EVALUATION

EVALUATION OF FMP

My product for my final major project was Portrait and Black & White photography. I chose this product because I was unsure what I wanted to do my project on. My 3 ideas I was stuck whether to do or not was Portrait, Black and White and Nature photography. When I was planning, I thought about what I would enjoy most which was either portrait or Black and white. With the ideas I had in mind for portrait I though some of the photos would look best in black and white rather than in colour. This was when I decided to do both together. Overall, I had 14 photos so, I tried to do 7 in black and white and 7 in colour. I thought this way I could have a wider rage on ideas with combining two different types of photography together.

Overall, with how my project turned out I am happy with it. Most of it went how I planned it and how I wanted it to go. There were a few challenges that I had to face but, I made them work out in the end to have a successful project. This project was fun to do and gave me an opportunity for my creativity to come out. With most of the photos I have taken I took inspiration from different photographer but, made it my own with my own creativity in it too. I only have one thing I am not happy with how it turned out which is presenting my whole project. I used a web site called Flip Snack and I didn’t realise you had to have the premium version (which you had to pay for) to download your magazine. With this happening I have to print screen all the pages so I could still show my project they are just a little blurry.

The research I had done was effective within my production of my project. I used a lot of the research I had done from the videos to the websites for lighting and equipment to use throughout. Referring to my research when looking into different photographers they kept their work simple and I that what I did throughout my work. I wanted to keep my work simple but effective because I wanted the focus point to been her and make the audience be drawn to her instead of what is going on around her.

Looking at the test shots I did for my research you can see how I have changed how I am taking the photos. In my test shots you can see there are things going off in the background whereas, on my final photos I have a plain background.

However, part of the primary research when my family gave me an idea to do some of the photos outside didn’t go ahead because of the weather and I couldn’t arrange another shoot day due to her being at school. A piece of research I used the most and referred to the most was the relevant theories. I researched into dominant reading because I wanted to get my point across which was children can be on the cover not just adults. Personally, I achieved my reading and got my point across successfully. This research is secondary research.

If I was to do this again, I would make the research more relevant to me and what I wanted to do, I had done some research that I didn’t need or use. An example of the research I didn’t use was the history of portrait/ black and white photography.

The project overall was successful and went how I planned it to go. I achieved majority of the photos I wanted to achieve. I didn’t achieve some of the photos because I couldn’t do the last shoot day because of a positive covid case in her bubble at school. Overall, I did two shoot days and got all the photos to the standard I wanted. As you can see on my Wix website from my production planning I didn’t start editing on the first week, but I wish I did now with the amount of time I sept editing through the days, If I started editing when I said I would have on my product plan I wouldn’t of had to spend as much time throughout the days editing and getting worried about not finishing my work on time and making me feel under pressure.

I managed my time well throughout my project and what I wanted to achieve each week. To make sure I did this I updated my objectives on teams, so I knew what I needed to get done before the next week. By doing this it made me spend more time on my work throughout the week instead of spending a couple of days on it.

Throughout my project I developed a lot of skills which made the production run better. The skill that developed were soft skills. My communication skills and teamwork skills developed most. Instead of telling her what I wanted her to do I explained what I wanted and help her get into the position I wanted. This is also teamwork and making it work together by helping each other out. My hard skills also developed through this project. I developed new camera skills and how changing the angle of the camera can change the photo and make it look better and more like how you imagined it to look.

If I was to do this again, I would change things in how I would do it and I would improve certain skills. I would make the shoot days within the first two weeks and make them full days so I can spend more time on editing my photos instead of looking at different ideas for photos. By doing it this way it means I am focusing on one thing at a time, and I am not over working myself and worrying about it all.

Another improvement I would do is working on my lighting and using lighting within my images. By this I mean using the lighting effectively and correctly. In some photos I didn’t use the lighting correctly which cause big shadows which added more time onto the editing side of the photos.

The main strengths of my project are my soft and hard skills. The hard skills I used throughout this project was the camera skills I used. By this I mean using different angles for the photos. By taking the same photo but from different angles it enabled me to choose the right photos to edit and use in my magazine. Even though I have mentioned above about the some of the lighting in photos is off, the lighting I did use in most of them worked well. As I said above with the shadows, I did use the lighting I had well just on some of them I didn’t realise the shadows on the photos. As well as the camera skills, editing was another strength to this project. Editing photos can change the photo. You can do a lot in photoshop to edit your image. I do however refer not using the same filter on the colour photos, so they all tie together.

