Review and Refection on Assignment 1

I managed to work within the brief, selecting some existing images from my photo archive that were at contrast with each other. I also managed to take 16 photo’s of contrasting elements as well as 1 image the has contrasting elements present in it.

I have managed to take some really interesting shots, I decided at the start that I would like to take images that were strong and interesting not just a snap. I also wanted to challenge myself and take some risks on the images to push past my comfort level. I feel that in general it went well and I am please with the photo’s. However there are a number of learnings that I have to consider for all further projects.

What was the challenges?

• Work within the time frames that I have set myself.
• Prepare and grow my ideas for photo’s recording these in Evernote as soon as I have them.
• Try and prepare each shot before getting on location to take it.
• Research more for ideas of interesting subjects within the local area in preparation for future projects.
• Read a lot more to build my knowledge and improvement understanding of different elements within the images.
• Plan to include elements (lines, diagonal etc) in my image, not just find them afterwards by chance.
• The printing was not as smooth as I imagined due to my cropping and the image quality from those crops, when the last image needs to be blown up. The ‘moon’ image was an example, I was at my limit on my zoom lens, when I then cropped in Aperture the image on the screen looked good, but once uploaded to the print site, the image was deemed as poor quality for the size I wanted to print. So I had to print on image smaller than the rest. Which does not give a good impression.

What have I learned?

• I  do not have a process for dealing with the images and for posting to the blog in an efficient way. This is all taking too much time.
• My knowledge and use of Aperture could be greatly improved and I need to do some more work on building my knowledge to improve my speed in this area of the projects.
• That the adding of contrasts and different elements within an image greatly increases the viewers experience.
• From the printing process I have also learned that the image cropping does really effect the overall quality of the image, especially as the image is blown up larger, i.e. A4, 12×10.
• Ensure that I am cropping the images in the scale that will suit the last printing paper.
• That images with fully surrounding boarders are better for reviewing and for framing etc in the future.
• Shoot images, where possible as they are to be printed, reducing the amount of images produced.
• Take images within the lens capacity to maximise the quality of the images. No more large crops in Aperture.

What Will I do Differently?

• I will read more in advance of the assignment, preparing the shots in advance and really thinking about the aspects within the shots.
• I will definitely record more details in the blog as I progress through, to increase the blogs usefulness as a revision tool as well as to improve the tutor’s understanding of how and what I have done right and wrong.
• Work within the time frames given by my tutor.

How Will I do It differently next time?

• Research and reading the core text books first will definitely improve my efficiency. I read the books as the assignment was progressing not in preparation for the assignment.
• I will also build my knowledge/understanding of how shots are take by other photographers, giving me the knowledge will also cut my time spent on trial and error.

What Have I achieved?

• I have completed the assignment to the standard of the brief with what I believe are interesting images that have challenged me and I have enjoyed it.

How can I put the theory into practice:-

• I feel that I need to read more and put into practice what I am learning as I learn it, documenting this on the learning blog.
• I feel that I need to not be conscious, of what is on the blog, as it needs to include the good as well as the bad, to help me improve.

List of Actions:-

• Explore faster uploading of images, labelling, placement in Wordpress.
• Improve the use of the learning blog, not just to post the exercises but as a record.
• Really focus on the composition of the shot, trying to cut the amount of images taken to get the last shot.
• Work within the limits of my lens, not relying on Aperture to crop the image to enlarge it.
• Crop images in the same ratio that I will finally print.
• Print images with a border.