Joseph O'Boyle Photography A2 Exam Project: February 2020

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

Overall Project Evaluation

Overall project Evaluation......... This will be completed at the end of the exam.

Here you will need to summarise how your work has developed as a result of the shoots that you have undertaken.

· How has your research influenced the final series of images that you have created?

· What new insights have you gained as a result of the project, this can be:

o technical (learning new techniques in camera operation, shooting)

o aesthetic (new ways of presenting work)?

· A critique overview of how successful you were in responding to the exam paper identifying areas where your work is strong and areas where you might want to improve your work further.

Progression and Development

Technical Improvements

Aesthetic Improvements

Critical Analysis of Photos and Future of Exam Project

Computer experiments – This is where you will demonstrate ANY computer techniques you have undertaken to refine and develop your work. You will need t show the examiner how you have transformed your work through use of text and screen prints. The experiments selected should in some way be relevant to your project and add to the story “narrative”. Ensure that the computer experiments are appropriately labeled in the blogger with some annotation of the working process and that the images convey the critical analysis (connotation, denotation). The target number of computer experiments is 5. STUDENTS LOOKING FOR HIGHER GRADES SHOULD CHOOSE TO DO MORE THAN 5, BUT ENSURE THE WORK IS ANNOTATED AND RELEVANT.

Physical experiments - one...two...three....four....five

This is where you will demonstrate ANY computer techniques you have undertaken to refine and develop your work. Dependent on your project we recommend that you undertake 3- 5 physical experiments e.g. scratching, painting, etc.. The experiments produced should in some way be relevant to your project and add “narrative”.

Digital Experimentation Review

Physical Experimentation Review

Work Record 10 - "The Finalé"

Plans for Shoot

Research Influence

Contact Sheet

Image Bank

Best Images

Images to Improve

AO3;Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress

AO2;Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops

Experimentation

AO1;Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding

AO4;Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements

Progression

Work Record 9 -

Work Record 8 -

Work Record 7 -

Work Record 6 -

Interim Evaluation

Interim Evaluation.........

Here you will evaluate your progression for the preparatory shoots.

· How has your research influenced the final series of images that you have created?

· What new insights have you gained as a result of the project, this can be:

o technical (learning new techniques in camera operation, shooting)

o aesthetic (new ways of presenting work)?

· Progression: what do you intend to take forward in the remaining 3 shoots.

· You will also need to have a plan in place for your exam.

YOUR BLOGGER for the preparatory shoots MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE START OF THE EXAM moderated shoots. On the 9-APRIL. You will be asked to lock your blogger and pass on administration rights to your tutor at this point.

FOR THE MODERATED EXAM TIME. Students MUST within the available time conduct THREE SHOOTS, have a written evaluation, work records, etc. and conduct a final evaluation. You will receive an additional sheet for how to lay-out this part of your work.

Progression and Development

Technical Improvements

Aesthetic Improvements

Critical Analysis of Photos and Future

Work Record 2 -

Plans for Shoot

For this shoot I am planning to revisit Carl Andre's style of photography, capturing defining elements of Harlow through the lens of my camera. I intend to use various tools such as a Tripod, bubble meter (for accurate measurement of angle) and more. I will also be planning to spend a moderate of time altering settings for each scene, and focus on creating captivating photos from similar angles of those seen in Andre's work.

Research Influence

As previously noted, my primary influence is that of Carl Andre's works under Quincy, and his style of photography where he focuses on notable points of a towns area, so as to see how to define the said town.

In the photoshoot, Carl Andre particularly focuses on the areas of Quincy which explain its past, present and future. For example, this photo shows the present of Quincy - a recently abandoned foresting site likely emptied for the Christmas holiday, as shown through the everlasting snow on top of the tree trunks.

Contact Sheet

Image Bank

Best Images

Images to Improve

AO3;Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress

AO2;Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops

Experimentation

AO1;Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding

AO4;Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements

Progression

Work Record 5 -

Work Record 4 -

Work Record 3 -

Work Record 1 - "Harlow Outlook"

Work Records - one...two...three....four....five....six.....seven...

The work record will have a progression section. This is similar in nature to the work diary however there will be a PROGRESSION paragraph. This is an important section, where most of your marks will be gained as you will demonstrate your ability to analyse and refine your work.

The use of screen-prints, lighting diagrams with annotations is encouraged. The analysis of more than one good image is encouraged particularly where you had a good shoot and the images produced have different meanings.
Plans for Shoot
In this shoot, I will be attempting to replicate the photography style of Carl Andre, interpreting the identity of Harlow through drab photography in Black and White. I will be heading out on a cloudy day to improve this (hopefully not raining), and I will take photos of areas which portray the town's identity and personality.

Research Influence

As you'd expect, I will be influenced by Andre's style of photography, whereas he directly documents an architectural piece and/or area mostly devoid of people, particularly focusing on man-made found in nature.

For example, the photo on the right pictures a previously active forestry sight. As well as this, a few photos in the image bank also show Andre's photography. In these photos he focuses on signage and industrial-esque photography in natural environments, portraying the human urban sprawl.

Contact Sheet

Image Bank

These photos here describe a style of urban photography I want to reach through the next few shoots. Personally, I feel that the life of a city is not only focused on its architecture but also its inhabitants, so in the incoming shoots I will be looking into using subjects in my photography, like for artists like David Ingraham.