As well as using hard skills I used soft skills which was some of the main strengths of the project. Communication was one of my strengths to this project if I didn’t use communication effectively the production wouldn’t have gone as well as how I planned it to go. You need to use communication in any product for it to work. Teamwork was another soft skill I used within my project. Olivia and I worked well together to achieve the photos because I worked with her, and she gave me other ideas as well as the ones I had. Another skill I used effectively and well to my strength was time management. Time management is something you need to take into consideration for any project because you need a plan in place to achieve deadline dates. By having a plan in place with dates it gives you structure and what you need to do by the end of each week. By having in planned out it makes sure you aren't stressed and leave it all until the last minute.

I feel like these skills above will benefit me in the future because they will develop more and become better. These are some of the most important skills you need and having them at the beginning will help you carry it on throughout the course and career. The only thing that can help me using these skills is for them to get better and use them more.

There isn't a lot of improvements I would make to this product/ change about it. One thing I would like to develop further is the use of lighting and how to use it effectively and correctly. I would like to develop further into this because lighting takes a photo and is an important part of production. I wouldn’t do anything differently to what I have done.

If I was to do this again in year 2, I would research more into the production side of the project and as I have said above use lighting and use it correctly.

Throughout my project there was a lot of problems I had to face. The main problem I faced was her bubble in school had a positive case, so I had to work with what I have already got. Looking back, I wish I would done those photos in the two other shoot days I had. The photos I didn’t achieve were the ones I wanted to get the most. This has made me plan out what photos I want to get on each shoot day instead of choosing random ones out.

Another problem I had to face was the weather not being the best. In my primary research I asked my family what they thought of my ideas, and they said to do some of the photos outside on a field but, it was raining on both days, so I had to do those inside. Looking back at the photos I wanted to achieve outside did look better inside and were better than I imagined them to be inside compared to outside.

The third limitation I faced was she got bored after a while and wasn’t enjoying it, so we had to stop and come back, when we did stop, she still didn’t enjoy it and asked to stop doing it which I did because I didn’t want to push her to do something she didn’t want to. I didn’t want to push her.

Looking back over the research I did for budgeting and resources I bought things that I didn’t end up using. The things I didn’t use was the mirror. I didn’t end up using the mirror because the photos did look right and didn’t look how I had planned them to be. This was a challenge I had to overcome as well because I had to think about another ideas I could use instead.

Looking back over my primary research I didn’t end up doing some photos outside, the reason for this was because the weather wasn’t the best and I wouldn’t have been able to achieve the photos because of the weather. This was another thing I had to adapt to, this challenge couldn’t have been avoidable because I can't control the weather and how the weather is going to be on certain days. I had to plan each shoot on a weekend because she had school and I couldn't take her out of school.

Finally, another limitation I had faced was on the first week and half of editing photoshop on my laptop wasn’t working so I had to use photoshop on my iPad. This had a lot of problems because I didn’t have enough storage and had to delete all my apps off my iPad, and you don’t get all the tool on the iPad version compared to the pc version.

My finished FMP links with my progression plan after college. I am still unsure what I want to do next, whether to go into employment or carry on to university. My FMP links with progression plan regardless of what I want to do next. It links into employment because I want to go into studio photography, studio has always interested me and has been something I want to go into. With me choosing black and white/ portrait photography ties in with studio.

Whether I choose to go into employment or to university my project will go into my portfolio so I can show off my work and what I have done for the industry I want to go into.

Even though I faced a lot of disruption to the practical side of my FMP (taking photos). I made sure I did face disruption in the rest of my progress. With the plan I had set in place I was to start my evaluation on the 17th May but, editing, production journal and my magazine earlier than expected. When editing my photos, I used file organisation so I knew where things were so I could find my work easier. By organising my work my files, I knew where to go to get certain things I need. With having to put everything on Wix I made a file for each section of my website such as context, research, production, and evaluation. By creating different files for each section, I was able to upload everything in order and not miss anything out. This way worked best for me because I could see what I had done, what else I needed to do, what I had uploaded and finally knowing what my magazine would look like through production and keeping all my files organised.

Time management all helped minimise disruption in my project. By having a plan in place with dates made me plan my week out so I got everything I needed to get done. This helped me a lot because I knew from week to week what I needed to do and what else I needed to do.

Looking back at my proposal I did when I first planned my ideas, I was able to achieve everything I wanted to do. I did everything to the best of my ability and I overcame any challenges I faced. Throughout I did face a few challenges but, I made them work and didn't let it face me and push me back. I finished everything on date. I followed my production plan through and each week made objective on teams so I knew I needed to do that, that week. This helped me stay on track and not fall behind.

I am happy with the outcome of my project and how it looks. I happier with the final product than I thought. When I chose a magazine to show my work, I thought it would be so hard to do. I thought this because I am not the best in photoshop, and I thought that was the only way I could do my magazine. After looking at different sites I was able to find one that I could produce my magazine one to make it look like a magazine. The production side (getting the photos) were easier than what I thought, I though some of them were going to be hard to get but were easier.