Throughout my preparatory work, I found many factors that were contributing to and influencing my final series of images. When creating my research log, I looked in depth into many different photographers and found myself being drawn to those whose work focussed on feminism. Through this, I found quite a few photographers who I felt were inspiring to me. These photographers all had different styles of work, which influenced me to pick this theme to work with as it allows you to still have complete freedom in what you choose to do. Whilst looking at different images and also creating my own, I found that I preferred images with darker tones as I felt it helped connote how dark the actual themes were. During my research, I found myself preferring pictures that used models rather than objects as I felt that photographing women to connote feminism worked extremely well. Therefore, I focussed more on using models within my shoots rather than objects. I did a couple of shoots with objects and found that they were more difficult to work with in terms of framing and how I positioned them, and also felt that I had more freedom when working with models as I could direct them and have them change position/expression.
As a result of this project, I have developed in both technical and aesthetic areas. Within the technical areas of Photography, I feel that I have made significant improvements in my abilities as I was completely independent in my shoots. One major development I have made is being able to overcome problems I encounter during shoots on my own. For example, when I came across issues with lighting (the images were coming out too dark), I used light meters and adjusted the ISO/f stop on my camera until the images looked appealing. Before doing my preparatory shoots, I had very little experience with shooting images of people within a studio setting. I feel that, as I did many shoots like this during my preparatory shoots, I am more confident and more able to direct shoots like this now. At first, I was nervous about doing this as I had only carried out studio shoots around five times, but now I feel that I would be able to comfortably and independently carry out studio shoots at any time.
In terms of aesthetic developments, I feel that I have been able to improve with creating images with darker tones. In the past, the majority of my shoots have appeared quite bright and have light tones within the image. With my final piece being quite dark, I have been able to experiment with lighting and Photoshop techniques to create images that are have dark tones and shadows. Having not experimented with this before, I really enjoyed how it came out and want to work more with this aesthetic again in the future. Another way that I have made developments with the aesthetics of my work is that I have experimented more with image manipulation. I have done this with many of my preparatory shoots and so feel that I have made improvements in what I am able to do to images within Photoshop. Before my preparatory and final shoots, I mainly stuck to basic editing within Photoshop (e.g changing the brightness/contrast). Throughout this unit, I decided that I could use photo manipulation to add deeper connotations and messages to images and so decided to focus on this within many of my shoots. I feel that by doing this, I have gained stronger skills when it comes to editing.
I feel that I have been very successful in responding to the exam paper. The brief I chose to follow was personal opinions, as I felt this would allow me more freedom in what I chose to photograph. Once I narrowed down my chosen theme to feminism, I felt that I was able to create strong and clear messages within my shoots. This is because I had taken inspiration from many feminist photographers in my work and knew how I wanted my images to look. Even before feminism and within my preparatory shoots, I felt that the messages and connotations in the photo sets were strong as I ensured that the message could be easily understood. Throughout my preparatory shoots and in my final exam shoots, I have created photo sets that are unique and personal to myself as I feel very strongly about the topics I focussed on and wanted to raise awareness of them. As this is an opinion I feel strongly about and is personal to myself, I feel that I have been successful in responding to the 'personal opinions' brief.
One area in which I felt my work is strong is that my message is clear to interpret throughout all of my images. I feel that the use of black and white and black background ensures that no attention is taken away from the barcode and that the message isn't twisted or changed from what I want it to be through any other element, for example, colour. I also feel that my final pieces are all clearly linked and work well together as part of one photo series. This is something that I wanted to ensure, which is why my shoots from this exam were very similar. I did not want to do two completely different shoots as I felt that this would draw attention away from the main focus of the shoots and make the messages be less impactful. Another strength within my work is my use of computer experiments. The use of computer experiments within my photo series was vital as it was how, for one shoot, this is how I added the barcodes to my images. I feel that I did this well as, although the barcodes to not look completely natural, they appear to sit well on the skin which is what I was hoping for as I knew I could not get them to look perfectly natural through the use of Photoshop. A final strength I feel that I have in my work is that I have been able to work successfully with models in order to create the outcome that I hoped for. The models that I used were willing to pose however I asked them to and easily followed my directions, making my shoots easier to do.
After doing this exam, I feel that there are some areas in which I wish to improve. Firstly, I want to work more with colour and improve in this area as I feel that, in my preparatory shoots, my use of colour was not strong and did not add anything to the images. I feel that my final pieces seemed stronger than my preparatory shoots largely because of the use of black and white. Therefore, I hope to explore the use of colour more in the future. An area in which I felt I was weak in my work was with the amount of pictures I took during my shoots. As I only used two models and because there was not many parts of the body I could actually take pictures of, I was limited in the amount of pictures I could take. I feel as though I could have overcome this problem by using more models as I only used two. Lastly, I feel as though I should have taken more time and care when doing my shoots as I did encounter some problems that I feel would have not occurred if I had been more patient and taken my time. For example, a lot of the temporary tattoo applications went wrong as I did not spend enough time ensuring that they were on properly. If I had taken more time, this problem most likely would not have occurred.
