Conray Duke Photography

College Student Pre Degree in Photography

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Feedback from media course students, week 4

Today we represent our blogs and final pieces to the media students in college. They gave us feedback on our work and our recorded progress. Reading the feedback that i was given i am happy with the comments and that they can see the influence i used for my final piece as i wasn't so sure that i produced enough research. However i am happy with the comments and am glad to recieve feedback from a different course. 

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Response to blog feedback, week 4

I am pleased with my feedback and completely agree with everything that was said. I’m surprised by the feedback as i didn't feel that i had enough research for this project and that it was one of my main focuses to improve on next time. I agree with the feedback when it says that i need to experiment with my camera work more. For the next project i’m hoping to use different angles and different focus points. Based on my two final pieces and my feedback i would like to think i got a merit but i will happily accept a pass.  

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Feedback on Blog , week 4

Unit 1:

So far I think that you have explained and analyzed your images well, describing how you have edited them and saying what had inspired you on the theme of your editing and exactly how you have edited all of your images; this is shown all throughout your blog and the images within your blog. You have also experimented well with different PhotoShop techniques which has had a positive effect on your final images as it shows you have a wide range of skills when using PhotoShop. Your images from the scavenger hunt shoot also show a good use of experimentation within editing your images.

Unit 2:

You have done a good amount of research that is shown in your blog; it clearly links in with the work that you have produced so far as it is influenced by the photographers and magazines you researched. In your mind map you have also shown considering a wide range of ideas for your final images which shows that you have thought a lot about your final images for your project.

Unit 3:

You have explored a good amount of magazines and photographers within your research which is clearly shown in your blog. There is also good research from the library task as there is a variety of different portraits that you had looked into in this task. You have used your visual language well to describe other artists work that you have looked into so far in your blog and it is clearly shown within your work so far.

Unit 4:

You have clearly shown a wide variety of techniques used within your work and you have clearly experimented with your images in PhotoShop which is clearly shown in your blog. However, I think that you should do a bit more experimentation with the camera when taking photos.

peer assessed by: Jess Pollard 

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Week 4 

FINAL EVALUATION – THE START

For the first project we had to represent ourselves in two final portraits. I have produced two final pieces that I am proud of and know that I worked as hard as I can. At first I was not sure on my two final pieces, but as the week went on I decided upon the two portraits above. My thrasher magazine portrait was mostly me just experimenting with Photoshop as I have not used it regularly. I produced a contact sheet to show my progress with the original portrait. My research included two skate photographers/companies. Originally I wanted to replicate a piece of Aaron Smith’s work as he connects skateboard within most of his work, which I wanted to do. However, when it came to week three I researched more skateboarding photography and came across Thrasher magazines. I really connected with the photos as they use bright colours and they clearly experiment a lot with the angles they use and the levels of contrast and shadows.

This is why I included the Thrasher magazine logo on my final piece as a skateboarding is a strong passion of mine along with photography. The concept of my work mostly stayed the same throughout the process, I knew I wanted something connecting with skateboarding to represent my interest. However, my second final piece took influence from the Photoshop task we completed in week one. We were given a task to represent ourselves in a number of ways, one of which being how people see you. I think my second piece of work relates to that more than anything as I am described as shy. Which I chose to represent my sitting in the dark on my phone. I originally wanted the portrait to be black and white, but as I went on I realised that I should include more in the photo to do with me. Hence the blue saturation and the increase of shadows and little exposure. Both of my final pieces show a different side to me as a person, the Thrasher magazine being bright and bold to represent how I feel when I skateboard and the second being dark and showing little exposure to show my shy side.

I would say that my English skills have helped me with the evaluation of my work and the evaluation of others. Describing the photo itself and the message behind why it was taken. I used my maths skills when setting the ISO and aperture to capture photos with perfect exposure. However even when the exposure was not great I would use Photoshop to edit the photo the way I wanted it to be.

Throughout the first four weeks I have learnt so much already, being new to Photoshop I didn’t know the basic as well as some of my classmates but with help from my peers and the Photoshop induction. The skills I learnt in Photoshop were completely new to me and have really help to improve my work. We had a task to re-touch an old photo, which I had never done before. But once I got to using the healing brush tool I found it straight forward. I have used the re-touch tool in most of my work, mostly to remove marks and shadows in the background. I also started my first blog in week 1 using Tumblr, as it is my first blog I was worried about the evaluation mostly and how it would turn out online. But now in week four, I’d say I am confident to blog at least once a day. I think that blogging has improved my evaluation skills on my own work and my peers.