Best Images

Images to Improve

AO3; Record ideas, observations, and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress

The photos taken for this shoot, in my opinion, did not quite reach the degree of photography I wanted to find, mostly due to the merciless rain which was pushing multiple shoots back to concluding early with only a few photos.

As seen in my chosen artist, I am looking for a mix of urban and rural with significant links to the identity of the town through various things like notable landmarks or signage (e.g. Carl Andre's photo of the grave with the same name as his). Though I feel I definitely integrated grassland into my photography, I didn't quite reach the feeling of long plains you can find in the Quincy photoshoot I analysed in both the research and in my influence.

In these photos, I hope to do a large (but not extensive) amount of editing for both experimentation and alteration to improve the overall quality of the images. The photos themselves do not have the best exposure levels so editing may be required to improve them.

Other than the regular editing around creating a monochromatic high contrast environment, I might experiment with putting the subject in the first photo into a double-exposure photo of one of the other images, creating this link to introspection.

AO2; Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops

Camera Settings

Camera; Nikon D3200
Shutter Speed; Between 100-500
Aperture; f11
ISO; Between ISO200 and ISO1600
Other Information; N/A

Experimentation

For my experimentation, I've decided to look deeper into the idea of segregation in urban environments between natural and man-made areas. Moreover, I've decided to use my only photo of a person to see what more I can try to create. In the first of the two experiments, I played around with double exposure.

While it was difficult to do this with the style of image I was looking at, I still wanted to give it a shot as I've recently been looking into it and the quality of it. To do this, I went through to the image of the exit of the underpass & the bus stop photo of the subject, and spliced the two together by putting the landscape image over a cut out version of the subject and masking it. The mask is vital as this means it removes any sort of image outside of the area of the layer below, essentially negating areas of the image you want negated.

After completing this step, I tried smoothing out the unrealistic border of the image of the subject through using the eraser tool methodically on a high softness. One side effect of this is that I had to deal with the glow effect which is quite prominent in the final photo. As well as this, I selectively removed various points of the overlayed landscape photo to create an effect which was reminiscent of the glow of a phone screen shining up at someone. I did this by erasing before the beginnings of the likely shadows in reality, focusing on a glow coming from the bottom upwards and extending out.

Finally, I added a shadow to further make the idea of a phone screen and studio lighting more realistic. However, I did this very quickly and wasn't too focused on quality.

In conclusion, the photo did not quite come out to the perfect quality I wanted it to. However, it does successfully imply the idea I was trying to get across through the meaning and techniques I was using. Though subtle, it is a very clear double exposure photo.

Upon finishing the photo above, I moved on to experiment with creating a photo where it gave a harsh cross between urban and natural, overgrown areas. Using the same first photo as before, I started by putting a diagonal shape through the middle of the page and adding a small drop shadow to the right side of the shape. After this, I selected all parts left of the shape on the original photo and deleted/erased it depending on how accurate each tool was.

Once I finished this step I found the image of the stairs and inserted it into the right side, repeating the step of erasing and removing overlapping parts. However, I didn't like how the stairs slightly followed the contour of the line in the middle, so I undid the steps and flipped the photo, before redoing the steps once more.

After that I decided I needed to remove the unnecessary graffiti which now lacked much meaning or aesthetic value. To do this, I first tried spot healing and regular healing which both didn't quite make it work. Then, I tried manually duplicating the tiles to superimpose on the graffiti'd tiles. This, while ever so slightly noticeable in the final image, vastly improved the final photo.

In the final image, I think it was in higher aesthetic standing than the previous digital experiment I created. Personally though, I don't see as much meaning in the photo than the former.

Edits and Adjustments

In my edits, I went back through Carl Andre's style of photography and picked out various elements I needed to repeat through my photography. Particular elements being the high contrast and borderline moderate exposure, as well as a modest amount of grain & noise. Though this may have been unintentional, I did add small elements of noise to the photos to retain authenticity. After writing this however, I feel like I could add to the photography by giving them a Polaroid-esque frame which links back to Andre's Quincy shoot which did have elements of white borders in a similar theme to Polaroid's Onestep 1 and the frame which would be shown through that camera.

As an example of my editing, I started by opening each image in the Camera RAW editor embedded in Photoshop. Upon opening, I set them into B/W and edited how I want the final image to look. However, after finishing the adjustments to brightness/exposure, contrast etc. I put it back into colour. This is so I don't lose any data through lossy compression when transferring between it being a RAW file and a PSD file.

Here is an example of after pulling it into the regular PSD editor, where I have used the spot healing tool to apparently hide the raindrop found on the original photo. After doing this, I put the photo into B/W, as found below:

AO1; Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding

Looking back to the original brief I set myself, I believe I could've done better in finding identity-related shots in the sense of the Towns and Cities project I am doing. The photos I've got, however, do represent somewhat the style of photography Carl Andre was doing in a sense. As expected it was much more difficult to find natural spots over the typical urban environment though, so the photos seem more urban than the Quincy shoot.

The photos themselves weren't exactly my best - I feel that under better weather conditions and timeframes I could do much better, partly because I will have time to fiddle with settings without worrying about rain or when to get back.

AO4; Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements

Progression

As final images, I believe they were indeed successful (contrary to previous belief) in creating a similar atmosphere seen in Andre's shoot. For the editing, I actually went for less contrast than I usually would, so I could get the washed-out feel represented in the artist's photos, which helped quite a lot.

To progress, I will be revisiting Carl Andre once more in shoot 2, however, I will be trying to enhance my ability to take these blended ideas of nature creeping into towns and cities, while capturing the identity.