My Visual Diary - Evaluation

The project I’ve just completed is called ‘My Visual Diary’, it was a project based on our day-to-day life and activity. It was quite a flexible project as it was entirely down to us with what we included in it. Some people decided to stick with a few themes throughout the project whereas others like myself decided to include a variety of things and just go with the flow. I decided not to stick to any specific themes as that would restrict what I could include each day. I wanted to be able to include any daily activity without having to think about whether it would fit in with particular styles or not.

Throughout the project I did various bits of research to either get some inspiration or some sort of influence. Quite close to the beginning of the project I did some research, finding images which had strong leading lines and direction as that’s what I am interested in. I found a selection of images, which I later came to talk about on my blog. One of the images I found definitely did influence me (the Michael Small piece in one of my early blog posts.) an awful lot as I always thought about it when I was in an environment with possible leading lines, which I could capture. Before doing any sort of shoot, I always tend to look for photos which can inspire me if I get a visual block. I think this is a good thing for me to keep on doing as it stops me from wasting shoot time not knowing what to shoot. As well as doing online research, in one of the mid weeks, I borrowed a library book which could aid me when trying to understand specific techniques and camera settings such as aperture and depth of field.I found the book very helpful as it was laid out in a very simple way. I like being able to go to the library in the college to borrow resources as its a much simpler way than having to go through a lot of useless stuff online.

Over the past four weeks of the project I have learnt a lot about the way I work as a photographer. I’ve learnt about my camera techniques, the way I process and download my work as well as my Photoshop skills and tendencies. When I take photos, I usually have a pretty good idea already in my head of how I want the end photo to look. I tend to know how I’m going to edit it and what my subject will be. Another thing is the way I section out my shoots. As this project was called ‘My Visual Diary’ I laid it out in the best and easiest way possible for me to work with. I set up a folder on my computer, which contained folders for ach day of the project. I labelled them 15th September, 16th September… and so on. When I downloaded the photos I took each day, I put them immediately into the correct day so I didn’t get lost or confused. After editing my photos each day, I would save them into a folder called ‘Edited’ which was placed inside the day. When it comes to what I’ve learnt about my editing techniques, it’s pretty similar to how I’ve always worked. I open my photos in Photoshop and I immediately alter the curves and levels and from there it can vary. One thing I’ve got into the habit of doing is turning my photos into black and white and seeing how it changes the mood and tone. If I don’t like it I’ll revert it back. I also like to use colour popping in my photos, as I like to enhance specific subjects.

Other things I learnt about during this project is how to use more Photoshop tools. Before starting this course, I had little knowledge but it was a start. We had a class on the basics of Photoshop which I found very handy as it reminded me of the simple things and it also helped me understand tools which I had been using but not necessarily been aware of how to use it better, knowing why I'm using it or knowing what else I could do with it. As well as learning techniques for editing, I also learnt things about the way I work against time, the way I work in a team and the way I get stuck into tasks. When I’m given a deadline, I like to plan out the hours/days until that time so that I know exactly what I need to accomplish in each block of time. When I work in teams, I tend to take more of a back, quiet role as I’m not a very vocal person. I’ll always get stuck into the task with my group but when it comes to presenting, I am a lot quieter. My skills when it comes to pitching have gotten better since starting the course as I’ve realised that as long as I do my best and am happy with my work any really negative comments can only be used by me and turned into helpful criticism.

When we had tasks such as the depth of field task and the music photography shoot, I came across small problems. During the depth of field task I struggled with getting used to the aperture camera settings and how to change it for a specific shot. By borrowing a book from the college library, I have now got more of a sense when it comes to depth of field. The problem I had when doing the music photography shoot was my social skills, as I needed a model in order to fit my photo in with the photographer I had chosen to respond to. As I’m not very loud or vocal person, I struggled with finding someone and asking him or her to be my model. I got over this by just going for it and having a friend with me.

I feel like the photos I have been taking for this project are all quite simple and sometimes a bit too basic. I had hoped when starting this project to do some more professional styled shoots but it’s something I haven’t successfully completed.

Out of all of my photos I have a few favourites:

- One of the man sat on a bench at the barbican

- The coffee cart

- The pitching exercise photo with the fashion students work

I like these three photos as they all have mood and tone that is quite deep. The three photos all have something that draws you in, the man at a bench being his facial expressions creating mood and the black and white filter. The colour popped cart being so vibrant and outstanding and the variety amongst the fashion journals. I think that some of my photos managed to create good tone and subjects but some were mainly taken, as I didn’t have much else to include. If I was to re-do the project, I would plan each day and what I was going to take photos of each day – this would give me more time to think about specific shoots as well as giving it more of a structure. I would probably also have a theme running throughout the weeks, as it would be a learning curve to compare the differences between similar photos.

Overall this project for me has been quite good and i've enjoyed it more than I expected. It’s given me a chance to take photos in places I wouldn’t usually want to or would feel awkward in. It’s given me more confidence in talking to people about my photos as well as the criticism side of it. I’ve enjoyed having to write about what I’ve been doing as diary keeping isn’t something I’ve ever really been interested in doing.