As well as a film, I also plan to create a photo book containing the best images from my project. I want to display them in a story like way so that they flow from one to another really well. I will be linking certain images together depending on the objects shape, colour, texture and meaning. Instead of displaying the images as one size and format, I want to experiment with the sizing and layout of the images to see what outcome is the best format for my project. I plan to display some images larger then others so that their detail can be seen more easily and so that the colours have a greater impact. This is the first layout of my photo book to experiment with the flow and format.
EXTRA SUPPORT BEFORE EXAM IN CLASSROOM Tue 17 April: 3:30-5:00pm – MR T Wed 18 April: 3:30-5:00pm – MR T Thurs 19 April: 3:30-5:00pm – MR C Fri 20 April: 3:30-5:00pm – MR C
FINAL PRINTS DATES: Select your final images for both EXAM and COURSEWORK (if you haven’t completed this already)
Wed 18 April 15:00
prints ready Tue 24 April Tue 24 April 15:00
prints ready Mon 30 April Wed 25 April 15:00
prints ready Wed 2 May
EXAMINATION DATES: Groups 13A and Group 13E 24 April, 30 April & 1 May. Group 13D 25 April , 2 mAY and 3 May 15 hrs controlled test over 3 days
CLASS LIST + EXTRA TIME
For those of you who have extra time – check when this has been allocated.
PHOTO-SHOOTS: Record and explore your final 3 planned photohoots.
It is essential that you complete your principal shooting over Easter and return on Tue 17 April with a few hundred images ready for further post-production and editing. Remember first final print run is Wed 18 April
EDITING: Make a rough edit of shoots (you can come into school and work on classroom computers or alternatively download a 30 day free trial of Lightroom/ Photoshop from Adobe. Click here for more details.
EVALUATE: What went well? how can you improve/ develop work from here? Describe visual/contextual links with research, artists references, exam theme. Analyse your best two images following method: FORM, MEANING, JUDGEMENT, THEORY/CONTEXT.
FINAL OUTCOMES: Consider what your final outcomes will be and how to present them ie. single images or a series of images, diptych, or triptychs, grids etc.
PHOTOBOOKS: For those who wants to make a photobook – begin to make a selection of images – think about narrative and sequencing (what is the story you want to communicate and how you are going to do it in a series of images).
RESEARCH: Support book design with research and analysis of at least one other photobook by other photographers. Follow these steps here in your understanding of design, concept and narrative.
BLOG POSTS: Go through all your blog posts and make sure that you have completed them all to your best ability, e.g. good use of images/ illustrations, annotation of processes/ techniques used, analysis/ evaluation of images and experimentation. Remember to MAKE YOUR BLOG POST VISUAL andinclude relevant, links, podcasts, videos where possible.
To achieve a top marks we need to see a coherent progression of quality work from start to finish following these steps:
After school I went out with my camera to take some images of different things I found. Since my project is about insignificant things and imperfect beauty I mainly tried to look for the tiny details that we usually ignore. My project is also about growth and decay so I tried to find things to link to this such as the beginning of a growing flower or a decaying leaf. My project is about life in general so I also took images of tiny insects such as ants. However I wanted my images to by visually interesting so I looked for certain angles and frames and different ways I could use the subject such as holding the ant in my hand rather then just capturing it on the floor. I images are taken in my garden, house and also in green Island beach. They were all taken after school. Most of them have a small f stop because I wanted to highlight only the smaller details that I wanted the viewer to take in.
I used Photoshop to edit the images because I wanted to create the same atmosphere as I did for my previous shoots. It was the brightness that I wanted to replicate but I didn’t have to edit the image that much because I used the camera settings to create the aesthetic I wanted. Some images suited a black and white filter better then colour because it revealed the finer detail much more. When editing the images into black and white I used a much larger contrast because this made more of a difference between the dark and light areas which makes the image more visually interesting.
This shoot was the first of the body shoots. I planned to use myself as the subject because I just wanted to get simple images of different parts of the body but it was a lot harder then I anticipated. I asked my mum if I could use her as the subject instead. The shoot turned out very well because I was able to capture the image that I wanted. I aimed to get the details of the skin and the form which is what I managed to do. The shoot was done in the bathroom because I needed a white plain background. The shoot was done in the evening so the lighting wasn’t the best. I decided to use the flash to help capture the details. I wanted a pure, cool colour to the images so I used white fluorescent as the white balance setting. When I used the flash it was making the images too over exposed so I used my hand to cover the flash slightly. This created a really nice effect of a pinkish colour to the images. Overall I am very happy with the results of the shoot.