I feel that in these first four weeks that I have really pushed myself with my photography skills, my evaluation and my developing skills in Photoshop. I have learnt that I am fairly confident on editing but know that there is always room to improve, whether that be with work or evaluation. On the character matrix we refer to respect, communication, drive, people and grit. As it comes to respect I feel that I have understood respect and professionalism in the class as I use the communication skills to understand their critics and their evaluation on my work. I have taken complete responsibility for my work, saving everything on google drive in case of needing a backup. I feel that my drive has completely improved in the last four weeks as I have met barriers in week 1 and 2 that I had no idea on how to overcome. But after focusing more and listening to others, I feel that I have overcame those barriers. The biggest example being using Photoshop. The barriers that I overcame in these past four weeks have helped develop my work even further. I have also begun to understand why it is good to work with others, to receive critics and improve your work. I also know now to recognise other people’s views on pieces of work as their view could easily help you to develop your work further or give you a completely new idea for a piece of work. I feel that I have managed my time well, and I am confident on meeting deadlines throughout the course. For example, the library task and the starting project. I don’t feel that the course has stressed me out at all, learning new things and taking photos are really relieving to me. I feel that I have took an extreme amount of pride and care in my works presentation on my blog. However, at the start I didn’t enjoy how it wasn’t in chronological order, however with assessment from my peers I have labelled each post with the week it was completed e.g. week one, week two. And I included a title of which it relates to e.g. library task, photoshoot, contact sheet.

I feel that I have stuck to the guidelines of the brief as much as possible, however at first I was not sure evidencing my planning, but now I have completed a pie chart to show the time I spent on developing, photoshoots and evaluations as you can see from the chart I split the time equally to get the best result I can.

I have enjoyed the whole project so far; however, I do not normally do as much evaluation as I’ve done in the past four weeks but as time progresses I am getting more used to it. I feel that I didn’t enjoy the re-touching task at first as I haven’t used it before but now that I completed that task I am confident using the tool in other work. I think I engaged well with others, giving and receiving critics. I know didn’t engage well in the Photoshop induction as I am new to using it and did not know about most of the tools.

I feel that I am most proud of developing my photos in Photoshop and I am really pleased with the results. I know that I need to improve on my camera work, just getting the ISO right with the right amount of focus I need for the shoot. For the next project I’d like to focus on getting perfect exposure for my photos and change the angles I use to experiment more.

The crit sessions have helped me improve my work and my blogging. The most recent critic I received was to include more imagery in my research on my blog. Which I am aiming to work on for the next project. I totally agree with this as I recently viewed my blog I did discover there wasn’t enough post on my research, the evaluation was good but there was not enough imagery. For the first day I received feedback from all departments, they described my use of colour in my work great and said I display the work well.

This chart shows the time I have spent on each category of my work:

I worked out the calculations by counting the weekdays I’ve had on the project which ended up being 15. I then multiplied 15 by 7 (the amount of hours we are at college) and the result came up as 105 hours. I had to estimate the time on all the categories as I didn’t time myself very well. I estimated the time I spent on the categories for one day and I got; one hour for blogging, one hour for experimenting, one hour for photoshoots, 30 minutes for research and 30 minutes for editing photos.  Once I calculated all of this I multiplied the results by 15 to get the estimated amount of time for the four weeks of the project. • Experimenting = 25% = 15 hours • Blogging = 25% = 15 hours • Photoshoots = 25% = 15 hours • Research = 12% = 7 and a half hours • Editing photos = 13% = 7 and a half hours

From this graph it is now visible that I could’ve spent more time on my research which is something I will work on for the next project, however I am pleased with the work I have produced and I feel that I manage my time well.

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Week 4, peer assessment

Today i assessed Jonah’s work and i was very impressed by his technical ability to capture good, high quality photos. With each of his photos wether be portraits or landscapes you can see that each time he has experimented more and more to produce the best photo he could. He experimented with double exposure quite a bit and it worked out really well. All i could say to improve his work is to maybe blog more often, and produce some contact sheets of his work so you can see the photo start to finish and that way you can see even better how he has experimented and improved his photos. 

He also suggested that i use more imagery in my research for this project, so i will start looking at more than 1 or 2 images to influence my work.

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Week 3 Library task - research Shot by George Rodger Shot in: 1949 Book title: contemporary photography

I like that’s it’s in black and white with the shadows being visible, I think that this is a really well done photo for the time that it was shot. I like that he has made the portrait the main focus using the blurred background ever so slightly. I don’t have any negative points on this portrait. 

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Week 3 Library task - research Shot by Erwin Olaf Shot in 2003 Title: paradise “the portraits” I like these portraits because I like the contrast of colours Erwin has used and the fact that he has used 4 portraits to create more effect and more to look at really adds to his skill of art. I like the contrast and exposure he has used in the portraits, i find it interesting how the first portrait is blurred almost like the model is on the other side of a window. As each portrait passes you can see how his technique and developing skills has improved. 

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Research -

ive decided to take influence from thrasher magazine, and apply it to my final piece. Creating a magazine cover of myself has been very interesting and i am hoping to use more influence from thrasher or any skate magazine really. I really connect with the contrast of bold colours they use and the different angles and the levels of highlights they use amongst the shadows.

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week 3 

today we have a photoshoot in our spare time and this was captured outside on our courtyard. I experimented with it almost creating a magazine look (which i hope to do one day).

