EVALUATION
Are you happy with the way you used the different digital editing tools throughout the project? You must provide reasons for your answer I am pleased with the way I used digital editing tools throughout the project as I feel that I used them to their full potential and made use of them well in order to enhance images. I feel I didn’t over use the tools to the point of it ruining the images; making sure the quality of the original photography still showed through over the editing. I feel there were three different editing tools I was very dependent on throughout editing every photograph for each shoot. They consisted of the sharpening tool, dodge tool, and burning tool. I feel using a combination of all three of these was a way of improving the overall image from the RAW file and only enhanced the quality which was already there. I feel I was varying what tools I used well throughout the project where in the first photo shoot I edited I was focusing a lot more on making the photographs appear crisper, and overly sharpened; giving it that HDR appearance. To do this I used the High pass filter. Where as in shoot 3 the intentions were a lot different where I wanted the focus on editing to be on making the colours appear saturated and as intense as possible. Although, I still wanted the colours on shoot 1 to appear intense, since they were part of the same brief of colour combinations- the intent goal for the aesthetic of each shoot were completely different. The tools I mostly used to make it all appear saturated in shoot 3 was the saturation sponge tool and increasing the contrast and vibrancy levels when opening the images in Photoshop.
Shoot 1
Shoot 3
Are you happy with the quality of your visual ideas in the photographs? You must provide reasons for your answer and discuss individual photographs I am pleased with the concepts that I have thought up for my photographs, I feel that I have interpreted the briefs well and put my own twist on it. With my first shoot I feel that most people would interpret the colour combination brief as involving bold, strong colours that almost clash to really exaggerate the topic they have been given and make it obvious. Whereas I have involved quite simple colour combinations in this shoot, which makes the theme of the shoot not as obvious. I chose a subtle warm colour theme to stand out against the monochrome surroundings; making the colours appear bold, yet not overwhelming. I also tried to get colours that were harmonious and warm which expressed the anger that the model was representing. In this image and for this shoot you can see that the eye make-up I have used is mostly red which I thought made the model’s eye colour stand out a lot more and made her appear intense. I put black eye shadow around her eyes to make them stand out and to add to the grunge look that I have given her. On the model’s eyes, for the close-up images, I put long eyelashes on just the bottom eyelashes. I was inspired by Twiggie’s typical make-up look here, where I wanted her eyes to appear doll-like and the eyes to be opened up a lot more where the fringe was covering a large majority of them. I then used black eyes shadow on the lips so that the texture of the lips was still picked up, yet it gave the model a messy and once again, grunge appearance. I also considered the hair a lot in this shoot where I textured the hair with a mousse to make sure that the model appeared wild and reckless. It shows here that I have considered the aesthetics and make-up of the shoot a lot here, where I have done research into how I wanted things to appear. I decided to incorporate the flower into this specific photograph, as the colour was very bold and vibrant; full of life. I felt it contrasted completely with the personality of the character that the model was presenting, where the flower is delicate and innocent. The model doesn’t represent any of these things in this shoot, so opposed the flower. As well as the colours clashes, this furthermore
represented the conflict between the flower and the model. I am pleased with the story that I have conjured up for this shoot- I felt the concept was strong and it shows that the shoot had a motive. For shoot 2, I had an original idea of using UV paints to create glow in the dark images. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a UV light provided therefore I couldn’t create the glow in the dark effect I wanted. Although I was still pleased with how the paint looked as it was just painted onto the model’s skin. Therefore, I continued with the shoot provided with lights in the studio. The style that I painted on the model’s face I felt appeared somewhat Aztec. Therefore, I tried to keep the shoot simple and give the impression of a high fashion, tribal shoot. I wanted to keep the model’s appearance fairly natural in contrast with the paints used so that the paints were the main focus in the images.
For this photograph I kept it very simple and was inspired by most skincare photo shoots that I had seen in industry. I wanted to bring out the texture and definition in the paints as well as the model’s skin to give the image a fresh and stripped back look. I feel the paints framed the model’s face well and overall the image turned out well- which I am therefore pleased with.
