When I first started the year I had no photography experience, so I think I have improved incredibly since then, doing the shoots for the formal elements was very helpful in exploring photography as a whole because when we did all the elements, I was able to find out which element I liked best that I could focus on more. I really liked lines, which was the first shoot that we did. There was around 10 formal elements: line, shape, colour, pattern, texture, tone, form, movement, depth, and reflection, we also did some extras: landscape, portrait, and documentary images. Of these, lines, depth, landscape, and portrait images were my favourite. I think that my photographs have improved from doing these shoots.
Additionally, my artist research has definitely helped me improve my photography, my favourite photographer is Cédric Delsaux, I think that the issues he touches in his Nous Resterons sur Terre album are all very interesting. I also loved how he used contrast in his photographs
For example, in this photograph, it is of workers houses in front of a casino, showing the contrast between the people that visit and the people that work there, one is obviously very well taken care of, whilst the other is dilapidated.
I think that Cédric Delsaux's photography has made an impact on my photographs, I frame my landscape photographs a lot better due to studying his work; his landscape photos are incredibly framed, theres nothing cut off weirdly and the lines in his photos are all straight, showing the amount of care he has taken in shooting this photograph.
Furthermore, I studied Rut Blees Luxemburg. She takes urban landscape photography in London, and I really enjoy studying her photography. As you can see from my London trip, I took photographs inspired by her, however, I didn't have my tripod with me which made it almost impossible to get a photograph like hers. My photograph is a bit shaky, although it was my first try at this style of photography so I think that I did it pretty well. I went on to look at this style in more depth in the second unit.
Another photographer that has inspired me is David Bailey, he took portraits of famous people in controlled lighting, I tried this for one of my portrait shoots, however I think that it turned out a bit too dark. I used a honeycomb light for this shoot and next time I would direct it more in the subjects face, because you can only see a little bit of the face and the rest has no light on it at all. In contrast his photographs have a lot of light all over, but more light on one side.
I experimented with my photographs on both the computer, and physically. Personally I think that computer experiments worked better, however in some cases, physical experiments look a lot better, for example, when making a photograph look creepy, it works better to edit the photograph physically, unless all you want to do is change the lighting, which can be equally as powerful.
When editing on the computer, I was able to try things out a lot easier, because I had the option of just undoing what I did if it turned out badly, whereas with physical experiments, I would have had to print out another photo to edit again, so more planning is necessary for the physical experiments. In addition, I know how to use photoshop well on the computer, but I wasn't sure what to do for the physical experiments, which is why they are very simple.
This is one of my physical experiments next to a computer experiment, although in this case the physical experiment looks better, it took so much more longer that I don't think it is feasible to be able to do it for all my final shoots in unit 2 because I only have 10 hours for the exam.
I think I am most successful in my portraits and landscapes, I really liked Thomas Ruff's style of deadpan images and I liked to recreate this style. However I didn't take enough outside, the majority of my portraits were in the studio, this is because at the time it wasn't very good weather and the lighting wasn't very good, next time I do portrait photography I will do it in the summer when the lighting is a lot better.
My landscape photography was very good in my opinion, I took a lot of urban landscapes which I love, however I had only just started using a tripod so my usage of it wasn't very good, in unit 2 I will aim to use the tripod better so I can have steadier photographs.
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