I feel that I have learned quite a lot from this project, it has enabled me to explore photography and different ideas and techniques. I have used this project to try and gain more of an understanding of the area I would like to work within the photographic industry.
Last year I focused on fashion photography and beauty portraits, I really like this kind of work however on doing some research and looking at other photographers work I have also gained an interest in constructed scene. This is an area within photography that I have tried to explore within this assignment. Through research and photo shoots I feel that I have produced some interesting work based around this genre of photography.
This year I also really wanted to improve my technical skills, in particular my use of lighting. We have had a variety of inductions about lighting in the PH2000 practical module with Adam, I have then gone on to try and experiment with them. Within this assignment I did a mini lighting project where I tried to gain more of an understanding about different lighting techniques, I also tried to used some of the techniques from the PH2000 Practical inductions within my work. This semester I have gained a much better understanding of lighting and the ways in which I can use it within my work, personally I feel that my technical skills have improved dramatically this year and I have a much clearer understanding of how to achieve desired aesthetics within my work.
For this assignment I have really realised the importance of working with a team of people to make things run smoothly, I have also realised the importance of direction more than ever. I have tended to work with a small group of assistants when doing my photographic shoots, as a team I think that we work well together. I also found it really interesting to work with third year photography student Mark Prescott and styling student Terri Dent, this shoot made me think about the preparation and time management that has to be taken into consideration. This also gave me more of an idea of what I am working towards in my final year.
I found it really beneficial to be able to explore freely the genre of photography I am interested in. This assignment allowed me to learn more about my practise as well as improving my skills as a photographer. I was able to make mistakes and learn valuable lessons from them. For example, the final shoot I had intended to do didn’t go ahead as my model was unable to make it, in future I will try and have two models just in case one is unable to make it.
I have particularly enjoyed working in the studio and developing my lighting skills, although I have worked on location using the location lighting kit I would like to do more work on location next semester to further develop my skills.
Next semester I would like to improve my direction skills, I think that I communicate well when working with assistants but I still think my communication with models could use some work. It has definitely improved since last year however I still feel that it is something I need to work on in order to produce work to the best of my ability. The communication between the photographer and the model is crucial in creating the vision the photographer intended for the image.
I would also like to continue to improve my technical skills and experiment with more complicated lighting set ups. In particular I would like to improve my photo shop skills, this is something that is important to achieve the desired look for my images. I like my images too look quite polished, particularly in my constructed scene and fashion work. I will look at tutorials on the internet to do this and then practice, this is something I can look at over the Christmas break and then practise in the second semester.
I am happy with the images I have produced for this assignment, I am particularly happy with the work I have produced based around the beauty queen theme. This is something that I am interested in continuing to explore next semester. I feel that it’s a really interesting theme that I could explore in a number of different ways. I am particularly interested in looking at beauty queen’s from a variety of perspectives; I would like to look at them in a positive light and a negative light. I think that this could create an interesting set of images and convey two different opinions about beauty queens. I could also perhaps look at them and their lifestyle from their point of view. I think that its important to explore each point of view in order to come up with my own opinion of beauty queens and produce some really interesting work based around them. At the moment I am unsure as to what direction my work will take, however I will do a lot of primary and secondary research in order to produce an effective project. Overall I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge from this assignment by experimenting and researching. Next semester I intend to expand my knowledge further and produce an effective and creative body of work to exhibition standard. I am also looking to create a portfolio website to exhibit my work, due to time constraints I didn’t manage it this semester however this is something I will definitely be doing next semester.
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