Unit 30 Photography Location Photography

Location Photography Project Evaluation

Cameron Green Graphic Design Year 2

What went well in the project

I feel that the strength in the project came from my personal enthusiasm for my chosen topics, as I felt much more encouraged to gather a wider selection and number of shots in each shoot. By having a wider range of shots I then round I had a greater selection of images to work with which made my image development much nicer to work with due to the range of images. I also feel that the wider range of practitioners I looked at during the project helped me to understand what shots I was looking for before committing to a shoot, through this my images and techniques became much more focused and kept me on track for relevant and effective images. From looking at practitioners I also looked at how they edited their images which again helped me to understand how images would look at the end of the editing process before I had even started the shoot, I found this extremely helpful as it meant that through out the shoot I was already picking out images that would work well with the editing style that I favoured for each theme.

What could have been improved

In terms of improvement I would have liked to look at a wider selection of equipment and technical resources, as within the project I only used 2 lenses and 2 separate bits of equipment. This is not to say that the equipment I used was not relevant I just feel that within the time given I could have gone out of my way a bit more and looked at more innovative pieces of equipment used in photography today. I would also have liked to make a clearer link between my work and that of the practitioners I looked at as I feel it is important for people to be able to see where your inspiration has been drawn from. I would also have liked to have done a few more shoots and experimented more within Photoshop, as the editing I did do was all based around minimal editing as not to make the image look fake or over edited.

My Final Images

Unit 30 Photography Location Photography

What would my final images be used for

Through out the project and when choosing my themes and final prints I also wanted to think about how the images might be used in a publication or out in the world. When looking at my indoor food shoot the intention was for them to be used in a food magazine or cook book, as of such when creating the images I wanted to create a level of aesthetic appeal but also not distorting the food and making it look false as many food publications so often do. When it came to my outdoor paintball shoot my initial thought went to again just using the images within an outdoor activity publication, however while I was doing the shoot my manager seemed very interested in some of my shots and the idea did arise that the images may be used on advertisements and posters around Centre Parcs for the paintball and outdoor activities centre where I work. When editing these images I really wanted to capture a sense of movement and when it came to editing I looked to create a green natural backdrop to the images and a clear sense of form.

How did I use the camera within the project

Trough out the project I found techniques fitted with ether the outdoor or indoor shoot, when doing the indoor food shoot I commonly used a low aperture shot with my 18 – 55mm lens, the reason for this was that the low aperture of the shot would ensure that the viewers eye would be drawn to the main focus point of the image and creating a nice amount of blurred negative space within the image. When doing the shoot I also looked at using flashes to make the food look more rustic or give the colours a warmer pallet, to do this I ether used the fixed camera on my SLR or an attached ring flash which created an extremely powerful and harsh light. When carrying out my outdoor shoot I found I was using my longer 55 – 250mm lens as not to distract the paintballer’s. Due to my main focal point being to capture movement within the shoot I was using a mix of much faster shutter speed to capture crisp movements but also some longer exposures to catch a characters movement pattern, because of this I introduced and used a tripod for a few of my shots to minimise camera shake within the images.

How could I extend the project in future

To further this project I would simply like to look at doing shoots at further events for example to continue my outdoor work look at quad biking, and archery which are two other activities I work with and am enthusiastic about. While to further my indoor shoot I would look at doing photography in more professional environments such as restaurant kitchens etc. through extending my project in this way I feel it would also force me to look more at the technical side of photography and allow me to look at more equipment that would help me capture and create more interesting images in terms of style, finish and composition.