For this photograph, I was had a vision of the shoot representing domestic violence. I feel with the warm, intense colours and bold patterns that were applied to the hand that is cutting into the image- this presents aggression well and signifies another personality with the use of colour coming into the image. I think using a mix of different
colours on the model’s skin showed the confusion she must have been feeling at that moment in time, along with an assortment of other emotions. I feel at first my vision for this shoot wasn’t as clear, but using my initiative I was able to make things work using the resources I had and produce a new narrative. Shoot 3 was where I used the UV paints, now provided with a UV light, making it possible to create a glow in the dark effect. I tried to paint the paints on areas that would frame the model’s face well and recreate the appearance of features, where you wouldn’t be able to see a lot of the model’s face due to it needing to be dark. I wanted this shoot to appear quite high fashion as well, where I painted the paints in quite an abstract way. As well as within the model’s body language in the images, I wanted her to appear posy to accentuate the features that were visible as much as possible. This shoot in particular was inspired by one of the artists I looked at called Pierre Debusschere. He used UV/glow in the dark paints in his images on the model’s face which I felt really framed the face well and gave it a lot of character with the bold lines used. I wanted to apply the same style to my work where I feel that he captured movement and the model’s expression really well where he over layed the images. Although I think I was able to apply my own style to it where I blended and enlarged areas well.
Pierre Debuscschere
I feel I struggled with the second brief a lot more and found it difficult to think of an idea that could relate to the theme of alternative bride. The first idea that I thought that would be considered alternative, due to conventional relationships that have been influenced by old fashioned views, is having a butch bride. I
wanted the bride to appear masculine and not the typical feminine type of a woman in a white dress. I decided to put the model in a suit which was dark, with a white shirt underneath to represent some tradition. I didn’t want to be traditional with the bride and go against society’s idea of the perfect bride. The bride could be interpreted as just a butch woman, who prefers to dress in more of a reserved and suited manner- which men typically wear. Or alternatively, the model could be playing the role of a gay female, which is still something new to society and still a very fresh change to a lot of people where the law has only currently changed to allow gay marriages in England. I feel this is a strong idea, although with strong ideas it can sometimes cause controversy, where playing with gender roles is still unfortunately something that can cause offense to some people of different ethnic backgrounds/religions. In this shoot I have made the model make her body language a lot more slouchy and go against making the bride appear ‘feminine’ and delicate on her wedding day. I wanted the shoot to make a statement and make an impression when looking at the final photographs.
For the final shoot, shoot 5, it took me a while to think of the idea, and I am not totally pleased with the concept that I came up with in the end. I feel it doesn’t represent the theme for the shoot well, and the photographs I feel show that confusion of a weak idea. Although, from saying that, I think that images have turned out that bad in appearance as the quality of the images is of a reasonable standard. I feel that through the images, there is a story told that shows the heartbreak of when a marriage breaks down where at the beginning of the edited photographs the images appear happy and then towards the end where the heart is broken, as you can see in the image on the left, it could represent the broken marriage and how the love is broken. Therefore, where as marriage
photographs usually appear happy and positive, this alternatively shows the breakdown of one. I feel making the photographs black and white as well illustrates well the sadness that would be felt at the time. Where, often at times like these people feel as if they are lifeless and unhappy; making the images appear dull like this could demonstrate how the people would be feeling at the time. I feel most of the photoshoots I had a strong concept behind them which then produced a successful outcome, although some of them you can tell were driven by a weak idea. I am most pleased with shoots 1 and 3 as I feel they were planned a lot; producing successful images. Are you happy with the quality of your digital editing in the photographs? With the majority of the images I have edited I am pleased with how they have come out. I feel that I have used all of the provided editing tools to enhance the photographs and give them a style that suits the theme. I feel that I have edited some slightly better than others, where I am aware I have struggled with consistency. For example in shoot one I feel I wasn’t able to maintain the contrast of the photographs. In some images it was warm toned, where as in others it appeared more along the cold spectrum. It may appear that the photographs are from different shoots, or associate with another them if the colour tones within seem to different. Although, I have tried to get the images as similar as possible in terms of contrast; it couldn’t be helped too much due to change of natural lighting.
