Evaluation
My initial aim for my Art3 Personal Investigation project
was to create a body of work that illustrates the representation of musicians
from the eye of an audience along with why they entered the music industry as a
whole. I was willing to travel and socialise with new people in order to make
this project successful, which were a struggle for me in previous pieces of
work I have produced.
I also wanted to include direct statements from the musician
I photographed or was going to photograph in order to illustrate elements of
verisimilitude and ensure my body of work was a realistic depiction of these
musicians.
I think in this project I have learnt that not all genres of photography are simple and due to this being a genre I am passionate about I was willing to put time and effort into every stage of the investigation project, as demonstrated in my sketchbook.
I think in this project I have learnt that not all genres of photography are simple and due to this being a genre I am passionate about I was willing to put time and effort into every stage of the investigation project, as demonstrated in my sketchbook.
When I carried out my introductory A2 project in the summer
of 2015, I stuck to a genre or theme that I felt comfortable with, therefore, with
this project I made sure I thought outside of the box and pushed myself.
Due to this way of thinking, I have managed to develop
skills I have previously learnt and also learnt brand new skills. One of these
is that I feel a lot more comfortable in contacting new people, asking for work
and socialising professionally in order to network. Previously I would have
found emailing complete strangers and messaging them on social media in order
for a favour not only unappealing but also annoying for whoever was on the
receiving end. Yet, after talks from both Graeme Oxby and Matt Sedgley it
encouraged me to put myself out there, not only online but in person.
People I have met whilst shooting also enforce this. For
example, Nick Neuenhaus; a popular music photographer that I met at the Myth
City shoot has since become a good friend of mine and we have met up at
concerts since. I think this project overall has expanded my social skills and
I have become more confident when talking to other people that work in this
genre.
Another skill I have developed is how to manipulate lighting, due to the use of spotlights and atmospheric lighting, shooting concerts means a darker and low-light environment. Therefore, the aperture and ISO must be higher, yet also it is important to establish the best angle in order to avoid the glare on the camera from the spotlights, and manipulate the venue lighting.
Another skill I have developed is how to manipulate lighting, due to the use of spotlights and atmospheric lighting, shooting concerts means a darker and low-light environment. Therefore, the aperture and ISO must be higher, yet also it is important to establish the best angle in order to avoid the glare on the camera from the spotlights, and manipulate the venue lighting.
I think both my summer project and technical induction
helped greatly with my Personal Investigation body of work. For a start, my
summer projection needed a lot of planning in order to make sure everyone was
available. This helped me become more organised and also more patient when
working with new people in my personal investigation. If I had not planned my
Art3 out as well as I have, it would not have been successful and it work have
caused me to become rushed and produced a body of work of a lower quality. Due
to this being a subject that I am highly passionate about, it was important for
me to ensure it came out exactly as I envisioned it.
Plus, in my technical assignment, I learnt new studio
lighting skills that came in useful during my shoots and experimentation, when
I was testing different lighting and compositional techniques for my portraits. This helped me to be quick and efficient when shooting portraits in the studio at college using techniques such as edge lighting and butterfly lighting.
Overall, I think I planned successfully, which meant when it came to shooting at concerts I had done the appropriate research (especially tips on how to create successful final images, included in my sketchbook) This meant that I was more confident working with other music photographers and was well adjusted to what I was doing in order to shoot efficiently. All my planning is included in my sketchbook and highlights the amount of work and research I have put into this project.
Another thing I think I applied successfully was communication skills, during this project I was presented with opportunities to talk to new people for my own benefit. By messaging people I was unfamiliar with to gather more shoot opportunities I was able to network more and gain more contacts (this skill was emphasised greatly by Graeme Oxby during his talk in class so I soon realised the importance) I did not only have to communicate with other photographers but also the musicians themselves. The majority of the concerts I photographed were of bands unknown to me and therefore I had no sense of their character and personalities. Although, I believe I was able to form good friendships with the bands and still keep in contact with them now over social media.
The final thing I believe I executed successfully was Photoshop editing, post-shoot. Before this project I was naive with Photoshop and only used it for basic tools, yet due to the colour highlights cast over the models by the key light source and also the dull lighting I had to put a lot of time into adjusting the colour balance and channel mixer to try and get some form of verisimilitude into my final outcomes. Also I spent time adjusting the contrasts and saturation of my images, specifically on my fifth shoot to create a visually appealing body of work.
Some compositional skills I have developed during this project and that I believe are my strengths were both rule of thirds and symmetry. both of these compositional techniques have been used in my project to highlight certain band members and make them the key element of an image. For example, in Shoot three I used rule of thirds in almost all of my images. This was due to the number of members in the band, the stage seemed almost crowded with all five members so it was important to focus on one member at a time, focusing upon them with a shallow depth of field. In terms of this shoot and this compositional technique, I believe it would have been more effective if I had shot with the 50mm lens, but this was something for me to build upon in other shoots. I see these compositional skills as a strength because I feel confident when using these and I believe it helps me to produce images that are well focused and that I am proud of
I believe my shoots in the studio were a good example of my technical skills and how they have developed since the start of the year. including the studio layout i set up and where the lights were arranged. I was able to adjust the lights after photos in order to create the lighting effect I needed and therefore I was efficient and handled my time well. this meant i was able to shoot more images to analyse and gained more experience. i think this was one of my strengths as I was confident when working inside the studio as well as on location at concerts. So it illustrates a range of skills.
