In this evaluation I intend not only to evaluate my final photoshoot but the unit as a whole. I think its good to look back on the unit as a whole and identify my strong points, weak points and what I could do next to better myself and my writing.
Because i've broken this unit up into four different parts, I will go over each one and explain the above.
To start though, I feel as if my writing throughout the entire unit has lacked. Some things I think I explained really well, like tutorial work and my thought processes but suffered on writing about things I had created and giving a little summary on why I did what I did. Overall I am happy with the writing in my work but would use better vocabulary and ways to explain myself when talking about my own work and giving a written description of it.
Unit 57 Photography Part 1: Photoshop Tutorials
Part 1 featured all the photoshop tutorials we completed in class. These tutorials featured everything from editing people, applying overlays to working and creating brushes as well as stylised text.
I found the tutorials given easy, I feel as if working on the Macs and creating/editing things is my strong point in print-based media. My prior knowledge of the software and computers used definitely helped, as did past courses' as well as completing my GCSE's. Anything online I feel as if I can complete it easily and in not so much time but have trouble sometimes explaining why and what I like about what I just created. Nevertheless, I think I did well in explaining how I did certain operations as well as give a look into what it means and why. For example where I explained how hue and saturation works as well as going in depth enough to explain about cylindrical-coordinate representations.
Personally, from the tutorial I didn't learn anything new but was able to polish and improve upon the skills I already knew. It gave me something practical to do and broadened my understanding of some tools a lot more. What benefitted from this most is probably how layer masks are used and what can be done with them on a greater scale and involving text. I enjoyed learning more about this sort of stuff.
Unit 57 Photography Part 2: Developing an understanding of Photography Equipment and its uses
Part 2 was really an introduction to a lot of what i'd be using as well as their uses and practicality. Before, I had used DSLR camera's, as well a tripod and different lighting effects etc.
But what really stood out was the uses for different lenses and different filters that could be used in a studio. Another good example is the studio induction given to us, I had used a studio before but never knew of things like a 'Snoot' or what a honey comb grid did before this. I enjoyed learning about the equipment over again as it refreshed my mind of when I was last taught photography, 2-3 years ago. Because I had already of known about most of the subject already, I didn't find writing up each individual piece of equipment and its uses that hard, it was fairly simple but at the same time I did learn some new stuff like the filters, mentioned earlier.
In terms of aperture, shutter speed, composition, foreshortening and perspective etc. This was all already known by myself, I was confident in writing about it from previous experiences in learning photography and managed to explain and write about each topic with ease as well as provide examples.
I will say though, I did learn about 'Through the lens light metering' as before completing this unit, I had no idea about what this was or what it meant. Considering I didn't know about this at all, it didn't really stick the first time and I had to go over it a few times to fully grasp the idea of what was meant.
Unit 57 Photography Part 3: Exploring different photographic techniques
Part 3 I felt was similar to part 1, except in this part I think i struggled more on the partical side. Its easier to know all about what I did in part 2, but much harder to actually do and produce. For a long while I was unsure of if what I was doing and taking pictures of was even entirely correct or right. The best example of this would be Location Scouting. I was completely unsure of whether or not what I was shooting matched my intentions for a long while. It often lead me to just standing there trying to think about if I was on the right track or if something else would be better suited.
On the other hand though, contact sheets and creating two film posters were on the opposite side of that scale. I was in my comfort zone and feel as if I not only did a good job showing off the posters and a contact of a shoot I did, but also explained and went over my thoughts and why things like a contact sheet are used.
In this part I also touched a little on what my plans would be in the future for the unit. What I mean by this is, that I started looking more and more into light painting and even based my whole presentation on it. My clear plan and idea was to explore this even further in the fourth part of my unit but I was still slightly rocky on the genre as I also had interested in Macro photography.
Unit 57 Photography Part 4: Pin-pointing idea's and planning for a client
Part 4 is my final part and also the part where I drew and brought everything in together to finish the unit. This consisted of creating up a fake proposal handed to me by a client as if I was working in a company where people could hire photographers as well as story boards to plan out each shot I wanted to take and my initial idea's represented as mood boards.
This part kind of tied everything all together that I had done beforehand so my feelings going into and completing this were mixed at first. All in all though, I think I made it about me enough to feel comfortable doing it. This doesn't tell you much, so allow me to explain, when I say I made it about me, I mean everything from the moodboards to creating a fake proposal were about everything I enjoyed.
I enjoyed the idea of all three genres explored as well as planning a lesson to teach children, as a matter of fact, I enjoy education a lot but reckon i'd enjoy it a lot more when i'm the one teaching.
It wasn't all so smooth though, I hit a lot of road bumps on the way to making my final shoot. This is seen mostly throughout my practice and mock up shoot. Often I would get frustrated or unhappy about how my shots came out and how incapable and unable I felt because of this. At one point it made me completely abandon what I was doing and put myself asleep which I suppose is quite embarassing. If I was to change anything, it'd be this, maybe next time i'll make sure I can actually complete and do what I set out to do first before getting so into it.
My last and only think to speak about is the actual final shoot, the posters I created and lesson plan I made. So to start, I'll discuss about the final shoot. I came into my final shoot kind of nervous and anxious, I was going to attempt to draw the various different things on my story boards again until I readied up the camera, hit the shutter button and my little brother wont behave and was just spinning and swaying the torches about. The camera finished taking the photograph and I was angry to say the least, however when I looked at the picture I was amazed and astounded at how good it actually looked.
The picture was deleted though and we decided to try one more time with drawing from the story board. This was unsucessful so we went back to what we accidently created and based the whole shoot off it. This was a lot more enjoyable and easier too, it also created something the children could do as well as made me tired so I could sleep after the shoot which is an added bonus I suppose.
After the shoot was done, the next morning I was ready to make the posters. This was in my comfort zone, like I mention a lot, i'm confident in my work when using a Mac or computer. I experienced no hiccups or issues in this part and tried to keep the posters the same with all relevant information but each time show off two of the different photographs. Once this was done, I moved onto my lesson plan.
Prior to this, I had some research on what a lesson plan should contain and managed to whip up a quick table of information explaining the lesson outcomes, what i'll do and in what order, equipment needed etc. I found creating a lesson plan and the posters easier than the shoot itself and am happy with the result.
I hope, if this was a real thing and a client hired me to do what was set out, that I did a good job and completed it to a high standard.
Concluding my evaluation:
All in all I am happy with how this unit turned out. My capabilities were tested on the Macs but also in practical situations. It has helped my confidence grow as well as taught me things I didn't know before about photography. The work I have produced, I feel is to a good standard and one I am happy with. I hope it displays a fine development along with taking better pictures and clear development of my idea's from the get go.
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