Final Evaluation

Well here we are.  It's nearly time to say goodbye but before I do, lets look back at what I have learned, or failed to learn.

I have already blogged about camera settings, aperture, shutter speeds and how I understand and often confuse myself with all the silly numbering systems.  So I wont talk about that.  What I will talk about is my experiences on the battlefield, my attempts at manipulating images and how I decided to present my images.

Level 1

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on this course.  I came into the course not really knowing anything about how to use my camera manually and now I'm pretty confident I can go out and take some decent shots without having the urge to switch to auto.  I loved the light writing task and it was good fun to get into the studio and the darkroom.  The main assignment was where I had the most enjoyment.  Initially I was in a panic.  I had chosen a difficult theme and had nothing.  No props, no costumes, just a crazy idea in my head. I think it's a testament to myself that I actually stuck with this theme.  I guess the main 'downer' was all the research we had to do. 

Now I like photography, I like other photographers and I know what photo's I like and what photo's I dislike.  The problem is writing about them.  I could tell you why I like a photo but trying to explain why a certain photographer did what they did is a little frustrating.  I think that most photographers (especially the war ones) are just trying to 'wing it'.  Studio photography is completely different.  You can see how they use lighting and such but I'm pretty sure Robert Capa didn't ask people to take time to pose for him on the D-Day landings.  I feel photography is so much more about the subject matter then the technique and equipment used.  If I like a photo, I tend to like it because it's a powerful graphic image, not because it follows the rule of thirds or because the photographer used beauty dishes or diffusers etc.  I know that even some of the most famous war photographs were staged but it's the content that matters to me.  I guess I feel this way because I would like to be a documentary photographer.  Fashion photography doesn't really appeal to me. 

Photographing WW2... in 2010!

Being a war photographer is hard work.  Your life is constantly on the line ready to be snuffed out in a split second.  That wasn't the case for me.  All I had to worry about was getting frostbite in the freezing cold or falling down large hills into ponds full of rubbish.  It was great fun, running about in the woods acting like children again.  I loved every second of it.  Directing my actors and composing the right shots took quite a bit of time.  Trial and error was also a major factor.  I often imagined what it would be like to take these pictures under the same circumstances as those famous war photographers.  Is it wrong that I actually want to put my life on the line to be held in the same high regard as them?

I cant say thank you enough to my friends for helping me out.  Mr David Land is probably the main reason this project got off the ground.  If it wasn't for him discovering a fantastic little shop in Wales that sold replica world war two gear (yes, Wales!) then I wouldn't have been able to get the equipment I needed.  I repayed my good friend by having him killed by a Nazi.

I was particularly hard on myself in earlier blogs.  Maybe because I instantly thought my images would be amazing without trying, or maybe it's because I just don't really like myself very much and feel the need to mentally self harm.  Deciding to be a little nicer to myself, I found out that I had indeed captured some great images.  Some of my portrait shots came out particularly good.

Whilst out in the field I learned that taking as many photo's as you can is a very good idea.  I used to take a photo, check the screen, then delete that picture until I was happy with the results.  Now I just keep clicking away and then have to sift through hundreds of pictures until I find some good ones.  It's time consuming but I think it's better to have too many photo's than not enough.

I was pretty annoyed when I started planning this shoot.  I had come up with a totally unique theme which I thought would stand out from the class (without being big headed, and if I could actually take a decent photo) only to find that someone had changed their idea to the same theme as me.  After having a rant to Ian I figured 'What the hell,' and just got on with the immense task.

I think we both took the theme in two completely different ways and ended up with vastly different shots.  I do apologize if I may have come across as a tad hostile.  I'm very particular about these things.

Manipulation

I already kind of knew my way around photoshop so the manipulation assignment was something that really interested me.  Some of my manipulated images came out pretty well where others were just about passable.  It was hard work getting the desired effect.

My original plan was to do something completely different for my manipulation assignment.  With time restrictions I thought it was best to continue with the war theme.  I had planned to do this amazingly surreal Jacob's Ladder type journey through purgatory with demons and everything.  Maybe one day.

Presentation


When it came to presenting the images I wanted to do these great big prints.  As soon as I found out about the Blurb website (where they will make a book for you) it just seemed to make sense.  I have seen Robert Capa and Don McCullin's books in stores and the topic fits the medium really well.

As far as these assignments are concerned, I feel like I have done the best I can with my current knowledge of the camera and photoshop techniques.  Maybe picking such a difficult theme was a hindrance but, I stood firm and managed to achieve something that I wouldn't even have attempted to do without the motivation this course has given me.

I don't think there's anything I would have done differently.  A theme change my be the only thing I would re-consider but I don't see the point of taking pictures of things that wouldn't interest me.  I'm not saying that I'm only interested in war but it's subjects like war, poverty, famine and gangs that grab my attention.  I could easily go out and take photo's of bands (after all, I love music), weddings, christenings and bar mitzvah's to make money but that's not what I aspire to be.

