Final Evaluation

For this project, we were allowed to choose what we wanted to do, as long as it related to our chosen theme for the year - my chosen theme was fashion. This allowed us to be more creative with our work, as we were choosing something that personally really interested us. It was also interesting as it meant that nobody's work would be the same / or similar. It was a little bit difficult at first to think of ideas, because we had complete choice and control, but once I started to research artists, I began to think of possible outcome ideas. I started off by researching artists who had taken pictures for magazines, and looked at the techniques that they had used to create their photographs. An artist that I particularly liked researching was Joe Gall who incorporated 'ghost' photography (double exposure) with fashion :

I first experimented and explored with the idea of gothic fairytales, but then I started to look more at portraiture work, and decided that instead of going with my initial idea of double exposure and the gothic fairytales, I chose to incorporate my theme of fashion into portraiture work, as I felt like this would be something different and more unique from my previous outcomes. Throughout the project, my ideas evolved dramatically, but I'm glad they did as I did fairytale photographs during my AS year, and wanted to do something different, which is why I was more inspired by portraiture photographs. I feel that if I had stayed with the idea of fairytales, I wouldn't have experimented much or looked at new techniques and artists as I had already done it, so because I changed my idea, I have more variation on my blog now.

My main inspiration for my final outcome was Andy Warhol, and his collection of photobooth pictures:

I thought his work was really interesting, as he captured peoples expressions and thoughts (as well as fashion sense) at that exact moment and I took inspiration from this for my final piece, as well as from the work of Cindy Sherman, who is famous for her self portraits where she takes on the persona of other people, which also inspired me for my final piece as I decided to do self-portraiture for my final outcome:

 Overall, these were the two artists that inspired me the most throughout this project.

I think that for this project, I presented my final piece in an interesting and unique way - on a pinboard full of photo strips, so that it looks like a memory board. I'm personally happy with how it turned out and I think that visually it looks really interesting, rather than being on a mounted sheet, as it looks more personal. 

I think that I should have done a bigger variety of images and dressed up in more interesting outfits to take on different personas, as I think that this could have related more to the theme of gothic that I was exploring at the beginning of the project. I also think that I should have done more facial expressions, or set the camera to a timer where it takes several pictures in a row, like an actual photobooth would do, as it would capture the real feeling of a photobooth and wouldn't look as posed or 'staged'.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project, however I found it difficult to begin with as there were no set rules that we had to follow, it being the personal project. Also at the beginning, we were asked to think of final outcome ideas, which I found slightly difficult as we'd just begun the project, however overall I enjoyed it. Although when I started exploring different techniques and artists, I found it enjoyable and interesting. In the future, I think that I would like to incorporate portraiture into my fashion theme and combine them as I really enjoyed that. 

The photographs above are how I originally displayed the photographs, however I decided to change it as I felt that the way that it was currently presented was almost too crowded, and perhaps it would look better if it was displayed in a simpler way, such as what I decided to do below :

Overall, I think that this way turned out much better than the original way of presenting my artwork. I used thin pins to pin the photographs to the foamboard, as it doesn't take away from the photographs which heavier pins would, such as the typical gold pins. 

Progress Review

1 - Which materials and techniques have you experimented with during this project?

Throughout this project, I have experimented with several different techniques both in the dark room and digitally. In the dark room, I have done double exposure, the 'bokeh' effect and also toning, and digitally I have experimented with 'the vintage effect', light and layer blending techniques and just generally changing colours on photoshop.

2 - Have you explored and developed your ideas imaginatively? How have you demonstrated this? (Give examples, links to posts or include images).

During this project, I think that I have explored and developed my ideas imaginatively. I've demonstrated this by trying out quite a few techniques (as mentioned above) and researching about them for example I found the 'bokeh' technique and then researched how to do it and tried it out in several ways that I think were imaginative and creative for example I changed the shape of the bokeh effect for my photographs - 

but then I experimented with the idea further and used double exposure to create another outcome using the same image as above - 

(for the image above I also decided to crop it in the dark room, which I think shows that I have developed my ideas and continued to experiment with the same image).

3 - Have you researched a diverse range of photography and completed this on your blog? Who have you analysed? Are your analyses in-depth? (Again, give examples and link to posts).

