Final report

Final report

Technical Knowledge

I have always been rather nervous and found that technical knowledge is a weaker part of my photography knowledge, however, this semester, I have truly begun to feel a lot more comfortable and have gained control in the technical side of the camera. I can now be confident on a shoot in altering my ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed to work well. Despite the fact that I am still not 100%, I have definitely gained a lot of confidence throughout. I have found that a lot of resources have become a lot easier to use this semester due to the help from the lectueres, including photoshop. The projects we have had this year, including The Constructed Image mainly, have been a lot interesting. I enjoy the editing side of photography very much and it excites me after a shoot, and this semester has been very compelling. Not only have I became more secure in using my own DSLR camera, I have also had the chance of using other cameras, such as, other DSLRs, but also, film cameras (large and medium format). Due to the helpful and extremely thorough help and lectures throughout this semester, covering a lot of pointers and with help from the lecturers, who always make sure that we are understanding what we are learning, I have been a lot happier in technical. I have learnt so much in the last few months of university. The studio, which I have used this semester, and was nervous about, I have become a lot more confident in both in the lighting and the setting up. The small group sessions with the lecturer about the lighting has been very helpful also, giving and listening to our questions and answers them correctly, it is noted that “no question is stupid”, which makes me feel extremely comfortable.

Pictorial Construction

Throughout this semester, I have looked a lot into the way my photography looks, and due to last semester, I have been able to look at my photographs in a different way. It is very much as John Szarkowski’s five point, point out. “The thing itself”.

I have used a lot of photoshop this semester and this has developed my skills and how to use certain tools within it. The construction of images are something I find extremely interesting and by a lot of research, I have been able to look into how other photographers construct their image. Time has been a big part of my projects, especially Enigma of Time. By thinking of time and how it has been an important factor throughout a persons life, whether it is our generation or generations before now, everything has had an effect with time. Whether it is using Shutter Speed or grain to create vintage images, I have defintley been thinking a lot about Time displayed in my images.

The Frame has been a big part of my photography experience this semester, due to learning it last semester that everything that is in The Frame is very important to the image, depending on whether it is a tree or a pole that could potentially be poking out of someones head, and despite the fact that this is “simply a pole and not attatched to the person” it could be seen as deliberate from the photographer or a mistake, either way, it doesn’t look good in an image and this is defintley something I have been thinking about a lot. I wanted to make sure that everything in The Frame of my images is an important part to the image.

The Detail has also been an important factor in my images, and to make sure that the details are striking, especially in my Objects of Desire images, I wanted the light to make the object look desirable, I wanted to make the important part of the images appear well, I have been able to do this with both lighting but also Depth of Field.

Furthermore, I have looked into Vantage Point, the angle to which my images come across, I have taken some from the floor, especially in Objects of Desire, like my Port bottle, which has concluded me to lie on the beach to get the Vantage Point right. Some of my perfume bottle images, I have experimented with from down below and high above, to the side etc. This was purely for experimentation to see how the photographs will appear. It is extremely good to experiment with Vantage Point because by taking a photograph at a different angle, could make an image look even better than originally imagined.

Print Interpretation

When printing my twelve images off this semester, it has defintley been trial and error. I tried to use a lot of different papers such as Oyster and Matte as opposed to just using gloss. I really love using glossy paper due to the effect that it creates, especially on images that involve water. On one of my photographs, “wonder” for constructed image, I appreciated using Matte, it created a grand effect. When printing the actual photograph off, I decided to lighten my images a tiny bit by using levels as it usually is different on the screen to when it is printed off on printing paper. Sometimes I had even tried with using more saturation to bring the colours out more so. I saw my images improve from last semester in the printing process.

When looking into printing my photograph, I decided to print them off centre rather than simply placed in the middle of the A4 page. I did this on purpose because I believe it is a lot more interesting than keeping every photograph in the middle. Some of my images are placed left, right, up and down. However, I did decide to place some of my images in the middle, as I believe that this fitted the look a lot better.

Contextual Knowledge

Context in images are important, helping the viewer to look into what is happening, of course, depending on what it is used for, to create, the context can give a photograph different meanings. The surroundings can effect context, as well as subject and it isn’t always clear to what is happening and I find it interesting when the images give the look of different meanings, rather than it being too obvious. In one of my photographs for The Constructed Image, the composition of the houses from “Within” is very compelling due to the darkened houses. Another photograph I used was for Objects of Desire, and by simply

lighting up the surrounding flowers, very well and this created a whole new meaning and vibe in juxtaposition to what the image was originally like.

Overall Performance

And so, throughout this semester, I have gained a whole lot of new confidence, whether it is the technical sides of cameras and studios, the presenting of the images, and despite being not very confident, I can feel myself getting better slowly and I am very thankful that this course is helping me. Also, I have been able to understand images a lot better due to The Photographers Eye.

I was able to research more interesting photographers and looking into different ways of how their images are created. Using the studio has really helped my confidence also.

Learning about different cameras, like film cameras, has been a big confidence booster also. I also have appreciated learning about the printing process of film, it is very interesting and new to me!

One of the hardest projects for me to think about was Objects of Desire, and the ability to come up with an idea but I am very happy with my outcomes and I wanted to take the chance to experiment with advertisement photography.

I also appreciate my Enigma of Time photographs alongside my Constructed Images.

All and all, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning this semester and stepping out of my comfort zone. Despite that it has been tough for me to do so, it has been very rewarding to see the outcomes!