Final Overall Evaluation
In my opinion, both of my shoots for my exam have been successful and I have managed to achieve multiple outcomes which I am pleased with and feel as though all the outcomes reflect my chosen topic of 'the passing of time' well. My work has continued to develop throughout my Component 2 work, right up to now with the exam.
I began the unit by looking at simplistic expressions of the passing of time, such as flowers' life cycles and clocks. This is what influenced me for my second shoot for the exam, which looked at clocks. The exam shoot was very similar to my second shoot for the unit but the exam shoot appeared to be improved in many ways as the images were defiantly more effective and interesting. I chose to shoot the clocks from varying angles which I didn't do for my first shoot. I liked the outcomes and think they they showed multiple elements which assisted them in being effective. I think they the images were framed much better than my initial preparatory shoot was and I found that the way I framed the image helped to determine the effect which the image had. Also, many of my images for my second exam shoot showed a narrow depth of field. I think that this helped to add more interest to the image and also helped to focus the audiences eye to certain areas of images more than others. I edited my images from shoot 2 using Photoshop. I mainly just edited my images simply by adapting the curves and levels to make them bolder and more striking. However, I also edited a few of them in black and white which I thought looked effective, yet still preferred the more simply edited ones as I felt that they worked better as a series. My first exam shoot was linked more to the second half of my Component 2 work. In my second half of work, I explored the use of long exposure which began by looking at light trails but proceeded to look at movement. I took inspiration from the likes of Alexey Titarenko and others, such as Kang Seon Jun and Jesus Chapa-Malacara, all who explore the passing of time via looking at movement through the use of long exposure. Shoot 1 for my exam was mainly influenced by the work of Alexey Titarenko. I decided to create images which followed the theme of shoot 8 from my preparatory work. I used long exposure to capture a variety of images of people moving. I did this in wooded areas in order to create a slightly creepy and unnerving mood to the image which I thought was similar to Alexey Titarenko's work. I then edited my images using Photoshop, where I selected around the figures in my images and selectively made them black and white. I used the feather tool to make this appear more natural and feel that this was effective at giving my images a more original and personal touch. I got the idea of using the black and white from Alexey Titarenko, whose entire images are in black and white. I liked the outcome from using the selective black and white as I feel as though it helped to make the figures appear ghostly and somewhat supernatural. This therefore contributes to the unnerving feel which I was trying to achieve within my images. After my two shoots, I decided to do some further experimentation, where I worked to combine the two shoots together into some more final outcomes. I took some images which did not show long exposure, which I had captured during my first shoot on location and overlayed an image from my clock shoot over the top. I then decreased the opacity of the second layer which helped to blend the two images together. I feel that this was very effective as it showed both the shoots combined and also helped to add interest to the clock shoot. In addition to this, the images from the experimentation could be thought to present the idea of time stood still, especially as the images of the figure do not show long exposure and instead show a still image. The pose that the figure is in could also suggest the idea of being deep in thought. Overall, I really like the extra edits and experiments and think that they too are effective at expressing the topic of 'the passing of time'.
I feel as though my photography skills have been drastically improved as a result of this project. I have learnt a number of different technical and aesthetic skills and have more importantly, got to grips with how to use the camera effectively and how the settings can affect the final outcomes significantly. During the unit, I feel as though my technical skills have improved the most. I have learnt many new techniques with the camera operation such as learning the technique of long exposure. At first, I found this to be a challenge, but as the unit progressed, I found that I was getting to grips with how to use the long exposure and was also learning the camera settings which were required to use this technique. In addition to this, I have found that my framing of images has improved which has assisted my photographs in reaching their full potential. Also, I feel as though, relating to framing, my composition of images has improved and feel as though I am more willing to now experiment with new compositions in order to try to achieve more effective images. As well as my technical skills, I feel as though my aesthetic skills have also improved. During the project, I have managed to experiment with many new and different ways of presenting my work as well as in general, improving my photoshop skills by learning new techniques such as layering which I have used in my combined shoots experiments. During the unit, I used GIFs to show the passing of time. I created these using Photoshop and they allowed me to show many images which all were presented in a series. I think that this was a very effective and helped me to tell a sort of story.
Overall, I feel that I was successful at responding to the exam paper as I feel as though all my preparatory and exam shoots showed relevance to the topic of 'the passing of time'. I feel as though I managed to create some strong images involving long exposure and also feel that my final experiments which combined the two exam shoots were also effective as they presented the passing of time in a more unique and interesting way. However, areas where I may want to improve my work further is the framing of images as I found, especially when creating GIFs, that the framing of all my images were very different whereas I wanted them to be more uniform. Nevertheless, I feel as though I responded to the exam question to the best of my ability and feel as though my photography skills have developed greatly as a result of the project. Overall, I am very pleased with my final exam outcomes and feel as though they are a successful conclusion to the topic of 'the passing of time'.
