Final evaluation

My work has been largely influenced by a number of photographers over the course of this unit, some of the most influential include Martin Parr who's work influenced my documentary series and Ruut Blees Luxembourg who's work influenced my landscape series and lead me to explore a variety of options such as inner city landscapes where I could take advantage of the variety of tones created by street lights.

My use of equipment has greatly improved over the course of this unit as before taking part in this assessment I had never used a camera to shoot high quality images.  I have since learned how to manipulate depth of field to create intriguing images as well as how to alter my camera manually to allow for high quality images in a number of lighting scenarios.  The most challenging tool for me to learn was Photoshop CC 2014 and as can be seen from my images it took time to gain the image quality that I desired and time to grasp how the editing software worked.  Over time I began to experiment more and more using colour select features as well as inserting effects such as duotone to create intriguing and surreal images.  I have also learnt how to set up the studio and can now set up box lights, change backdrop, set up table top photography and shoot using low-key lighting through the means of a snoot.  I have also learnt composition techniques such as the rule of thirds which describes the best way in which a image can be composed to make sure that it captures the viewers attention and draws the eye in.

I feel that the quality of my work has improved vastly over the course of the unit due to the fact that I have begun to familiarise myself with the tools that I must use every lesson.  I am also looking into learning more advanced techniques for my second unit such as gif making.  I have found that I am more able to tell if something I see on the street will be a good image after I have photographed it, this has enabled me to create a higher volume of high quality images.  I have also discovered that my images are developing into a distinct style and that I particularly enjoy the use of low saturated images with a somewhat surreal effect to them however I am interested in branching into more socio-political photography in component 2.

I have experimentation through the means of physical experiments and have found that I do not particularly enjoy creating them but feel that they could be useful tool for self expression opposed to simply image adjustment.  I far prefer to manipulate my images using Photoshop CC 2014 as I feel that this gives me the cleanest appearances and allows for me to experiment with more surreal aspects in my images.

I have discovered over the course of component 1 that the areas which I am most interested in are documentary photography (particularly candid portraiture) as well as studio portraiture with my own personal twist as I am not a big fan of the somewhat stiff and dull work of Thomas Ruff.  I would much prefer to branch into the more controversial world of David LaChapelle.   I believe that this unit was largely successful due to the way in which my style developed over the course of the unit and my knowledge of the subject of photography increased along with my skill set.