Final Evaluation

Throughout component one, I have studied into various photographers that have inspired my passions into photography styles such as Billy Kidd, David Bailey, Thomas Ruff, Diane Arbus, and many more. The photographers named here are all portrait photographers, this is the style that has most inspired me; the use of a minimalistic composition to capture a person I find fascinating and the aesthetic highly enjoyable. A photo of a face can vary in many messages and meanings, the variables seem endless: the facial expression, general pose, there being more than one subject, background, details on the subject's face or body (e.g. makeup, accessories), angles, etc. 

During this component, I have further developed my camera skills and bettered my understanding with Photoshop technicalities. When starting the component, I would take photos using auto exposure settings, now I take photos with my camera in manual mode with every shoot I do, this allows me to choose the exposure I want for my photos. I still struggle at points with getting the exposure correct, but it has immensely improved through the blogs I've created. With experiments/edits, I have developed my ability to understand what best fits a photo's aesthetic, for my photos, black and white aesthetics best compliment the photos and creates the message I want to present. I have learnt new various edits such as dodge and burn, which is perfect for my portraiture work, and have also been able to develop the skills I have in edit methods I already knew to make my photos appear the best they can.

I'd say the way I take photos has improved heavily, this component has made me hyper-aware of so many details I need to pay attention to when taking a photo. I focus on things such as exposure, angling (composition), what I am actually directing presenting in my photos, the message I want to present. Overall using visualisation methods when taking my photos to get the best photo presentation. Beforehand, I ignored all these details and would simply take a direct photo of something, not considering more abstract ways to take the photo.

I believe since I have discovered my passion for portraiture and documentary photography, my work will be going in the direction of these topics for component two. I have consistently stuck to the black and aesthetic and think it best fits me so I will further my ability to create this aesthetic in my work.

As said earlier, my ability with exposure is still not perfected, so I plan to develop this till I reach the best of my ability with it so I can I have the best in my photos. I seem to struggle in figuring out what I specifically want to present in my photos, finding a message or meaning I want to present is difficult for me, so I need to further my creativity for this to be easier and faster for me in the future when creating portfolios. My successes in this component have been developing my overall skills in photo taking and my ability to analyse photos. As said earlier, my knowledge of my camera and composition variables has helped me to improve my photo taking; this also helps to analyse a photos composition and the meaning for it. My ability to analyse other's work has progressed throughout the blogs since the experience of looking at various photography styles has developed my knowledge in photo symbolism and connotations.