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Work from home - 

tripod Shot contact sheet - 

Here is my contact sheet for my first tripod shot. I edited it in photoshop and gave it a darker tone and less exposure. I also used the paint tool to give myself white eyes. this helps to add more effect with the black and grey backgrounds. It creates more of a pop and draws more attention to the face where as you look you can recognise that i have increased the shadow levels slightly to add to give more exposure to the highlight and mid-tones. 

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Work From Home - 

The start 

Our first project is based on portraiture and need to represent ourselves in two final photos. I have been practising at home and in my spare time to develop my portraiture skills even further. The first portrait was shot in college in my spare time , which i edited in photoshop to increase the exposure, increased the saturation slightly and increased the shadow level to show the contrast off colours in the shot. The second photo is a self - portrait that i shot at home using my tripod for the first time. I then came into college and developed it in photoshop increasing the exposure and decreased the shadow levels. Not bad for my tripod shot.

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First contact sheet - 

this is all the work i completed today, and it shows what i have learnt after the photoshop lesson as i have screenshotted the evidence to back up the proof of me using what i learnt. I have learnt about the levels of shadows , mid-tones and highlights. I have tried to use everything i learnt that lesson in all the photos. I am relieved on what i have achieved so far as i am new to using photoshop regularly.  

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First Print - 

This is my first print at college. The picture above is the original, i have used the paint tool in photoshop to make the purple background green. This i feel make it look better as the blue tiger stands out even more. I increased the shadow levels to make the tiger sharper amongst the background and i enhanced the hue to make the blue a bit brighter. I also increased the level of highlights in the photo so the white is brighter to go with the brighter blue. Using the photoshop tools i learnt today, this was a lot of un to edit and i am pleased on how it ended up developing. 

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Week 2 

Photoshop Basics -

Extension Task

We had to use the skills we learnt from our photoshop lesson to retouch and edit the old picture above. I have screenshotted my progress and am happy with how it turned out. I used the patch tool to remove the white marks over the portrait and then once i had a more clear portrait i then increased the shadowing in the portrait to give the photo a more sinister look. I then reduced the mid tones to create a darker image , but increased the highlights as it’d show the contrast between the shadows on the portrait face which the lighter side. 

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We studied exposure and we learnt about aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Aperture is the size of the lens and it controls the amount of light coming into the shot. The numbers are reversed so the bigger numbers are smaller lens and lets less light in e.g. F22 is smaller than F8. The bigger lens let more light it and exposes the photo/portrait more. We also learnt about the light metre also which shows how much light is need in the photo e.g. if it is + there is too much light , if its - there isn’t enough light. You aim to get it on the bar near 0 which means that you have perfect exposure. Shutter speed, basically the longer your shutter is open the more light is allowed in the shot and more blurred the motion will become (if you’re trying to capture one). 1/60 sec is the lowest hand help shutter speed you can get , anything below 1/60 sec you’ll need a tripod.1/1000 sec shutter speed is to capture moving object but when you take the photo the motion is froze, this is mostly used for sporting events. ISO is the sensitivity to light. For example in a sunny lighting (outdoors) you’d use 100 ISO (which is used 90% of the time). For indoor events/ showcases you’d most probably use 3200 ISO. 100 ISO is better quality which is why its used more. Plus the higher your ISO is the louder your camera will become when taking a shot. We also talked about depth of fields/focus, the lower the number your lens is the more the background will become blurred e.g. a shot in F1.8 will have the main feature for example the model be really sharp whereas the background is blurred more. That is mostly used in portraiture because the model or main feature is lifted by the blurred background. However a shot in F22 will be completely sharp, the main factor and background are the same level of detail. This is mostly used for landscape photography.

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The Start -

first initial idea

Practise Shoots And Mind maps 

This is my first mind map for the project, its based on portraiture and needs to represent myself. There needs to be two final portraits by the deadline. I have decided upon basing a portrait on skateboarding as its a favourite hobbies of mine. The shoot would be set in the streets and i would love to include some graffiti on the walls or something like that (real or photoshopped). I’ll be using Aaron Smith as an influence for this project. As he connects his portraiture with skateboarding so naturally. In this shot i will be using a model, almost replicating Aaron Smiths work in a way. However as this project is about me i will be having the model wear a hood to cover his face. This is for the reason that i come across shy to some people. The other final piece will be the last photo up above as i feel this is why i seem to most people. However instead of black and white i’d love to include blue somehow in the portrait as its a colour i like. The two pieces will be my lifestyle e.g. one will be shy and on his phone , whereas the other is adventurous and enjoys skateboarding in his town.  

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Week 2

Photoshoot - 

One of our task was to represent 4 different emotions in our portraits e.g. how people see me , how i feel, alter-ego and a different side to you. I decided to focus on the alter-ego more than anything, taking inspiration from Jared Leto’s joker (shot by Clay Enos). Using photoshop i made my portrait into the joker. Giving myself the iconic green hair and the red lipstick. I decided to use a graffiti background to relate it more to myself as i spend most my time in the streets.