Final evaluation

In my opinion I believe my work has developed massively. This is because from my preparatory shoots, I was able to see what had worked and what didn't and I was able to work on those that didn't. Some of my images I shot on my preparatory shoots which I didn't really like at first have now become some of my favourite work because I have been able to change parts of it in my exam shoots to make it better. I also think my work has developed because I have been able to take the work I have learnt all year into account and use it in forming that chosen mood or atmosphere. An example of this is movement, in my unit 1 blog post of movement, I mainly used objects, however when researching the atmosphere of creepy, I found movement was a key element, therefore I was able to manipulate it in my favour. Additionally, I used tone in my work as an element shown in my unit 1 blog. This furthers my development because it shown how I have used the transition from highlights to shadows on my subjects by my use of manipulating light in order to shown a depressive mood.

This is an example from my unit 1 shoot of tone in the studio (on the left) and this links to my exam work now, showing depression (on the right).






This is the example from my unit 1 blog of movement (on the left) and this is how this links into my exam shoot of creepiness through the movement (on the right).








As shown on my final images blog post, my photographers research and research log has had a massive impact on my final series of images. This is because I was able to take ideas from different photographers work and merge them together to form my own work.
For example, when looking at Christian Sampson's work, I merged two of her images to create my one in my shoot of depression…
 In the image on the left, I took the idea of the two emotions and versions of depression.
In the image on the right, I took the way of editing by placing images on top of each other and change the opacity.
As I have displayed in my final pieces blog post, I used this work to show isolation in my preparatory shoot, another example of this is shown here …
I thought this was a really good effect and therefore wanted to use it in my final exam pieces.



This here is the outcome of my final piece of depression after all my research and preparatory shoots, I came up with this idea. In all I think this worked very well and am glad that I used Christian Sampson's work in my exam.
Other than depression, this effect also worked at forming that creepy atmosphere because I thought it was such a good idea and it also shows how it isn't stuck to one mood and atmosphere, you can manipulate it to be anything.



Another way that my research log has influenced the final series of image which I have created is the work by Laurel Komos. An example of her work in shown on the left. She uses two images in one to display a mood of nostalgia. I thought this was a really good idea so wanted to manipulate this in order to create depression. In my preparatory shoots, I used editing to put an image on a phone of the opposite emotion to her face. I really liked this outcome and thought it was really good.
Therefore I wanted to use the technique in my exam. Even though I didn't use a completely same technique, I still used the similar idea of displaying both emotions through my editing.
This is my final piece of depression gathered from this part of my research log.
In all I think this worked really well and it clearly displays my research. If I hadn't done my research correctly, I wouldn't of been given this idea so am really glad as it has helped my work massively.






As a result of the project, I have learnt the ways of manipulating the use of light in displaying my chosen mood. This image on the left is an example of my learning in the use of lights. I really wanted to include this image in my final evaluation because other than really liking it, I think it is a very clear example of how I have learnt the importance of manipulating my light. Beforehand, I would just shoot images, not taking lighting into account and just forming a mood through manipulating my editing. However as I have come to learnt and really like, lighting is a very powerful element of an image it can make the difference between a good photo and a bad photo. In my example here, I made the use of a "snoot-like" object, even though it wasn't completely a snoot, I made use of my objects around me to create the same effect. This is because it manipulates the direction in which the light flows. I thought this is a good way in showing my shoot 1 depression because it shows a hiding aspect of it.

Overall, I believe that I was very successful in responding to the exam paper. This is because the exam asked me to carefully position my subject- in which I have done, carefully thinking about how they should stand, where they should stand and also how I should capture them through the lens- using the rule of thirds. And example of my placement of my subjects is shown here…
Alongside using the element of movement, I managed to form a creepy atmosphere by placing my subject in a way to make her look like she is trapped behind bars in a creepy mental asylum type of way. As I used a long shutter speed to get the effect of movement of her body going upwards- I wanted to make sure my subject stayed as still as possible. Additionally, this shows my preparatory shoots have helped because I used this technique of having bar like objects in the foreground a few times (as shown below)

My reason for using this technique this many times is quite simple really, I really liked the connotation it held with it- the evil they hold is trapped on the other side, protecting them from being hurt although we can still see the danger in which they are.


The first image of the three shown here (using the same bars as my final shoot) was taken unexacting of it being creepy- it was just an experiment with my friend, however when I came to look at it when editing, I really liked the atmosphere of creepy which it helped create. This therefore led me to varying the types of bars in which I used, The second one was a bed frame at the bottom of a bed. However even though it does create that creepy atmosphere, I believed when compared with the first image, it wasn't as good. Then the final one was just a gate in which we found behind my house. I did like this one however I thought my subject was lost in this image. Therefore when it came to be doing my exam shoot I decided to use the same bars as the first one become I found this one worked best.

Additionally, I think I used my lighting very well, as shown on my techniques evaluation above. This is because I was able to change the colouring of my images- not by photoshop but in the raw form by changing the gel of the light. This meant the atmosphere was able to be created through the light, even with out the use of a subject, for example
A blue light= sad
A pink light= confusion
A red light= danger, blood.
Although, unfortunately, in one of my creepy images, I intended for my image to look red as a resemble of danger. However through the image, it looks much more pink. This shows a mistake which I did not recognise until I came to editing my photos. Except, I do actually quite like the image (this image is shown above on this blog post by my example of how my photography research has influenced me). I am a very proud of my final work in this exam as I can clearly see that development in progression in my own work.