Photography Final Piece and Evaluation

Lesson: 12-10-2015

In this assignment, we were required look for images that we found to be freaky/unique and write about them. We were then asked to pick a few of these images, which we would then look at attempting to recreate. In weeks to follow, we had to find objects/subjects that would allow us to recreate these images and then set-up our own lighting and camera set-up in order to take pictures of these things. Following that, we had to use Photoshop and the skills that we had learnt in order to achieve the recreation of an image that we found in the previous weeks.

During my research, I had a lot of difficulty finding images that inspired me. For me, it was quite hard for me to find freaky/unique images that I liked enough to want to recreate. During the research session, I was given the idea to look at ‘surrealism’ in photography and art, to see if it would aid me in finding something to inspire me. Given that I did this, there wasn’t much that I found that I wanted to follow through further with. By the end of my research, I found that only one or two of the images I found were ones I hoped to follow through with.

When we were told to find freaky/unique/unusual photography, I wasn’t sure what I was expected to find. There are a lot of things that I looked at that didn’t fit the criteria of freaky/unique. For example, at one point I was looking into a lot of gore and images like that to see if I could find something that I thought would fit the theme. After emailing to ask what kinds of things were to be expected in freaky/unique photography/imagery, I was told that things that looked a little strange or surreal could be under the classification of freaky/unique.

I didn’t really have many ideas throughout my work. By the end of working on this piece, I was relatively happy with what I came out with. My idea was to get a photograph of an eye and arm from someone in the class and then edit and merge them together in order to attempt to recreate one of the images I had found during my research.

When shooting the images I wanted to use, I had to take the time and interference's into account. Because we were shooting images in groups, it meant that we only had a limited amount of equipment to use, so we had to take turns using the camera and red-head lighting. By the time I got the camera, there was only a short amount of time left to get my images taken. The interference's I encountered was the natural lighting in the classroom; this made the shots that I took a lot brighter than I would have liked them.

When editing the shots that I took, I first used the ‘pen’ tool in order to cut them both out so that I just had what I needed. Once I had cut them out, I made sure I ‘feathered’ the selection so that when I deleted the selection, I had a smoother edge around the now cut out photographs. Then, arranging the images where I wanted them, I changed them both to black and white using the ‘adjustment’ under ‘layers’. Then, I used the ‘levels’ and ‘curves’ and adjusted them until I was happy with the brightness and contrast left in my image. Following that, I decided to use a ‘gaussian blur’ in order to attempt to give the feeling that the image wasn’t completely focused.

This is the final piece that I created for this assignment.

In the next assignment, I think I would make sure that I completely understood the task. While I feel that the way that it was explained to us as a group was okay, I found myself not completely understanding what was expected from me for a lot of this assignment. Nevertheless, in this assignment, I learned quite a lot. I learned new Photoshop tools that had not yet been taught to us; as well as how to use different shots to my advantage. One of the shots that I took was rather light compared to how I needed it to be; however, when editing, I found that I could use it to get a better contrast for my images.

In my opinion, I don’t think that my final image meets the assignment briefs, nor my original proposal. This is because, for a lot of the task, I was unsure of what was being asked from me. I felt that whoever I asked in the class seemed to be thinking different things, so I found myself getting a lot of different answers when I asked. As much as I wanted to make sure that I was clear on the task that was being asked from me, I felt that whenever I asked, it was forever changing. By the time I had found out exactly what it was I should have done throughout this assignment, I had already taken my photographs and was halfway to creating my final piece. While I wasn’t too far from what the outcome of this assignment was, I still feel as though it didn’t turn out as well as it could have if I had understood from the start what was being expected from me.