Final Evaluation

My research has helped me in my exam because it has given me inspiration for my final three shoots. I did some preparatory shoots related to shadows and I really liked how they turned out, however I still wanted to explore other types of everyday objects photography so I did do other techniques in my preparatory shoots. By far the shadow images were my favourite, and by the shadow images, I mean my shoots two and three from component 2. They worked really well and still didn't stray from the subject area which was everyday objects.

The photographers research has helped me a lot because i was able to look at successful photographers and what they did in their photography and how that worked. My main inspiration was probably Andre Kertesz, I didn't know much about him previously, however now I really like his work and I think you can definitely see the inspiration in my work with how I use shadows. I like his photograph of the fork leaning against the bowl and that was my inspiration for my second preparatory shoot. 
I looked at a number of photographers and their work, however I think that Andre Kertesz had the best work for what I wanted to take photographs of. 
Although, I really liked Stephen Shore's photography. I think that he took really interesting photography that I would like to explore if I had longer. His was a lot more casual than Kertesz's imagery and worked with colour and layout rather than with shadows. 


I love this image because of the colours used. The pink is very subtle and goes with the green on the background really nicely. I also really like the contrast with the pastel colours and the white newspapers on the side. It means that the colours aren't overwhelming.

This is Kertesz' image, as you can see, he has used a light directly above the fork to create this shadow, we know this because it is the same shape as the fork, it isn't warped in any way, I really like this because it doesn't look fuzzy or anything it just looks normal.

This inspired me because I really like how the shadow is just as important as the object itself, rather than just something that is there which is what shadows are sometimes. I think that the shadows are possibly even more important than the actual objects because they are a lot darker and bolder and I think that when you look at that image your eyes are drawn to the shadow more.

This is a photograph by Emily Blincoe, she takes photographs of arrangements of objects like this, I was inspired by this photograph and the works of Andre Kertesz to take my photographs in the second exam shoot. I am very happy with how they turned out as I think that they look great. I had to do some editing work so that they all worked together, however overall, I think that they turned out good.

Her image looks a lot like a staircase because of the way they are going up like that.

This is one of my photographs from the second shoot, I am very happy with this, it is very different from Blincoe's photography, however I think that this image is very good as well. She lays her objects out so that they are in an order, whereas I didn't do that, mine are laid out quite randomly and in addition, my matches aren't straight, some of them are quite wonky because they don't stay perfect when they are burning. In her image, all of the matches are quite perfectly laid out.

I think that my image looks quite like a fence because of the way they are standing up in a line like that. 

In my preparatory shoots and my three exam shoots, I learnt a lot about how to progress my photography. Technically, I have got better at taking photographs as my understanding of camera settings has progressed. Recently, I think that my photographs have been at their best as I have been putting a lot more effort in than I was last year.

Before this year, I didn't work with light in my own images much, however now I can use studio lighting with confidence and also use lights at home in a professional way which shows some development of skill. I tended to depend on daylight for my photographs last year, as they were all taken outdoors. However, now, I use synthetic lighting for a majority if not all of my shoots, especially in component two.

My aesthetic ability has also developed, I think that from last year to this year, there is definitely an improvement. I am taking much higher quality images this year because I am spending longer on the shoots and thinking about how they are framed and how they look. I also think about how the photographs will work as a series, however I am not as good at that yet. I would definitely like to improve on that. And although the photographs work one by one, they don't always look as good when I put them together. 

This is one of my photographs and I really like how it looks because of the framing, 

in my opinion my work is strong in many areas, I like how I use lighting because I think that you can tell that a lot of effort has been put into it. Although it isn't perfect, I am still learning how to take good photographs and what works best for my photography.

I like the aesthetic of this photograph because I think that the colours work really well in this, it looks very simplistic because the tones are quite dull, the pink is bright but it isn't too bright, and the table it is on is a very neutral colour which goes with the jar well.

I used computer experiments in this exam because I think that they work best with what I am doing and I have a lot of experience with working on photoshop. I have decided that physical experiments aren't very relevant to what I am doing so I'm not going to use them in my exam. I think that usually they are very time consuming and they don't end up looking that good.

I am very happy with the way this turned out, I wanted to use warm colours like yellow and orange and red etc because I think that it made the most sense with the matches because of the connotations of fire and warmth. It definitely made more sense to use those colours than colours like blue and green.

I think that I chose really nice colours for this image, I needed to use one lighter colour and one that was quite dark because otherwise the photograph would be too dark/light. So I chose the colours yellow, and an orangey brown. I think that this looks really nice overall.

To conclude, I am very happy with the progression that I have made since we as a class were first given this subject for our photography. I really enjoyed exploring this and I think that with my preparatory and exam shoots I have shown a high level of skill, I explored many different styles of everyday objects photography and I think what I did worked out looking really good. My shoots are all nice and I am pleased with what I achieved in this exam.