What's next?

I took this course to learn the basics of photography and I feel like I've done that.  I would have liked to go on to do level 2 and 3 but this isn't really feasible at this time.  I think I just need to keep on taking photo's and putting myself out there for the world to scrutinise.  I can expand my knowledge of photography in other ways.  There's always tutorials on the net, magazines, DVDs etc.  I feel what I need to do now is just build up a portfolio and see what happens.

If I manage to get a job in photography then that'll be amazing.  I always wondered what it would be like to do a job that you actually enjoy?  If not, at the least it'll be just another hobby along with music and football.  Maybe I can make a bit of money here and there doing those menial photography jobs I mentioned earlier but at the end of the day, I always aim high.

Finally

Thanks for your patience and wisdom Marie.  Your enthusiasm towards my crazy ideas helped egg me on to actually go out there and stick with it.  So what I'm trying to say basically is, I'm blaming you for making me spend a fortune in equipment.  It's a good job I'm a forgiving person.

Even though I spent a lot of time looking miserable in class (Not something I can help sadly!) I would like you to know that inside I was the most cheerful chap in the room (Well, in my isolation booth next door as I like to call it).

I wont say anymore as nobody likes a suck-up and I don't want to leave with the 'teachers pet' tag.

It's been fun.

Bye.

Assignment (Unit 108) - Final Images

My manipulation assignment didn't turn out exactly how I wanted them to.  One of them is pretty good, two of them are OK and one of them isn't great but with timing issues I don't think I'll be able to go out and do any re-shoots.

This picture of the six soldiers looking out over the countryside is my favourite of my manipulation images.  It took a long time to put this image together.  It's actually six images cut and pasted together, then dodged and burned to create the right lighting effects.  Using the brightness and contrast tools, I adjusted the levels on each layer so they were pretty similar.  Then, using the dodge tool, I lightened the sides of the soldiers to make it look as though they are all standing with the sun to their right.  I also had to remove some of the telephone poles from the background using my old friend, the clone tool. 

My only problem with the above image is the fact that it's obvious that it's the same guy.  Well it is to me anyway.  I tried another version of this image but blurred the guy at the front.  I think I preferred this image though.  This was achieved in pretty much the same way as the previous picture.  The main difference was the fact that the levels were already pretty close as the two guys against the wall were taken at the same time under the same conditions.  With the soldier at the front of the frame I had to erase a wall which he was leaning against.  I just created a layer and used the erase tool for this job as the magnetic lasso tool was starting to annoy me.

Now then, while I find the above image to be acceptable, the below image has some quality issues.  Blown up on a large scale it loses quality.  Due to the way the image originally was I had to do a lot of messing about with brightness and contrast.  I added some noise as well to try to give it a worn look.  The smoke in the background was achieved by taking a photograph of some clouds and painstakingly cutting them up and making them look like an explosion.

It was a lot of effort but didn't come out as amazing as I had hoped. The above image is a much stronger image.  I did have to use the magnetic lasso tool an awful lot on the main soldier.  The three in the background were much easier to manipulate because they were all from the same series of photographs.  I think I maybe should have removed the tree behind the main soldiers head.  It's kind of like it's growing out of his helmet.

As part of the book I've been making on blurb, the images appear OK.  I just feel that as large prints the images would look a bit suspect despite the amount of time and effort I put into editing them.

Assignment (Unit 108) - Original Images

When it came to manipulating my images I decided to try to create a bigger picture with my war theme.  This meant a lot of cutting and pasting to create images containing more than one soldier wandering alone in the woods.  A lot of my photographs didn't turn out as planned but I found a lot of these could be salvaged and used for this part of my assignment.



These four above images were all cut up on photoshop and blended together using layers to give the feel of a group of soldiers walking across a field.  In fact, with all of my images I had to painstakingly cut out my soldiers.  I found the magnetic lasso tool to be the most useful tool in photoshop for this task.

With this above selection of six photographs, after cutting out the soldiers and pasting them on the image, I had to adjust the brightness and contrast on each individual layer so they all matched.  Then with the dodge and burn tools I had to try and make the images look as though they were all lit from the same side.

So as you can see, these images aren't very good on their own.   Lot of them are over exposed or the sharpness isn't there.  I found that once they were edited and arranged properly, the flaws in the individual pictures didn't matter so much and the pictures as a whole didn't look too bad.

So that's the images I used for the manipulation section of my assignment.  My final results vary but without doing re-shoots I think they will have to suffice for now. With only two weeks left of the course it's a bit late in the day to start messing about with things.

