Project Evaluation

I don't think this project was very significant or meaningful to me in ways I may not have anticipated at the beginning of the project. I think maybe if I had used self portraiture I would have found the project to be more meaningful but that was not the case.

I thought about the ideas I had through starting out thinking about identity and what makes up a person's identity, then through researching some photographers and a video I worked on the ideas and gained inspiration from the research. I thought about the ways in which I could put a photo together,  first through a collage of different photos, then through a single photo that encompassed a person's identity.

I worked hard at thinking about these ideas through the images I made by thinking about what could be done with the photos, and using annotation to collect my thoughts on the photo together on my blog. My research helped me to think about these things as I could often compare my images to my researched photographer's photos.

I enabled my project to progress by constantly thinking about my ideas and subjects for photos and taking lots of photos of my subject's and their possessions. It progressed at an appropriate pace to the project, although it could have progressed a bit faster, due to the fact I kept thinking of new ideas throughout the project.

I used planning to help me pace my project and overall achievement of it by planning out times and locations to shoot my images, it helped me to know when I would be shooting and how long it would take me.

The goals I made in terms of planning that were most useful to me were planning where I was shooting and when I was shooting. I didn't use daily diary entries or written dates and days but for my next project I think I will.

Final Shots For Print

 

Although I didn't like the out of focus belongings too much, I feel this photo was too good to not have a print out. I think it encompasses the identiy of the subject really well; she is applying make up, there are pictures of her and her boyfriend and friends in the background, along with alcohol bottles and various creams and sprays. The lighting is really nice lighting up the personal posessions in the background the subject's face really well. The composition is really nice also, the subject on the left with the possessions on the right.

I chose this photo for print because it contains a number of the subject's personal possessions, the lighting is really nice, there are some good shadows and I like the abstract swooping of light across the photo. I quite like the wide composition with lots of objects in the frame and I also like the outside edges of the photo covered in shadow, bringing your eyes to look at the lighted part of the photo.

I chose this photo as it my absolute favourite from all my shots. The lighting is nicely spotlighted around the bed, subject and possessions, highlighting the things that encompass the subject's identity and creating a moody, surreal, abstract photo. The composition is quite tight as nearly all of the bottom half of the photo is taken up by the bed, making the photo quite neat looking but also messy with the belongings, creating a nice balance. You can see I have been inspired by Maki Miyashita with the photo but added my own style, with the moody lighting.

Kept Shots

I quite like this angle, on level with the subject and bed, but the subject is covering up some of the possessions and the shoes in the foreground are covering part of the subject. Also, the The lighting looks really nice however and the trails of light above the subject really add a nice abstract look to the photograph.

The angle for this photo is a bit higher than the previous, I like it a lot more as you can see all of the posessions on the bed aswell as the subject. The lighting is good, although I think there are a lot of distracting shadows across some of the possessions.

This photo turned out really nicely. The is great lighting, spotlighting the main area of the photo - the subject and her possessions on the bed. The composition is really nice and the shadows create a really moody look. Everything is in focus too and I quite like the line of abstract light to the left of the photo. Overall this is my favourite photograph I have taken so far.

For this photo I got some of the floor in the frame and put some of the subject's belongings down onto it. I do like this composition and layout but I think I prefer the previous one as it has a tighter composition. The shadows in this photo look really nice though and I like the alcohol bottles on the floor.

Shoot 4 - Contact Sheet

For my fourth and final shoot I found a really nice angle and composition of the subject's bed and took some more photos, adjusting the angle slightly and the light during the shoot. Although quite a small shoot, I feel the photos produced her are of high quality and I am really pleased with the turnout of them.

Kept Shots

I really like the lighting in this photo, I shined it from above to create a spot light affect as the subject applied her make-up. I like the composition of the subject on one side and her possessions and the left also. I also like the variety of belongings too, pictures, alcohol bottles, make-up and various creams and sprays litter the dressing table. I used a slow shutter speed for the photo, lighting the scene up with a torch to create the moody, spotlighted effect.

I really like the subject's pose in this picture, but I'm not so sure on the quite shallow depth of field, seeing as the belongings are a major part of the photo I don't think they should be out of focus. The lighthing is really nice like the previous photo, I achieved this effect the same as before, on a slow shutter speed and shining the light on the scene.

Here I used a shutter speed of about 20 seconds and used a torch to try and spotlight the subject and her belongings around the room and bed. I think this turned out really well and I really like the abstract effect of lines of light scattered around the picture too, although this was accidental I feel it adds to the photo. The composition of the possessions and the subject is also nice and follows a nice circle around the center of the frame.

Similar to the previous photo but with different lighting, I really like how the lighting turned out, like a big spotlight lighting up the subject and a bit of the area around her. Also, an accidental effect of me standing on the left side of the photo was captured, forming a really eerie, ghostly looking image. The only problem with this photo is that the lighting missed quite a lot of the subject's belongings.

In this photo, the lighting took up quite a lot of the frame, creating some nice shadows from the belongings and the subject. Another accidental effect of light swooping across the photo has occured her, but I feel it adds to the picture and looks quite abstract.

I think this is the best photo utilising the spotlighting technique, as each object has it's own spotlight above it, highlighting it and making it stand out. I really like the shadows this creates and the original look of the photo. I captured my hand on the left side of the photo though, but this could easily be cropped out if the photo was used for a final print, which I am considering.

Here is the mirror photo, showing two how the subject could see herself or the mood she is in. I used two photos and put one on top of the other in photoshop, then erased half of the photo so the other showed through, creating this picture. I feel it turned out really well and I would like to experiment with this technique again, however I don't feel it quite fits in with the other photos I have taken so won't take it any further with project.

I really like how this shoot turned out and find Maki Miyashita have influenced the photos to a great extent. I want to do one final shoot of the bed shots, perhaps from a different angle.

Shoot 3 - Contact Sheet

(click pictures to see bigger)

With this shoot I took photos of the subject's whole room, littered with her belongings and personal possessions. I shot in an almost pitch black room, using a slow shutter and an external light source (a torch) to experiment lighting up different parts of the scene, trying to exaggerate the subject and her belongings under a sort of spotlight. I then tried the same technique, but this time with the subject sitting at her dressing table, with her belongings laid out on top whilst she applied make up. For the last section of my shoot, I tried to different way of establishing her identity, using shots of her standing in front of mirror and using light and slow shutter speeds to try and create two different images within a photo. However this did not prove succesful, so I took two seperate photos with two different poses, still utilising the slow shutter and light source technique for added mood, and I plan to combine the two photos together to make one photo. I am very happy with this shoot as I have produced some varied photos and am happy with the quality of them.

Second Collage

(click picture to see bigger)

Here is my second collage of the creative, skateboarding subject. The collage was in Photoshop like the last one, adding the photos into layers, resizing them and placing them into position. Once again, I really like the photos in the collage but not so much the collage itself. I am considering trying to take one photo that encompasses all the personal possessions and belongings in the one picture - Maki Miyashita's photographs have inspired me to do this, but I would try and incorporate my own style into the photos.