I made sure I got all the different angles I wanted to get such as the feet, hands and the face. I also wanted to get some of the bone structure because its an unusual part of the body. When I was photographing the hands and feet I wanted to get the unusual angles that nobody really captures, such as the soul and the ball of the feet. When photographing the hands I wanted to capture the insignificant details such as the wrinkles and folds. For the face, I wanted to fragment the individual details such as the eyes and ears.
Since my project Is about growth and decay and capturing the insignificant details this is what I wanted to try and represent within this shoot. I made sure I captured the growth of the body and the way its changing through time. I captured this by photographing the feet and hands, and the wrinkles which show the decaying of the body. Also by focusing on the hair and it changing to grey shows how its changing over time.
I selected the best images from the shoot and edited them using Photoshop. I wanted a variation of angles and details and I am happy with the amount and variation I have. The editing was very simple because I was happy with the colour and exposure of the images all ready. I made the images slightly brighter and lessened the contrast to create this pure bright atmosphere. I didn’t crop any of the images because I was happy with the framing.
On Adobe Lightroom, I was also able to narrow down my edits even further to the ones I would likely use in the magazine end product and the ones shown below would be the selection I would again have to narrow down even further to leave me with just 5 images that I would be happy to show in my magazine. In real magazine publications of fashion coverage, a photographer/editor would only have room to select between 5 and 1- images, if that for the final cut as you need to keep the audiences interests hooked and this is easily done with a good handful of effective images. I was able to colour code the shortlist of edits I selected that I believe would work in a magazine whilst taking into account pairs of photos that could work and trying top include a range of portraits and landscapes as well as close ups and wide shots. Below is a primary screen of the selection process and the final selection of images to choose from for the final cut.
The yellow colour coded images represent the edits I may use and these are ones I am insure on in terms of if they would actually work in the magazine and although they are goof images I feel they work well, I have chosen to select, with a green colour code, the bets images that would look most effective in a magazine when put together, however, this distribution between the green and yellow images may change later on as I may decide to remove some green ones and replace these with some yellow ones.
This shoot was an experimental shoot that I hadn’t planned. It was done at night time in my garden. I wanted to capture nature at time time. I used the flash for the shoot because I liked the way it revealed the details with the dark background. I found that simply using the flash was too boring of an effect so I used my hand to cover the flash to what would happen. I really liked the effects it created because it made interesting shapes and shadows that made the image a lot better. By using my hand to cover the flash it also created a reddish tone over the scene which I really liked.
I edited the images using Photoshop. I didn’t change the original image dramatically, I simply added more colour and more contrast. I selected my favorite images and for each one I edited a colored and black and white version. This was because I wanted to the contrast and I really like the shadow and shadings of the black and white version.
There are two weeks until Easter it is paramount that you explore photoshoots as per your manifesto/ specification and make your principal images now so you have a critical body of work to edit and produce final outcomes from.
When you are photographing and responding to ideas and inspirations from artist references you are both exploring and recording. The two go hand in hand. If yo do it well and often (on a weekly basis) you should be able to achieve 50% of your overall marks!
Each week you are required to make a photographic response (still-images and/or moving image) that relates to the research and work that you explored in that week. Sustained investigations means taking a lot of time and effort to produce the best you can possibly do – reviewing, modifying and refining your idea and taking more pictures to build up a strong body of work with a clear sense of purpose and direction
Get yourself familiar with the assessment grid here:
AO2 – Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining their ideas as work develops.
AO3 – Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
To achieve an A or A*-grade you must demonstrate an Exceptional ability (Level 6) through sustained and focused investigations achieving 16-18 marks out of 18 in each assessment objective
Have a look at previous student, Flora Devenport and her exam work from 2016 and assess it according to the Assessment Objectives A2 Photography: (Edexcel.) Think about what level the student is working at.
Have a look at previous student, Jasmin Ross and her exam work from 2017 and assess it according to the Assessment Objectives A2 Photography: (Edexcel.) Think about what level the student is working at.
What you are looking for when assessing A02 (Explore) and A03 (Record):
How well have ideas developed?
Are ideas explored and selective appropriate to intentions?
Are they sustained and focused?
Are they reviewed and refined?
How many responses/ shoots? Command of camera skills/ photographic techniques and processes Understanding of composition/ considering quality of light What are the overall quality of the images? How do they respond to research? How do they relate to artists references? How do the interpret exam theme of Environment?
Homework: Based on the evidence of your blog, what level are you working at? Produce a blog post where you reflect on your own progress. Provide targets that you can achieve over Easter and that can improve your work. Upload by Wed 21 March
Classwork: To develop your ideas further from research and analysis of artists references and other inspirations on the theme s og FREEDOM and/or LIMITATAIONS you now must be planning a number of photographic responses (at least 3 shoots per idea.)
Follow these steps to success!