Assignment (Unit 101-105) - Final Images

I know that we were supposed to select a minimum of six images and ideally I would have liked to pick six to ten images for this part of the assignment but I found it quite hard to narrow down my selection.  I ended up asking a few people who's opinions I valued to select their favourites.  This managed to trim my selection quite a bit.  I'm quite happy with the final selection.

The above picture was always intended to be my opener.  I wanted to get a photograph of my soldier reading about the war before heading off into conflict.  It took me a while to get an image I was happy with as the lighting and composition proved slightly awkward.  Looking back, I feel I could have probably produced a better image by using the studio lighting for this shot.  Unfortunately, the studio is not in my house so I had to make do with whatever lighting I had available.

My only problem with the above picture is the fact that it's colour.  It doesn't look right in black and white as I feel it loses something in translation.  For my book though, I feel that this image will look good on the back cover which is why I have selected it.

The above and below pictures kind of give the feel that our soldier hasn't been in the battlefield for very long.  When I have arranged my images for my book I hope to convey a sense of the trauma the soldier is going through.

Using my favourite photoshop tools (the trusty dodge and burn) I think I managed to create a nice portrait.  I love the way the shadows fall on the soldiers face and I think that I managed to keep his eyes nice and sharp.

The 'panoramic' shot, I admit, was a cheat. Thanks to some nifty cropping I managed to create a nice picture which, in its original format, wasn't that great.  It goes to show that cropping can be an excellent tool if used properly.

Whilst on my shoot in the woods I came across some really nice little pieces of scenery.  The bricks and woodland give a bit more of a world war type feel to the picture.  It looks as though the soldiers are fighting in some kind of ruins.

I love the above portrait picture.  I feel the soft focus worked great in this instance.  Also, my soldier friend looks a little dazed but you kind of get the feeling that he hasn't fully experienced the horrors of war yet.

I had many variations of the soldier leaning on the wall.  This is my brothers favourite of those photo's so I decided to include it.  I managed to give this picture a very dated look.  It's even more dated than some of the other pictures.

In the above photograph, you can kind of see that the soldier has been through quite a lot since arriving in the battlefield.  The expression on his face and his weary eyes tell their own story.  He looks in quite a worse state than the previous portrait.  It's very Don McCullin.

I felt like I had to include some images of the bad guys otherwise it's just some guy running around in a field.  I managed to find a nice spot for this shot of the German taking aim.  This took a few attempts as the wind was starting to pick up. This became a factor due to the trees being blown about, creating all kinds of unwanted shadows from the sunlight.

I had this little picture story going on in which my soldier friend gets jumped by a German.  Now im not sure if I like the sequence but I kind of like this image.  I decided not to include the next few frames but below is the aftermath.  I feel the image makes you feel like the German soldier is having a moment of reflection or perhaps self doubt over the taking of someones life.

The above shot is one of my favourites.  I think I got the composition spot on and even managed to capture the breath of the German soldier in the cold environment.  It's like the German is off on the hunt for more prey. 

I tried this 'surrender' shot in different ways.  My first instinct was to go for a landscape shot but I think it works better as a portrait picture.  There's no large empty spaces either side of the soldiers so it's a fairly compact photo.

I have quite a few close up shots but I feel like they are all very different.  With the above shot I did have to use the clone tool on the helmet's strap.  In the original picture you can see that it's twisted.  I also used the burn tool just to bring out the shadows a little more.

I feel that most of these pictures have a nice flow about them.  They all look like they were taken under the same conditions and fit nicely together.  Like I said, when arranged into a certain order I feel that these pictures will tell a nice little story.

So there you have it.  My final images for Unit 101-105.



Assignment (Unit 101-105) - Original Images


These are my original images for my Unit 101-105 assignment.  With all of these images I converted them to black and white using photoshops 'black & white' tool.  I also ended up doing a lot of dodging and burning to achieve a look that I was happy with.  I do feel that the unedited images don't seem as powerful as the black and white versions.

f/5.6 1/20sec ISO-400




f/5.6 1/30sec ISO-400



f/4.5 1/8sec ISO-400



f/9 1/4sec ISO-400




f/5.6 1/40 ISO-800



f/5.6 1/40sec ISO-800




f/5.6 1/2sec ISO-100




f/8 1/5sec ISO-200




f/4.5 1/8sec ISO-400



f/5.6 1/40sec ISO-400



f/5.6 1/8sec ISO-100



f/4.5 1/10sec ISO-800



f/5.6 1/80sec ISO-400



f/5.6 1/30sec ISO-400

f/22 1/25sec ISO-400



f/6.3 1/6sec ISO-400




f/5.6 1/8sec ISO-100



f/6.3 1/8sec ISO-400

So that's the original photographs.  If these were the images that I had to submit I wouldn't be too happy.  Luckily, by being able to convert these photo's to black and white you can kind of get the feeling I actually know how to take a good photo.

I have never really been a fan of colour photography anyway.