Overall Project Evaluation
'The Passing of Time'
Over the few months which we have had to shoot for and explore our chosen exam topics, I feel that my work in photography has become more confident and more experimental. This has therefore allowed me to create some more interesting and relevant images when I have been exploring my chosen topic which was 'The Passing of Time'. During the topic, I have been able to explore various types of photography, including long exposure and continuous shooting and I have also been able to experiment more using Photoshop in order to create more interesting photographs.
I began the topic with very few ideas and had very little inspiration as to what I was going to do for my first shoot, let alone the 10 which I knew needed to be done! I explored various different artists and photographers to begin with, all whom explored the topic in different ways. My favourite and the potentially most influential photographer was Alexey Titarenko. I really liked the way that he uses the long exposure to show the movements which have taken place during set period of time. I also like the way that his image are made to look ghostly and slightly unnerving due to the use of the black and white filters. This is useful when making them more attractive the the viewers as it makes the photos more interesting as well as mysterious. Another photographer who I liked the work of was Jesus Chapa-Malacara. I liked the vibrancy of his work and thought that the passing of time element to the images was clear by means of the fact that he used long exposure regularly in his work.
For my first few shoots, I decided to take a rather basic and safe approach to the topic where I explored stereotypical ideas associated with time, such as timelines and clocks. Although the ideas behind the shoots were simplistic, I feel that overall the shoots were successful and showed the passing of time in interesting ways. For example, my first shoot showed the life and death stages of a flower and my third shoot presented the passing of time in a more creative way which involved the diffusion of food dye in water. This helped to show the passing of time as it allowed me to use the idea of continuous shots to show the movements and changes which happened during a period of time. This then led me onto other ideas such as the trails of light. This was a very successful shoot which was quite easy to achieve. This shoot introduced me to the concept of long exposure, which remained with me for the remainder of the project. The next few shoots after this explored movement in the studio which allowed me to achieve some interesting and eye-catching images due to the coloured backgrounds and also via the use of the studio lights. Although I thought that working in the studio allowed me to produce some successful images, I did not think that this was my preferred way of working so went back to shooting on location for my final few shoots. For my final three shoots, I explored the passing of time by looking at long exposure of movement on location settings. I looked at people walking which allowed me to develop a successful series of images which had a ghostly feel and therefore linked to the work of Alexey Titarenko and also looked at animals and people jumping on a trampoline and swinging on swings. All of these shoots helped me to perfect my camera settings and helped me to get to grips with using long exposure when taking pictures.
Overall, my favourite part of the project was shooting the long exposure images of people walking on location. This was because they allowed me to link to the work of Alexey Titarenko and therefore create my own images which showed a distinctive atmosphere with the use of Photoshop. I edited the images from this shoot in a more elaborate way than I did my previous shoots. I used the quick select tool to select round my figures, then selected the black and white filters. This therefore made the figures become black and white which gave them ghost like qualities. I then feathered this effect to make them appear less edited and more natural. I liked the outcome and felt that this editing had helped to somewhat tell a story by means of making the figures appear unnerving and mysterious. However, my least favourite part of the project was carrying out my first shoot, mainly because it took such a long time! The flowers took a long time to die completely which delayed my other shoots and made it so that I had too many images for my first shoot. In addition to this and despite using a tripod, I struggled to frame the images the same everyday when I took the picture. This therefore meant that the shoot was not as effective as I had imagined it would be. However, I feel it was a good starting point for investigating the passing of time.
During the course of the project, I have not only displayed singular images in my straight images. I have also presented photo-strips and GIFs. I feel as though the photo-strips are effective as they show the changes that have occurred throughout the time frame and also help to tell a sort of story. I have liked the outcomes when I have created photo-strips and think that they are successful at presenting the passing of time. I have also, using Photoshop, been able to create GIFs which are similar to frame animations. I have also liked the outcomes of these and they have looked especially effective when I have used continuous shooting as it helps to create fluency within the GIF. Overall, I really like these two methods which give an alternative way of presenting photographs. In addition to these which I created using Photoshop, I have also managed to experiment with Photoshop in alternative ways which I have not before. For example, I thought that overlaying the images from the continuous shoots looked very effective as it gave the viewer a sense of the time frame which is what I wanted to portray.
During the topic, I feel as though my photography skills have improved quite drastically. I find that I am now more willing to experiment and try new things in order to achieve different and effective outcomes. Overall, I have enjoyed shooting for the topic of 'the passing of time' and feel that it has allowed me to create some very interesting and striking images which I am proud of. In addition, despite finding the topic challenging to begin with, I feel that I ended up tackling the topic with greater confidence and skill, which therefore allowed me to produce some successful final outcomes.