In my opinion, both of my shoots for my exam have been successful and I have managed to achieve multiple outcomes which I am pleased with and feel as though all the outcomes reflect my chosen topic of 'the passing of time' well. My work has continued to develop throughout my Component 2 work, right up to now with the exam.
I began the unit by looking at simplistic expressions of the passing of time, such as flowers' life cycles and clocks. This is what influenced me for my second shoot for the exam, which looked at clocks. The exam shoot was very similar to my second shoot for the unit but the exam shoot appeared to be improved in many ways as the images were defiantly more effective and interesting. I chose to shoot the clocks from varying angles which I didn't do for my first shoot. I liked the outcomes and think they they showed multiple elements which assisted them in being effective. I think they the images were framed much better than my initial preparatory shoot was and I found that the way I framed the image helped to determine the effect which the image had. Also, many of my images for my second exam shoot showed a narrow depth of field. I think that this helped to add more interest to the image and also helped to focus the audiences eye to certain areas of images more than others. I edited my images from shoot 2 using Photoshop. I mainly just edited my images simply by adapting the curves and levels to make them bolder and more striking. However, I also edited a few of them in black and white which I thought looked effective, yet still preferred the more simply edited ones as I felt that they worked better as a series. My first exam shoot was linked more to the second half of my Component 2 work. In my second half of work, I explored the use of long exposure which began by looking at light trails but proceeded to look at movement. I took inspiration from the likes of Alexey Titarenko and others, such as Kang Seon Jun and Jesus Chapa-Malacara, all who explore the passing of time via looking at movement through the use of long exposure. Shoot 1 for my exam was mainly influenced by the work of Alexey Titarenko. I decided to create images which followed the theme of shoot 8 from my preparatory work. I used long exposure to capture a variety of images of people moving. I did this in wooded areas in order to create a slightly creepy and unnerving mood to the image which I thought was similar to Alexey Titarenko's work. I then edited my images using Photoshop, where I selected around the figures in my images and selectively made them black and white. I used the feather tool to make this appear more natural and feel that this was effective at giving my images a more original and personal touch. I got the idea of using the black and white from Alexey Titarenko, whose entire images are in black and white. I liked the outcome from using the selective black and white as I feel as though it helped to make the figures appear ghostly and somewhat supernatural. This therefore contributes to the unnerving feel which I was trying to achieve within my images. After my two shoots, I decided to do some further experimentation, where I worked to combine the two shoots together into some more final outcomes. I took some images which did not show long exposure, which I had captured during my first shoot on location and overlayed an image from my clock shoot over the top. I then decreased the opacity of the second layer which helped to blend the two images together. I feel that this was very effective as it showed both the shoots combined and also helped to add interest to the clock shoot. In addition to this, the images from the experimentation could be thought to present the idea of time stood still, especially as the images of the figure do not show long exposure and instead show a still image. The pose that the figure is in could also suggest the idea of being deep in thought. Overall, I really like the extra edits and experiments and think that they too are effective at expressing the topic of 'the passing of time'.
I feel as though my photography skills have been drastically improved as a result of this project. I have learnt a number of different technical and aesthetic skills and have more importantly, got to grips with how to use the camera effectively and how the settings can affect the final outcomes significantly. During the unit, I feel as though my technical skills have improved the most. I have learnt many new techniques with the camera operation such as learning the technique of long exposure. At first, I found this to be a challenge, but as the unit progressed, I found that I was getting to grips with how to use the long exposure and was also learning the camera settings which were required to use this technique. In addition to this, I have found that my framing of images has improved which has assisted my photographs in reaching their full potential. Also, I feel as though, relating to framing, my composition of images has improved and feel as though I am more willing to now experiment with new compositions in order to try to achieve more effective images. As well as my technical skills, I feel as though my aesthetic skills have also improved. During the project, I have managed to experiment with many new and different ways of presenting my work as well as in general, improving my photoshop skills by learning new techniques such as layering which I have used in my combined shoots experiments. During the unit, I used GIFs to show the passing of time. I created these using Photoshop and they allowed me to show many images which all were presented in a series. I think that this was a very effective and helped me to tell a sort of story.
Overall, I feel that I was successful at responding to the exam paper as I feel as though all my preparatory and exam shoots showed relevance to the topic of 'the passing of time'. I feel as though I managed to create some strong images involving long exposure and also feel that my final experiments which combined the two exam shoots were also effective as they presented the passing of time in a more unique and interesting way. However, areas where I may want to improve my work further is the framing of images as I found, especially when creating GIFs, that the framing of all my images were very different whereas I wanted them to be more uniform. Nevertheless, I feel as though I responded to the exam question to the best of my ability and feel as though my photography skills have developed greatly as a result of the project. Overall, I am very pleased with my final exam outcomes and feel as though they are a successful conclusion to the topic of 'the passing of time'.
