Although I was a little worried about my difficulty of perceiving some aspects of colour accurately (although not being colour blind) I am pleased with the feedback from this assignment. My tutor says,
Technically this assignment is very good
with some great results and some standard pictures as I mentioned above. The choice of subject matter you have used
for your projects so far (flowers, food) are rather standard and as a result
you are being limited in your creativity.
Technically this assignment is very good with some great results and some standard pictures as I mentioned above. The choice of subject matter you have used for your projects so far (flowers, food) are rather standard and as a result you are being limited in your creativity.
"This assignment demontrates a professional understanding of colour and you have produced some very beautiful imagery as a result. Some of these pictures show great contrasts, they are highly saturated and visually impacting. Some lack the distinction demonstrated here.
I think the best ones worked well when you removed them from their original context using the coloured card and gave them a bold contrasting background. This brought it slightly away from the standard way of seeing flowers and into a more graphic design context. Perhaps you could have kept this strategy for the other combinations too?
I had thought of maintaining the consistency of using coloured card to give a bold contrasting background for all of the photographs and this seemed to be the logical thing to do. However, the specific instructions in the brief emphasised the need to -
"vary the subject matter, including both arrangements (such as still-life) and found situations. In arranged photographs, you will have the advantage of being able to choose objects and settings that have the exact you are looking for. Uncontrolled situations are rather more difficult, and demand more careful observation."
Regarding technical and visual skills, quality of outcome and creativity my tutor says,
"Technically this assignment is very good with some great results and some standard pictures as I mentioned above. The choice of subject matter you have used for your projects so far (flowers, food) are rather standard and as a result you are being limited in your creativity."
It is good to see you hone down your project to a consistent theme and it seems like you learnt a lot by systematically going through the exercises and taking in the course material considerably. This is great and will stand you in good stead for future assignments. I suppose what would be good to see from this point is you putting this knowledge into projects in a way that enhances other ideas rather than a project which illustrates what you have learnt. The difference here is very important. As you build up your technical understanding and as you progress through the course the technical considerations will be there as a back up to your ideas. Now, and this is normal for level 1, your ideas are illustrating the technique. That is fine for now but what we are aiming for is for these two things – ideas and technique to switch places. We are wanting the ideas to take the driving seat in other words.
As you learn how to develop your creativity this will come more naturally to you but for now it is a difficult but important concept to focus on.
I like the suggestion that there has to be a sort of reversal - a critical summersault perhaps - between technical aspects of the assignments and ideas. In the future, ideas have to lead rather than technical skills which will be more the back up to the ideas. Hopefully, this development will come in my future work. I like the way my tutor talks about the concept of ideas trading places with technique when she says "without having something to say what use is vocabulary?"The lighting assignment should really help you to see the different impact light can have on the reading of a picture. Have a look at Hitchcock’s use of lighting in creating suspense and see if you can use lighting to help bring your subject to life. Try to use light to evoke different personalities to your object – gentle, fierce, suspicious, romantic etc. Think about not only the technical considerations but the overall result on the pictures keeping particular attention on how the different light creates a different ambiance / feeling.
Regarding my other activity outside of the exercises and assignments my tutor says,
"It's great that you are attending exhibitions and reading consistently. I can’t emphasise this enough. What you are gleaning here will often not be able to be put into words but you will, at some unknown stage, start to see the impact of this on your photography."
Regarding book reviews, I have been trying to discover the bast way of doing this. My tutor says,
"Your reviews of both Graham Clark and Charlotte Cotton’s books are good. In general I would recommend not giving long and involved chapter by chapter overviews of the book in your reviews but rather focus on the questions you are asking as a result of reading them. In this sense the review of Cotton’s book is better. You are starting to engage with the concepts raised and are asking good questions such as “Why all the self portraiture?!” and “What draws photographers to strange locations?” These are great questions. Try not to stop at asking the questions but use the review and reflection opportunity to really answer them. This is what we are looking for from reviews rather than a description of the books. Perhaps a helpful strategy for your own notebooks is to begin by writing a chapter by chapter overview in note form where you identify the main questions you have or things you learnt and then write it up into a review for your blog where you can really reflect and probe into those questions until you come to some sort of conclusion.
For example you say in the review of Clarke that you are thinking more about the size of your work but you don’t go any further. What about the size of your work? How would you implement this?
When you say you are leaning about how images are ‘read’ what exactly are you learning? Go into more depth and try to find answers to the great questions you are beginning to ask yourself.
You are on the right track here – I’m just pushing you further.
Finally, my tutor has recommended some useful reading material and web links. Her advice for the Light assignment is,
"The lighting assignment should really help you to see the different impact light can have on the reading of a picture. Have a look at Hitchcock’s use of lighting in creating suspense and see if you can use lighting to help bring your subject to life. Try to use light to evoke different personalities to your object – gentle, fierce, suspicious, romantic etc. Think about not only the technical considerations but the overall result on the pictures keeping particular attention on how the different light creates a different ambiance / feeling."