Over the few months which we have had to shoot for and explore our chosen exam topics, I feel that my work in photography has become more confident and more experimental. This has therefore allowed me to create some more interesting and relevant images when I have been exploring my chosen topic which was 'The Passing of Time'. During the topic, I have been able to explore various types of photography, including long exposure and continuous shooting and I have also been able to experiment more using Photoshop in order to create more interesting photographs.
I began the topic with very few ideas and had very little inspiration as to what I was going to do for my first shoot, let alone the 10 which I knew needed to be done! I explored various different artists and photographers to begin with, all whom explored the topic in different ways. My favourite and the potentially most influential photographer was Alexey Titarenko. I really liked the way that he uses the long exposure to show the movements which have taken place during set period of time. I also like the way that his image are made to look ghostly and slightly unnerving due to the use of the black and white filters. This is useful when making them more attractive the the viewers as it makes the photos more interesting as well as mysterious. Another photographer who I liked the work of was Jesus Chapa-Malacara. I liked the vibrancy of his work and thought that the passing of time element to the images was clear by means of the fact that he used long exposure regularly in his work.
For my first few shoots, I decided to take a rather basic and safe approach to the topic where I explored stereotypical ideas associated with time, such as timelines and clocks. Although the ideas behind the shoots were simplistic, I feel that overall the shoots were successful and showed the passing of time in interesting ways. For example, my first shoot showed the life and death stages of a flower and my third shoot presented the passing of time in a more creative way which involved the diffusion of food dye in water. This helped to show the passing of time as it allowed me to use the idea of continuous shots to show the movements and changes which happened during a period of time. This then led me onto other ideas such as the trails of light. This was a very successful shoot which was quite easy to achieve. This shoot introduced me to the concept of long exposure, which remained with me for the remainder of the project. The next few shoots after this explored movement in the studio which allowed me to achieve some interesting and eye-catching images due to the coloured backgrounds and also via the use of the studio lights. Although I thought that working in the studio allowed me to produce some successful images, I did not think that this was my preferred way of working so went back to shooting on location for my final few shoots. For my final three shoots, I explored the passing of time by looking at long exposure of movement on location settings. I looked at people walking which allowed me to develop a successful series of images which had a ghostly feel and therefore linked to the work of Alexey Titarenko and also looked at animals and people jumping on a trampoline and swinging on swings. All of these shoots helped me to perfect my camera settings and helped me to get to grips with using long exposure when taking pictures.
Overall, my favourite part of the project was shooting the long exposure images of people walking on location. This was because they allowed me to link to the work of Alexey Titarenko and therefore create my own images which showed a distinctive atmosphere with the use of Photoshop. I edited the images from this shoot in a more elaborate way than I did my previous shoots. I used the quick select tool to select round my figures, then selected the black and white filters. This therefore made the figures become black and white which gave them ghost like qualities. I then feathered this effect to make them appear less edited and more natural. I liked the outcome and felt that this editing had helped to somewhat tell a story by means of making the figures appear unnerving and mysterious. However, my least favourite part of the project was carrying out my first shoot, mainly because it took such a long time! The flowers took a long time to die completely which delayed my other shoots and made it so that I had too many images for my first shoot. In addition to this and despite using a tripod, I struggled to frame the images the same everyday when I took the picture. This therefore meant that the shoot was not as effective as I had imagined it would be. However, I feel it was a good starting point for investigating the passing of time.
During the course of the project, I have not only displayed singular images in my straight images. I have also presented photo-strips and GIFs. I feel as though the photo-strips are effective as they show the changes that have occurred throughout the time frame and also help to tell a sort of story. I have liked the outcomes when I have created photo-strips and think that they are successful at presenting the passing of time. I have also, using Photoshop, been able to create GIFs which are similar to frame animations. I have also liked the outcomes of these and they have looked especially effective when I have used continuous shooting as it helps to create fluency within the GIF. Overall, I really like these two methods which give an alternative way of presenting photographs. In addition to these which I created using Photoshop, I have also managed to experiment with Photoshop in alternative ways which I have not before. For example, I thought that overlaying the images from the continuous shoots looked very effective as it gave the viewer a sense of the time frame which is what I wanted to portray.
During the topic, I feel as though my photography skills have improved quite drastically. I find that I am now more willing to experiment and try new things in order to achieve different and effective outcomes. Overall, I have enjoyed shooting for the topic of 'the passing of time' and feel that it has allowed me to create some very interesting and striking images which I am proud of. In addition, despite finding the topic challenging to begin with, I feel that I ended up tackling the topic with greater confidence and skill, which therefore allowed me to produce some successful final outcomes.
No comments:
Post a Comment