Produce a detailed plan of 3 shoots for each idea in your specification that you are intending to do; how, who, when, where and why in the next 3 weeks?
Think about lighting, are you going to shoot outside in natural light or inside using studio lights? Maybe shoot both inside and outside to make informed choices and experimentation. Remember to try out a variety of shot sizes and angles, pay attention to composition, focussing, scale, perspective, rule of 1/3rds, foreground/ background and creative control of aperture (depth of field) and shutter speed (movement). If appropriate, think about how to convey an emotion, expression or attitude and the colour palette, tone, mood and texture of your pictures. Consider mise-en-scène (everything in the frame) – e.g. in portraiture deliberate use of clothing, posture, choice of subject objects, props, accessories, settings. Make a selection of the best 15- 20 images for further experimentation. Produce 2-3 blog posts from each shoot and analyse and evaluate your photos through annotation showing understanding of basic visual language using specialist terminology.
It is essential that you complete your principal shooting over Easter and return on Tue 17 April with a few hundred images ready for further post-production and editing. Remember first final print run is Wed 18 April
Upload blog post with above planning by Fri 23 March
On Saturday 10th March, I carried out my first practise/experiment shoot with Lucy as my model for the day. I based my photoshoot at Les Quennevais Estate where there are many opportunities to capture my subject in an urban environment as the area is surrounded by maisonettes, apartment buildings and garages all within close proximity of each other and so I saw it is as the perfect opportunity to begin my project and I intend to re-visit this location again with another of my models.
From the shoot., I can take many positives but also many negatives and ways I can improve for next time however, I am pleased there were weaknesses in the shoot as this gives me a basis of which to judge on how to better my performance of my next shoot on Wednesday 14th March (today).
This shoot was a very successful and useful photoshoot as I have managed to retrieve several positives outcomes in terms of edits; I have edited my best images – this being around 30 images out of the 330 I took and I did this on Adobe Lightroom as it is a very easy software to import, edit and export images with. Using this software allowed me arrange my images into contact sheets and it also allowed me to reject any images I did not like or were not of a good compositional quality and I was also able to put aside and rate images that were a success and that I intend to use.
In terms of the actual day of the photoshoot, it was a perfect day for me to take photos. The weather was perfect – it was sunny and this was the perfect light for my shoot considering I was working solely with natural light – the clear sky and sun provided perfect lighting for the afternoon and this in-turn benefited the final outcomes because the colours were very warm and this complemented Lucy’;s makeup and I was able to get very clear and crisp shots using my new lens. However, I am aware that on my future shoots, the weather will be very varying and I may not get the best weather conditions and because of this I may have to postpone any shoots where I deem it is necessary. As well, it is likely that I will be shooting after school hours at about 4pm and I need to take into consideration that the lighting may also not be great as the sun will soon be going down so will have to work around this to get the best results.
I will discuss later on in this post about the location and why I chose it as well the problems I had using my camera and how this affected the final results. As well I will comment ton my edits and my reasoning behind my choice of images and why I edited them very subtly with the intention just to enhance any colours that needed lifting or to crop any images where the composition/framing was not the best.
Contact Sheets
These are all the contact sheets from the shoot which I have created using Adobe Bridge. Creating these contact sheets gave me the ability to view all images in an orderly fashion all in one place and from this I was able to roughly mentally discard of any images I was not happy with.
Once I had created my contact sheets, I was then able to import all my images into Adobe Lightroom to begin making a shortlist of my favourite images and begin editing them from this step onwards.
On this software, I was able to make a selection of my best images and discard any images that were not up to the standards of the others. From 330 images, it was quite difficult to narrow this down to a smaller array of images but at the same time it was quite easy because I was able to decipher easily between the successful images and weaker images; this being because most of my images were out of ficus and I was immediately able to understand the reason for this fault.
Because this photoshoot was the first time I was using my new 50mm fixed lens, I was not completely aware of the results of I was going to get from it as I was not sure on the right settings to use for different shots. Because it is a fixed lens and has a much lower f/stop of f1.4, I was very keen to use this feature as it is perfect for portraits shots where you want to focus on the subjects face and isolate them from the background in which they stand. I was using this throughout the shoot and kept my camera aperture between f/1.4 and f/3.6 for the majority of the time, rarely switching to much higher aperture which I needed to do. On top of this, I was often standing to far away from the subject for the camera to actually focus on anything in the frame and this is what the cause was for a large range of my shots being out of focus and I now know how to improve upon this for my next shoot where I will be more cautious of the f/stop I am using for specific shots.
On Adobe Lightroom, it gives me the ability to rate each image out of a star rating of 5. From all my successful frames and after editing them all how I wish, I did exactly this and rated all the images I had gathered into this one place to allow to understand my best ones and the weaker ones.