One of my skills I would improve on for future subjects would be my conceptual skills and the ideas behind my project. before deciding on a concept I decided on a genre, something that interests me highly and I had to work my concept around that. For this project I think my concept could have been stronger in order to generate a sound body of work.
As mentioned before, in terms of lighting skills I believe I worked well with what I was given, using high ISO's and the lowest apertures available on the lenses I used to manipulate the atmosphere of the venues. Although, this could be improved on slightly as I would liked to have experienced more equipment, such as other lenses that were available and even experience more venues around the local area with different types of lighting to further my experience with music photography.
During this project I think the only technical issue I encountered was with lenses. For shoot number three I planned to use the 24-70mm f/2.8 but when it came to shooting, there was an error with the lens I had taken out and it was unable to attach to my camera. This meant I had to use a lens that was less appropriate for the lighting conditions and therefore produced images that were grainier and of a lower quality. Although the images I produced for this shoot are still great images, personally, I believe I would have done a much better job with the lens I wanted.
The only way to fix this problem was to spend extra time on Photoshop post-shoot in order to correctly adjust the levels, saturation and contrast.
My artist research helped me to form a basic
Overall, I think I planned successfully, which meant when it came to shooting at concerts I had done the appropriate research (especially tips on how to create successful final images, included in my sketchbook) This meant that I was more confident working with other music photographers and was well adjusted to what I was doing in order to shoot efficiently. All my planning is included in my sketchbook and highlights the amount of work and research I have put into this project.
Another thing I think I applied successfully was communication skills, during this project I was presented with opportunities to talk to new people for my own benefit. By messaging people I was unfamiliar with to gather more shoot opportunities I was able to network more and gain more contacts (this skill was emphasised greatly by Graeme Oxby during his talk in class so I soon realised the importance) I did not only have to communicate with other photographers but also the musicians themselves. The majority of the concerts I photographed were of bands unknown to me and therefore I had no sense of their character and personalities. Although, I believe I was able to form good friendships with the bands and still keep in contact with them now over social media.
The final thing I believe I executed successfully was Photoshop editing, post-shoot. Before this project I was naive with Photoshop and only used it for basic tools, yet due to the colour highlights cast over the models by the key light source and also the dull lighting I had to put a lot of time into adjusting the colour balance and channel mixer to try and get some form of verisimilitude into my final outcomes. Also I spent time adjusting the contrasts and saturation of my images, specifically on my fifth shoot to create a visually appealing body of work.
Some compositional skills I have developed during this project and that I believe are my strengths were both rule of thirds and symmetry. both of these compositional techniques have been used in my project to highlight certain band members and make them the key element of an image. For example, in Shoot three I used rule of thirds in almost all of my images. This was due to the number of members in the band, the stage seemed almost crowded with all five members so it was important to focus on one member at a time, focusing upon them with a shallow depth of field. In terms of this shoot and this compositional technique, I believe it would have been more effective if I had shot with the 50mm lens, but this was something for me to build upon in other shoots. I see these compositional skills as a strength because I feel confident when using these and I believe it helps me to produce images that are well focused and that I am proud of
I believe my shoots in the studio were a good example of my technical skills and how they have developed since the start of the year. including the studio layout i set up and where the lights were arranged. I was able to adjust the lights after photos in order to create the lighting effect I needed and therefore I was efficient and handled my time well. this meant i was able to shoot more images to analyse and gained more experience. i think this was one of my strengths as I was confident when working inside the studio as well as on location at concerts. So it illustrates a range of skills.
One of my skills I would improve on for future subjects would be my conceptual skills and the ideas behind my project. before deciding on a concept I decided on a genre, something that interests me highly and I had to work my concept around that. For this project I think my concept could have been stronger in order to generate a sound body of work.
As mentioned before, in terms of lighting skills I believe I worked well with what I was given, using high ISO's and the lowest apertures available on the lenses I used to manipulate the atmosphere of the venues. Although, this could be improved on slightly as I would liked to have experienced more equipment, such as other lenses that were available and even experience more venues around the local area with different types of lighting to further my experience with music photography.
During this project I think the only technical issue I encountered was with lenses. For shoot number three I planned to use the 24-70mm f/2.8 but when it came to shooting, there was an error with the lens I had taken out and it was unable to attach to my camera. This meant I had to use a lens that was less appropriate for the lighting conditions and therefore produced images that were grainier and of a lower quality. Although the images I produced for this shoot are still great images, personally, I believe I would have done a much better job with the lens I wanted.
The only way to fix this problem was to spend extra time on Photoshop post-shoot in order to correctly adjust the levels, saturation and contrast.
My artist research helped me to form a basic
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