Technically this assignment is very good with some great results and some standard pictures as I mentioned above. The choice of subject matter you have used for your projects so far (flowers, food) are rather standard and as a result you are being limited in your creativity.
"This assignment demontrates a professional understanding of colour and you have produced some very beautiful imagery as a result. Some of these pictures show great contrasts, they are highly saturated and visually impacting. Some lack the distinction demonstrated here.
I think the best ones worked well when you removed them from their original context using the coloured card and gave them a bold contrasting background. This brought it slightly away from the standard way of seeing flowers and into a more graphic design context. Perhaps you could have kept this strategy for the other combinations too?
I had thought of maintaining the consistency of using coloured card to give a bold contrasting background for all of the photographs and this seemed to be the logical thing to do. However, the specific instructions in the brief emphasised the need to -
"vary the subject matter, including both arrangements (such as still-life) and found situations. In arranged photographs, you will have the advantage of being able to choose objects and settings that have the exact you are looking for. Uncontrolled situations are rather more difficult, and demand more careful observation."
Regarding technical and visual skills, quality of outcome and creativity my tutor says,
"Technically this assignment is very good with some great results and some standard pictures as I mentioned above. The choice of subject matter you have used for your projects so far (flowers, food) are rather standard and as a result you are being limited in your creativity."
It is good to see you hone down your project to a consistent theme and it seems like you learnt a lot by systematically going through the exercises and taking in the course material considerably. This is great and will stand you in good stead for future assignments. I suppose what would be good to see from this point is you putting this knowledge into projects in a way that enhances other ideas rather than a project which illustrates what you have learnt. The difference here is very important. As you build up your technical understanding and as you progress through the course the technical considerations will be there as a back up to your ideas. Now, and this is normal for level 1, your ideas are illustrating the technique. That is fine for now but what we are aiming for is for these two things – ideas and technique to switch places. We are wanting the ideas to take the driving seat in other words.
As you learn how to develop your creativity this will come more naturally to you but for now it is a difficult but important concept to focus on.
I like the suggestion that there has to be a sort of reversal - a critical summersault perhaps - between technical aspects of the assignments and ideas. In the future, ideas have to lead rather than technical skills which will be more the back up to the ideas. Hopefully, this development will come in my future work. I like the way my tutor talks about the concept of ideas trading places with technique when she says "without having something to say what use is vocabulary?"The lighting assignment should really help you to see the different impact light can have on the reading of a picture. Have a look at Hitchcock’s use of lighting in creating suspense and see if you can use lighting to help bring your subject to life. Try to use light to evoke different personalities to your object – gentle, fierce, suspicious, romantic etc. Think about not only the technical considerations but the overall result on the pictures keeping particular attention on how the different light creates a different ambiance / feeling.
Regarding my other activity outside of the exercises and assignments my tutor says,
"It's great that you are attending exhibitions and reading consistently. I can’t emphasise this enough. What you are gleaning here will often not be able to be put into words but you will, at some unknown stage, start to see the impact of this on your photography."
Regarding book reviews, I have been trying to discover the bast way of doing this. My tutor says,
"Your reviews of both Graham Clark and Charlotte Cotton’s books are good. In general I would recommend not giving long and involved chapter by chapter overviews of the book in your reviews but rather focus on the questions you are asking as a result of reading them. In this sense the review of Cotton’s book is better. You are starting to engage with the concepts raised and are asking good questions such as “Why all the self portraiture?!” and “What draws photographers to strange locations?” These are great questions. Try not to stop at asking the questions but use the review and reflection opportunity to really answer them. This is what we are looking for from reviews rather than a description of the books. Perhaps a helpful strategy for your own notebooks is to begin by writing a chapter by chapter overview in note form where you identify the main questions you have or things you learnt and then write it up into a review for your blog where you can really reflect and probe into those questions until you come to some sort of conclusion.
For example you say in the review of Clarke that you are thinking more about the size of your work but you don’t go any further. What about the size of your work? How would you implement this?
When you say you are leaning about how images are ‘read’ what exactly are you learning? Go into more depth and try to find answers to the great questions you are beginning to ask yourself.
You are on the right track here – I’m just pushing you further.
Finally, my tutor has recommended some useful reading material and web links. Her advice for the Light assignment is,
"The lighting assignment should really help you to see the different impact light can have on the reading of a picture. Have a look at Hitchcock’s use of lighting in creating suspense and see if you can use lighting to help bring your subject to life. Try to use light to evoke different personalities to your object – gentle, fierce, suspicious, romantic etc. Think about not only the technical considerations but the overall result on the pictures keeping particular attention on how the different light creates a different ambiance / feeling."