For this project, I have researched several different artists that inspire me, but they also have different styles of photography. First, I analysed the work of Tim Walker whose work relates heavily to fairytales, as does the work of Kirsty Mitchell. These two artists inspired me to continue my work to the theme of fairytales, but I didn't want to do the traditional fairytales, so when I analysed the work of Joe Gall who used the ghost photography technique, I decided to create gothic fairytales. I also analysed Mark Hunter and Norman Jean Roy whose work also relates to the idea of fairytales. I feel that my analyses are in depth and explore different elements of the photographs, as well as discussing how I could recreate these techniques in my own photographs. 

4 - Have you explored a range of ideas around your theme within your experiments? What are they? How have they informed your ideas?

I think that I have explored a range of ideas around my theme within my experiments as I have taken an idea and experimented further with it. For example, I took a picture of me holding an apple (like Snow White) :

so you can see the nail varnish and the hair in terms of my chosen theme of fashion, but then I took a picture of just the apple:

and then to relate it to my theme I put the lipstick mark on it. I think this is also a subtle reference to Snow White, which is an interesting effect. I think that this shows that I have explored a range of ideas around my chosen theme of fashion.

5 - Have you refined / developed your outcomes through experimentation? How?

I think that I have developed my outcomes through experimentation, for example after I'd done double exposure in the dark room with this picture :

I then took the experimentation further by toning the image with a drip like effect - making the photograph more gothic:

6 - Have you annotated, in detail, your experiments and developments on your blog and used this information to help you improve?

Yes, I think that throughout this project I have annotated all of my images and explained how I created this technique and what I would do differently next time.

7 - Which techniques / experiments have been most successful? Why?

I think that the double exposure technique has been the most successful as I found that it worked quite well and would be useful for ghost photography styles. I also think that the bokeh experiment worked well as it made my photographs more unique.

8 - Which techniques / experiments have been least successful? Why?

I think that bleaching was the least successful technique (as shown here) as I found that it made the image harder to see and I didn't think that it made the photograph better.

9 - Which techniques / experiments will you be developing further for your final outcome? Why?

I think that I will develop the double exposure technique more so that for my final outcome I can create ghost photographs. I also want to experiment more with the idea of presenting my work to create an interesting and more unique final outcome.

10 - What else can you do to further develop the techniques / experiments you want to use for your final outcome? 

I think that if I experiment more with the techniques that I've been looking at throughout this project, then I will be able to use them better in my final outcome and the outcome will be of a higher quality. 

End of Project Evaluation.

Throughout this 'Light' project, I have discovered interesting photographers during my research behind the theme. I have really enjoyed experimenting with light, especially light painting. I like the fact that this project really gave me a chance to properly experiment with both film and digital SLRs. This project also gave me a chance to make my photographs even better on photoshop, and I think that I created some really great effects on it, such as this piece :

I also learnt how to perfect light painting, working out which shutter speeds work best on my two cameras : Olympus OM 10 Film SLR camera, as well as my Canon EOS 600D digital SLR camera. When working with both, I found that the B setting worked best on my Olympus camera, which meant that I could keep the shutter open for as long as possible, although sometimes I kept it open for too long and the picture became over-exposed and not as detailed. With the Canon, I found that using the shutter speed of 10/1 second worked the best for that camera, and what I wanted to do with the shot. I used a red laser pen for my shots, and one of my favourites was this one :

However, I found that it didn't give me enough time to perfect my writing in the shot! I think that it gave a great effect, especially as I shot it in pitch black light. 

Throughout the project, the artists that I looked at various artists that inspired me; Janne Parviainen, Pablo Picasso and Patrick Rochon. I found there work interesting to research and helped me to experiment more in my own photographs. My favourite artist that I looked at this project was probably Janne Parvianinen, as I found the light paintings of the skeletons among a 'family gathering' really inspirational. 

Some things during this project didn't work, I sometimes found that my pictures weren't focused properly, so they came out blurry when developing them. I also found that working out the shutter speed for my light paintings was tricky - trying them at 5 seconds, 10 seconds and 20 seconds to see which worked best. I found that a different time worked best for each separate photograph, so it was difficult to work out which time worked with which photograph, and this took time, but for quite a few of my photographs, the timings worked well. For example, these ones didn't turn out quite right:

Using GlowDoodle

Using the digital SLRs. 

For the next project, I think that I will try and experiment a bit more with my work, and try and improve on the things that don't go so well, instead of just focusing on the photographs that have worked. I will also try and take a variety of different photos, including different locations, and light settings etc...