Final Evaluation

For my final major project I decided to do the theme of documentary photography, specialising in street photography. I chose to do this as my final project because I have always been interested in documentary photography but I have never truly explored it in a great amour of detail. After researching documentary and street photography to start of my project, I finally decided to focus further on the idea of surveillance and the idea that everyone is being watched when they are out and about without even realising it. However, I came into some struggles when trying to figure out how to portray this idea as a project. After a vast amount of research of surveillance and researching some photographers that have used the theme of surveillance in their work I started to get and idea of how I could portray it. 

When researching for this project, I started with the basic of street photography, I learnt about different photography and the techniques they use when doing their shoots. All the artists I researched had a completely different creative ways of shooting street photography; this research helped me come up with my own creative ways of how I could show it. To further the artist research, I also created some artist responses, whereby, I created mood boards which reflected the theme of their specific work as well as creating some image based solutions. I done this by using Photoshop to create photographs which replicated one of their photographic pieces. As well as doing artist research, we were also able to go and visit David Hockney's exhibition in Tate Modern, although his theme of photography is very different to mine, his exhibition helped me discover new ideas of how to present my work. Furthermore, I did tother research to help me learn about surveillance, learning the statistics and facts of how often we are watched around the UK. As well as this, I also looked into some more photographs that had done similar projects when in came to surveillance.

After completing all the research on street photography, surveillance and on other artists I wrote out 4 conceptual and 4 technical shoot plans. My technical shoot plans focused on techniques that I had not looked into yet as a photographer; these included night photography, experimenting with shutter speeds and also some Photoshop techniques. Although these weren't directly linked with the themes of my project, they helped me learn some new skills that I will be able to use in future photography projects. My conceptual shoots were written to help me develop my ideas and to be creative with the theme of surveillance. I started off my shoots with a basic, just getting to learn what street photography was about, taking candid images of strangers and making them look professional. I was very lucky to start of this project in Iceland as we had a residential trip there with the college. These shoots help me become more confident with photograph strangers and doing street photography in general. 

As my conceptual shoots went on, I believe that they helped develop my ideas even further. One factor which could be noted, is that mostly all my shoots were very similar in the theme of them, but even though this was the case, I think that there is a clear differentiation between my shoots, from different angles to different locations. During the completion of my conceptual shoots, as I was evaluating them, it greatly helped my decipher what went well and what could be improved for my next shoot. 

For the final exhibition, I decided that it would be a better idea to use images from all my conceptual shoots, rather than doing one final shoot. I think that this would be more effective because it showed more variety as I used images from the hot springs in Iceland, from images to strangers just standing at a bus stop. I have decided to present my final images in an interesting way whereby, it comes across that the audience are being watched whilst looking at my images. When the exhibition comes around, I will put a dummy CCTV camera as well as CCTV warning signs which suggests that they are being watched.

I believe that my final major project has been very successful, I portrayed my idea well and I am very pleased with my final outcomes. If I were to improve my project I would have done a few more conceptual shoots to help develop my idea even further, however, due to illness during the time of this project I was not able to. Another idea that I would have like to have done was mimic the creations of other street artists, maybe by exploring street photography in a different way or even just simply copying one of their shoots but with my own spin on it. I did find some of the tasks on this unit quite challenging, but with the help of my peers and my tutor I was able to overcome these. However, what I found difficult with other projects was how I was going to manage my time, but with the use of an action plan, which I had never used before I was able to work productively when in came to finishing my all my work. I believe I have learnt a lot in this final project as I have done things that I have never done before, these being in my technical shoots and also learning about street photography which is a theme of photography that I would love to explore further. Finally, I am looking forward to showcasing all my work in the final exhibition that will take place later this month.

Website

http://katybirdphotography.weebly.com

Presentation Case Study and Exhibition Role Completion

At the end of this final unit, we are going to present our images in an exhibition, open to the public, displaying everyone in the classes work. After going to the David Hockney exhibition in the Tate Modern, we were encourages to display our work in a more unique and individual way, not just the standard, hang in out photographs in a frame on the wall.

When presenting my final pieces, I want the presentation to go along with the theme of my photographs, which is street photography and the idea that we are always being watched, I am going to do this with different props such as a dummy CCTV camera and some CCTV warning signs. I believe that this will be effective in showing my final idea because it can give the audience some further clues of what my final images are trying to show. Overall, I am going to have eight final images on my exhibition board, showing off my favourite work from each of my conceptual shoots. To ensure that my images will stay up on the board would be to use double sided tape, however when putting up my dummy CCTV camera I will need something much more strong and stable, such as some using some nails to put them up.

  As we have to do the entire exhibition as a class. We have all been assigned different roles, such as, putting up the images, making invitations and posters and getting snacks and drinks. However, my role was at the end of taking everything down and repainting the boards on which the photographs went on. 

Presentation Ideas

The images below are some inspirational ideas of how I could present my final images in the exhibition; these ideas are very creative and interactive unlike the conventional way, a photograph on a wall. For the exhibition I would like an interactive way to show of my final pieces so they can be more eye-catching and memorable to the audience.

Conceptual Shoot - Surveillance

For this shoot, I will being using the same surveillance idea and adding my own twist to it. I am going to complete this shoot in town during lunch time when it will be busiest. My aim is to capture people off guard as they are walking through town. When completing this shoot, the images will further suggest the idea of always being watched.

The equipment I will need during this shoot will be my camera (Nikon D810) and a tripod. I am going to set my camera up to continuously shoot every 5 seconds or so. The reason I am doing this instead of taking the images myself is because I do not want my subjects to feel uncomfortable or like they should pose for these images. Although my camera being there on a tripod may intimidate some people into posing, I hope that most people do not take much notice and carry on like they usually would. 

