right now, and I had missed the physicality and trial-and-error approach of film cameras. My favourite of these photos is the hand reaching up to the light, both because I got the focus effect the way I like it, and I love the contrast of the hand against the white plastic. I think the linear shadows add an interesting element too.