As a result of this project, I have developed in both technical and aesthetic areas. Within the technical areas of Photography, I feel that I have made significant improvements in my abilities as I was completely independent in my shoots. One major development I have made is being able to overcome problems I encounter during shoots on my own. For example, when I came across issues with lighting (the images were coming out too dark), I used light meters and adjusted the ISO/f stop on my camera until the images looked appealing. Before doing my preparatory shoots, I had very little experience with shooting images of people within a studio setting. I feel that, as I did many shoots like this during my preparatory shoots, I am more confident and more able to direct shoots like this now. At first, I was nervous about doing this as I had only carried out studio shoots around five times, but now I feel that I would be able to comfortably and independently carry out studio shoots at any time.
In terms of aesthetic developments, I feel that I have been able to improve with creating images with darker tones. In the past, the majority of my shoots have appeared quite bright and have light tones within the image. With my final piece being quite dark, I have been able to experiment with lighting and Photoshop techniques to create images that are have dark tones and shadows. Having not experimented with this before, I really enjoyed how it came out and want to work more with this aesthetic again in the future. Another way that I have made developments with the aesthetics of my work is that I have experimented more with image manipulation. I have done this with many of my preparatory shoots and so feel that I have made improvements in what I am able to do to images within Photoshop. Before my preparatory and final shoots, I mainly stuck to basic editing within Photoshop (e.g changing the brightness/contrast). Throughout this unit, I decided that I could use photo manipulation to add deeper connotations and messages to images and so decided to focus on this within many of my shoots. I feel that by doing this, I have gained stronger skills when it comes to editing.
I feel that I have been very successful in responding to the exam paper. The brief I chose to follow was personal opinions, as I felt this would allow me more freedom in what I chose to photograph. Once I narrowed down my chosen theme to feminism, I felt that I was able to create strong and clear messages within my shoots. This is because I had taken inspiration from many feminist photographers in my work and knew how I wanted my images to look. Even before feminism and within my preparatory shoots, I felt that the messages and connotations in the photo sets were strong as I ensured that the message could be easily understood. Throughout my preparatory shoots and in my final exam shoots, I have created photo sets that are unique and personal to myself as I feel very strongly about the topics I focussed on and wanted to raise awareness of them. As this is an opinion I feel strongly about and is personal to myself, I feel that I have been successful in responding to the 'personal opinions' brief.
One area in which I felt my work is strong is that my message is clear to interpret throughout all of my images. I feel that the use of black and white and black background ensures that no attention is taken away from the barcode and that the message isn't twisted or changed from what I want it to be through any other element, for example, colour. I also feel that my final pieces are all clearly linked and work well together as part of one photo series. This is something that I wanted to ensure, which is why my shoots from this exam were very similar. I did not want to do two completely different shoots as I felt that this would draw attention away from the main focus of the shoots and make the messages be less impactful. Another strength within my work is my use of computer experiments. The use of computer experiments within my photo series was vital as it was how, for one shoot, this is how I added the barcodes to my images. I feel that I did this well as, although the barcodes to not look completely natural, they appear to sit well on the skin which is what I was hoping for as I knew I could not get them to look perfectly natural through the use of Photoshop. A final strength I feel that I have in my work is that I have been able to work successfully with models in order to create the outcome that I hoped for. The models that I used were willing to pose however I asked them to and easily followed my directions, making my shoots easier to do.
After doing this exam, I feel that there are some areas in which I wish to improve. Firstly, I want to work more with colour and improve in this area as I feel that, in my preparatory shoots, my use of colour was not strong and did not add anything to the images. I feel that my final pieces seemed stronger than my preparatory shoots largely because of the use of black and white. Therefore, I hope to explore the use of colour more in the future. An area in which I felt I was weak in my work was with the amount of pictures I took during my shoots. As I only used two models and because there was not many parts of the body I could actually take pictures of, I was limited in the amount of pictures I could take. I feel as though I could have overcome this problem by using more models as I only used two. Lastly, I feel as though I should have taken more time and care when doing my shoots as I did encounter some problems that I feel would have not occurred if I had been more patient and taken my time. For example, a lot of the temporary tattoo applications went wrong as I did not spend enough time ensuring that they were on properly. If I had taken more time, this problem most likely would not have occurred.
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