This shoot is going to be done outside so I will use a low ISO and as I want the images to be sharp and clear I will use a high shutter speed. If possible I may even try and get a shutter release remote so I can take the images manually but without touching my camera; this is so I don't waste shots on a blank canvas.

The obstacles I may face during this shoot is the weather may not enable me to go outside and shoot. Also people may realise that I am taking images of them and they may not appreciate this, however, if this does happen, I will simply delete in. Another obstacle that I may face is the fact that a person may notice that I'm taking images so they might pose which is not the results that I would like. This shoot will help improve my project because it is just reiterating the idea that nobody can have a private life due to the amount of camera and CCTV that is around nowadays.

Technical Shoot - Night Photography

For my first technical shoot I'm going to explore and experiment with night time photography. I am planning to do this shoot when the class goes on our overseas trip to Iceland. My main goal is to try and capture the Northern Lights but I am aware that it is not so likely that they will be seen. Aside from that my main goal is to produce some eye-catching, exciting photographs, as I have never really experimented with night photography before it will be good to learn. Where we are staying in Iceland, we will be near a harbor so it would be good to take some images of that and there is also a greater change of seeing the Northern Lights as there will be less light pollution. Below is an example of what I would like my images to look like:

To do this shoot I will definitely need to play around with my camera setting to see what looks the best. I imagine a long shutter speed and a high ISO will probably work best. The equipment I will be bringing is my camera (Nikon D810), a tripod because of the long shutter speeds, a spare battery encase mine runs out and also a spare memory card.

I am not completely sure what will be the main subject of this shoot as I have never been to Iceland before so I am not sure what it will be like but I hope to improve my night photography skills. The obstacles I may come across is it may take me a while to find the correct settings on my camera, therefore, I may not get any amazing shots but to overcome this I will ask my peers and my tutor for some advice. A personal obstacle will be not getting the opportunity to see the Northern Lights because it would be a wonderful experience. Doing this shoot will help me progress in my photography because it will help me learn how to create good photographs at night which will be helpful if I ever wanted to shoot at night again.

In Iceland, I managed to get out most nights to do different techniques when it comes to night photography. As I was lucky enough to see the Northern Lights 3 nights in a row, a lot of my final images are based around that. I also experimented with different lenses that my Tutor kindly let me have a play with as well as that he also taught me a few more difficult techniques that we practised together.

When shooting the Northern Lights, I had to experiment with my camera setting quite a bit before I could find the best way to show them off the most. In the end the most common setting I used were: shutter speed 8 seconds, ISO 800, and aperture 4.8. Over the three days that I successfully shot the Northern Lights these settings were the best. I am extremely happy with my outcomes because the images are so beautiful and interesting, however, when looking over my contact sheets there were a lot of not so good ones this is due to at times I didn't have a tripod to use, especially on the first night, this caused my images to look blurry and unprofessional. This is something I would know for next time if I ever got the pleasure of going back to Iceland and shoots them again.

Something else I learned whilst doing night photography, was how to use a tilt shift lens. A tilt shift lens is a lens in which the optics can be tilted or shifted in relation with the image sensor. They also rotate to allow the lens to shoot in a wide range of directions. The image below is one of my favourites from using this particular type of lens. As you can see, I focussed on the front of the object, slightly blurring the rest of it.

On the last night, I mainly experimented with light drawing and light painting. In the image below we used a torch and a long shutter speed to create these light drawing. The shutter speed was put on around 10 seconds depending on what pattern we decided to draw. If I could improve these images I would next time ensure that the guy in the image below was more clearer by manually focusing on to him. The reseaon I didn't to that is because I was to busy deciding on the camera settings that I didn't even think out the focus. However, I know that if I do this again, the focus is something I will remember to take into consideration. 

The two images below were done using a technique called light painting. To do this. you need a long shutter speed and a flash. You have to set up your image and then when the shutter is going off, a person has to run around the frame and making the flash go off in the specific part of the frame you would like to be lit. This was my favourite experiment that I learned during my night time photography because I had never heard of it before; this is because when people mention light drawing/painting they just assume something similar to the image above. The second image is my favourite from the shoot because of how dramatic it looks and it perfectly shows off this technique. If I were to improve this shoot, I would try and do the same experiment using different subjects to I could explore the technique even more.

Overall, I think that these shoots have been very successful and I have learnt a great deal when I comes to night photography, especially as I had never done it before I visited Iceland. This shoot will be helpful in the future when I do night photography again.

Technical Shoot - Shutter Speed

For this shoot, I am going to focus on photographing vehicles and people using a variety of different shutter speeds. I am going to be doing this shoot around the busy roads both near college and where I live, I am going to do this shoot all day so I can do it in bright natural lighting and in darkness so I can see lights. To do this shoot I am going to set up a tripod wherever I chose to take my photographs and switch between fast and slow shutter speed so I can compare the effects on the images. Although I already can hazard a guess at what the results will be, it will still be an interesting experiment because I will be able to get interesting photographs of moving cars and people moving around. Below is an example of what I would like my images to look like:

For my photo shoot I will need my camera (Nikon 810) and a tripod. I will also bring with me a spare battery in case my other one goes flat and I will also be bringing a spare SD in case I run out of memory. For this shoot I will be switching between a number of different settings: during the day time there will be natural lighting so I will need a lower ISO compared to when shooting at night. I am also experimenting with different shutter speed so those setting will be different slow, probably ranging from 1/125 to 10". 

There is not an obstacle I can think of that will effect my shoot too dramatically, only being told I cannot photograph, as I will be using the public for my images but I can over come that by deleting the images if a certain person does not want them on my camera. I believe that this photo shoot will help me progress as it will give me a greater understanding and more experience of using different shutter speeds, but it will also hopefully give me some interesting street photographs that can be used as one of my final images.