2 Stars
These are the edits which I have rated 2 stars because although they are still good images, they are my strongest ones and I would not be happy using them as finals if I was to keep these images as finals for the overall project.
3 Stars
For the following images I have given them a rating of 3 stars because I felt that they were a little better than the images above but still not the standard of my other edits. Furthermore, the edits below are other variations of the better shots that I have rated 5 stars later on in the post. Some of them are from the same area which we based a few of the shots and I have still edited them but have not out them in the 5 star rating because they are weaker variations of similar range of shots. However, the first two are still one of my favourites from the whole shoot and especially out of the photographs rated 4 stars because of the colour provided by the blue garage door behind Lucy.
The images following these two are also other variations of the better versions of the mini shoot we based on the road near Les Quennevais School where Lucy is seen on the road/pavement posing in front of a set of apartments on the green area behind her; but I still feel these images are strong and worth showing.
Also, most of the images I am showing work as a mini sequence if they were taken in close succession to each other and frame similar actions in the image and these would be obvious.
5 Stars
Below are my best images; the ones which I have rated 5 stars because of their quality and they are my favourite because of this.
In these images, I have also included a few images that do not frame Lucy and instead are images of landscape/environment we were surrounded by and where I was taking my images. I decided to do this and intend to do this throughout my perfect in all other shoots to provide consistency but more importantly, give the project something more that just portraits – it will fragment the structure of portraits and divide these up to give the audience a break to digest other images bit it will also provide a really effective look and a a basis for me to structure my other subject based images. It will show a different view to what is shown in the images that has a heavy focus on faces and subjects and will instead focus on admiring the beauty that is provided by a range of environments where I am basing the shoots.
On Adobe Lightroom, I was also able to narrow down my edits even further to the ones I would likely use in the magazine end product and the ones shown below would be the selection I would again have to narrow down even further to leave me with just 5 images that I would be happy to show in my magazine. In real magazine publications of fashion coverage, a photographer/editor would only have room to select between 5 and 1- images, if that for the final cut as you need to keep the audiences interests hooked and this is easily done with a good handful of effective images. I was able to colour code the shortlist of edits I selected that I believe would work in a magazine whilst taking into account pairs of photos that could work and trying top include a range of portraits and landscapes as well as close ups and wide shots. Below is a primary screen of the selection process and the final selection of images to choose from for the final cut.
The yellow colour coded images represent the edits I may use and these are ones I am insure on in terms of if they would actually work in the magazine and although they are goof images I feel they work well, I have chosen to select, with a green colour code, the bets images that would look most effective in a magazine when put together, however, this distribution between the green and yellow images may change later on as I may decide to remove some green ones and replace these with some yellow ones.
Within my personal project I plan to do many shoots to capture the insignificant events of day to day, however in a detailed and abstract way. The initial scene that I decided to start with was the sea. However I didn’t want to simply capture the whole scene, I wanted to fragment the environment and try to frame specific details that no body notices.
The shoot was done at Green Island beach at high tide so I could capture the water against the rocks. They shoot was done at around two in the afternoon and on a sunny day so that the lighting was good and clear. Here are the original images from the photoshoot.
I wanted to edit the best images from the shoot that really show what I wanted to capture.
After researching about the Disposable Camera Project I decided to do one of my own because I wanted to experiment with my freedom of expression and see what scenes would catch my eye more. I really liked the way I didn’t have to think of the technical side of the image by making sure the camera settings were right because I was using a disposable camera. This allowed me to focus more on what I was capturing. The images and the shoot below was my final outcome of the project.
These are all 24 images from the disposable image camera shoot. Not all the images turned out the way I was planning but I am happy with the overall result. I took the images over a period of 24 hours. I wanted to capture different scenes and objects that weren’t necessarily perfect images. I wanted to take images that would create a story, and something with unusual aesthetics.
After collecting the images, I scanned them into a jpeg form so that I could edit them. I edited the images very simply because I didn’t want to manipulate the images too much. I know the images aren’t perfect but I really like that natural imperfect look.
As an experiment I also wanted to do some contrasting edits of the same images. I choose one of my favorite images and edited it in contrasting ways to see what style suited the image better. I first edited a colored version which I really liked, and then I created a black and white version. I like both versions because of the variation between the light and the dark within the image. I really like the movement within the image and the way the light reflects of the water is captured really well. The image as a whole contains a spiritual atmosphere which was what I was trying to create.
The image below are light spill images because the scene or object I was trying to capture didn’t turn out the way I had planned, however I like the effect that they created.
Overall, I am very happy with the shoot and the final outcome of my images. I know that by doing this experimental shoot I have learnt more about how to perceive the world in an unusual and original perspective. I learnt about how to be more creative with what I am seeing and taking.