When using the saturation sponge tool in shoot 1 I think that I may have used it too generously, causing the areas that I have targeted to appear patchy and not as high quality. This was only noticed once uploaded; therefore it may just be brightness difference that has caused this. Yet, in general I think that this shoot has been edited well and in depth to make sure no imperfections are visible and produced the result I wanted. You can see the patchy saturation in the image to the left. The shoot I am most unhappy with in terms of editing is most likely shoot 5 due to not knowing what to do with the images. I felt converting the images to black and white masked a lot of the poor quality images and was a way to make them appear somewhat professional. I do think that how the images turned out ended up being reasonable as making them black and
white helped me attain more detail out of them without certain areas of the photographs appearing bad quality than if I was to edit them in that way in colour. Another shoot that could be considered weak for this unit is shoot 4 where there isn’t a lot of editing, and this unit is meant to be focused on using a range of editing skills. For this specific shoot I feel that I couldn’t edit it too much as I felt that it would ruin the photography, which was decent to begin with- and would have ruined that. Yet, in other shoots I have edited I feel that I have displayed good editing skills. One of the shoots I feel I have displayed the best editing skills is with shoot 3. I think that it has the strongest theme and motive to it; where you can see it is well planned out –maintaining a look throughout the edited shoot. I also think you can source the inspiration well with the artist I have found; showing initial research. I also think that the editing for this shoot was a lot cleaner, as well as I varied the tools I used for it a lot more than I had done for the other shoots. Do you think that your final ‘zine’ really showcases your range of photographic and editing skills? You must provide reasons for your answer I think my final zine does showcase theses skills well as the styles in which I have chosen to edit each of the shoots vary a lot. I think it provides an insight of the alternative types of photography I can capture. From ones that appear a lot more editorial, to those that seem more independent and personal. I have also shown where I can edit the photographs in an slightly more abstract manner that distorts the image and still edit it to suit that style; making it work. Then on the other end of the spectrum being able to edit photographs in a much more simple and accurate display of what is going on in the image. Where in shoot 3 for the glow in the dark images I feel that involved a lot more editing than what was in shoot 4. They both appear very different from the concept and the editing. I feel that shoot 3 displays my editing skills in a much better light, where you can visibly see what I have done to edit and enhance the image. Then in shoot 4 you are able to see more of how the shoot was constructed and the varying angles that it consists of; demonstrating my photographic skills more so than shoot 3.
Shoot 4
Shoot 3
Do you think that your ‘zine’ is an effective way to showcase your skills and ideas to your target audience? You must provide reasons for your answer I think that my zine is effective to my target audience as it puts my photographs for this unit together in one easy to view format which can be viewed and accessed easily online. Since it is online it is good for my chosen target audience considering they are young and on the internet and social media a lot more than other age ranges. I think that I have demonstrated my skills well in this project so the target audience will be able to gather this from looking at my final zine. It also provides a wide range of different ideas that I thought of. I feel I have thought up many alternative ideas where I have tried to manipulate the chosen brief into something that not many people would typically think of when analysing those topics. For example for the alternative bride, I feel not many people would of thought of having a butch/gay bride to represent the alternative bride topic as not many people may consider that role as a bride due to the ‘masculine’ aspect of it.
How do you aim to ensure that your target audience has the opportunity to view your ‘zine’? I will make sure of this where the site that the zine is uploaded is a form of social media where anyone who has access to the internet is able to discover my zine as it is open and free to anyone of the public. My chosen target audience are likely to be looking on websites such as this as research to find inspiration for their own work or personal pleasure. Also since my target audience is mostly young people they will most likely be using the internet and social media rather than physical copies of the zine. I can also advertise or upload the zine onto other social medias to try and connect to others on other platforms and even people that may not consider themselves interested into photography or fashion, who may learn to appreciate something like this. Furthermore I could print out the zine if I wanted to for a portfolio or for people to view in a physical form so that it feels more personal to them and they can easily review it when wanted if not internet was accessible.