Saturday, 19 January 2013

TAOP - Assignment 2 - Tutor Feedback

TAOP - Assignment 2 - Elements of Design

Tutor Feedback

 I always get a good feeling of anticipation waiting for my assignment feedback and I know that there will elements of feedback and critique that if I take on board I can improve my photography understanding and the photographs I produce.

Firstly I have attached a link to the location within my blog that contains the images I submitted together with my annotations though the actual assignment was presented to my tutor as part of a pdf document:

I've not detailed all the feedback there is enough here for anyone else to get a flavour and also importantly for me to have easily available for continual reflection and learning. I'm comfortable sharing this.. I wonder if I will feel the same if my submission is below expected quality.....I will endeavour not to submit work like this :) 

Overall Comments
Yet again a well-delivered assignment, the professional manner that the work is presented is a delight to assess and I look forward to receiving material of this quality. The work holds together well and shows the maturity of your approach and a natural progression on the course.
This is reassuring that I'm on the right track in how I present my assignments


Feedback on assignment Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

The well-presented PDF format shows that you care about your work and its presentation.
The whole collections of elements of design are well considered and executed,
Using the desaturated effect on the collection of images provides’ glue’ that holds even unrelated images together.
A strong body of work has potential to re contextualise the images and produce an exhibition or book.
Although this work is yet to break into such lofty heights, it is certainly on its way.
There is specific feedback on some of images which I'll examine toward the end of this post

.......... As I stated this is a strong collection of images that hold together in many ways, the commitment to a strong desaturated and contrast quality works very well and with improvements in capture and post production cropping.


I'm very pleased with this feedback and though the assignment meant a collection of different images I'm pleased that my attempts to create a collection of images rather than a presentation of just individual images has worked

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

You are showing a strong development of your practise, please ensure that with all
communication a link to the blog is made, please this helps access your work easier.
Yes, a school boy error; I had forgotten to include in the document a link to my blog.
 A good example of a need to focus on the small things as well as the big things

The annotation that has supported this submission, shows that you are taking on board the 
principals and this is very good, this will be more useful as you are moving through the 
course, critical analysis of your work is extremely important, Understanding your work is 
especially important as you progress. It is important to acknowledge where you have 
produced something very strong, but also that you acknowledge when an image you submit 
is not as strong and identify the issues, this is mature learning.
This is good feedback and I do try to give my thoughts about how I have captured and 
presented the image. I will attempt to be more critical of my images and also try to present 
images that I have not selected on blog / and or exercises so that my tutor can see as well as 
read some of my decision processes.

Suggested reading/viewing /action
It is now that I believe more knowledge and use of Photoshop would benefit your work, from 
what I see you are already producing very good post production, but this requires practice, 
consider using a wacom tablet if you do not have one already. Photoshop provide many 
tutorials and there are many others providing free guidance, please explore these as you are 
well on your way.
I think as post processing will become a key part of my photography this is well worth
 investigating. Additionally getting into good habits using tools that will improve my work now 
will pay dividends in the future.

Pointers for the next assignment
Try and eliminate unnecessary elements and avoid distracting backgrounds, this will ensure 
your visual communication is clear. 
This is very valid and valuable feedback and there is sometimes a requirement to remember
 that a simple message is more easily seen and understood, There is sometimes a challenge
 in attempting to grab an image as opposed to waiting for a simple image to unfold in front of 
me or to simply change my POV. A reminder to myself...its digital photography so I should 
attempt multiple methods of capturing an image as this will give me the greater chance of 
creating a great image. I have been looking at images on Flickr and
www.luminous-landscape.com and the simple images are often the most powerful and 
sometimes most mesmerising.

Father Christmas has brought me some photography books with a little prompting:
 - Adobe Photoshop CS6 book for digital photographers by Scott Kelby
 - Photography: A cultural history by Mary Warner Marien
 - Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques by Scott Kelby
 - The Complete Guide to Black and White Photography by Michael Freeman

I'll need to create a specific location within my blog for my book reviews / comments when I've 
read them.

Tutor Feedback on some of my specific images:

Diagonals
This was my original image:
My tutor suggested the confused passenger may be a distraction which I agree with. Whilst it 
what have been better to have been more patient taking the image and to have eliminated 
this totally in the original image, some crop options are:

Elimination of the confused passenger





















A further crop of the above image better accentuates the diagonal lines





WOW - doesn't this alter the image giving it much more energy. I think in future I will try to 
rotate the camera at the point of taking some images as again this gives me a greater 
number to look at post shoot and assess my objective and decide which image best fulfils it. 
Again its small simple changes that can give great impact. Looking at my original submission 
this is so much better.

Pattern
This was the image I submitted, I've detailed below it my tutor's feedback


"Rhythm: the choice of the factory behind link fencing was qualified by your annotation, 
however there could have been better selection of aperture so that the foreground was not 
as much in focus, this would have added a sense of rhythm across the image, alternatively 
you could have used the fast aperture (f4? Or ideally f2.8) and focused on the chain link 
fence, that may have been a rhythm pattern?

The chimneys on the building could have been used as you stated, however a long lens 
would be required to isolate them as elements." 

This is good feedback and instead of focusing on one aspect I've tried to include both and 
confused the message that I wanted in the image. If I could go back and retake this I would 
but using the wider aperture as suggested. However if you see my original annotation you will 
see that I got politely told off by a security guard. The repeating lesson here is to take 
multiple images creating images slightly differently, whether its framing, aperture, shutter 
speed, or point of view (POV). Especially so in this case, and I suspect other images to come 
in that I wont get a second chance to go back.

My tutor's feedback has been invaluable to me and its given in key bite-size examples and 
elements that allow my to focus on them rather than being overwhelmed with a lot information 
and critique.

Summary
So in summary I feel I am learning more and I have been putting some elements into my
 images, mostly these are remembered at the time of taking the image. If I can introduce a 
few more elements this will again progress my work.

At the time of writing this I have progressed well through the Colour exercises but its in time to 
hopefully be remembered and included in photograph submissions for the Colour Assignment





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