Evaluation

Task 1A 

In this task i researched photography in books and on the internet which captured movement in them.I then chose 4 of these which i thought had the most effective movement in and had to write about these including what the photo was called, when it was created,if it was historical or contemporary, and my opinion. When i was doing this task,i think that i could of made my work better as i think i could of gone into more detail in certain areas as they weren't in much depth. For example,i could of written more about the technical aspects of the photo, for example, explaining more about how the shot was taken and more detail about the exposure explaining my reason why i thought it was a certain exposure and shot. 

When i was doing my research for the photos, i found it easier using books as i found more of a variety of photos which i then could choose from to evaluate.In the books however, i found a lot more historical images than contemporary. I think using books is an easier resource because on the internet the information isn't always reliable or doesn't always give you enough information. 

Aperture and Shutter speed quiz

After been shown a presentation about different techniques you can use on a camera by changing different settings,we were then quized on the aperture and the shutter speed whilst using a camera. I found the aperture quiz easier as i scored 5/8 compared to the shutter speed only scoring 2/6. Doing this quiz helped me learn more about the different techniques on a camera to make your photos a lot better. 

Task 1B

In this task i learnt more about apertures and shutter speeds as i had the chance to experiment with them using a camera by taking a number of shots changing the aperture and shutter speed for each shot to try and capture movement. Looking at my shots which i took, some of them worked out better than others because of the setting i set the camera to. For example, one of my shots which worked well was one which was a shot of me moving my head side to side which had an exposure of 2.0 seconds and ISO was 100 (F9). I found that these settings worked well as you could see the movement in the shot as there are shadows of my head which you can see clearly however dont stand out as much as the origional object making this the focus of the shot.

Another shot which i thinked worked well was one of me using a prop which was a scarf, and waving it above my head then letting it drop to the ground. The settings for this shot i used was; an exposure of 0.6,which was less than quite a few of my other shots, and the ISO setting was 200. I found these setting really effective as you can see the different lines above my heard and the different points where the scarf has been which is quite blury because of how fast the shot was and how fast i moved, but this still worked well. 

A shot which i didnt think worked too well was one of me where i faced 2 different ways by spinning around on the spot. The exposure for this shot was the same settings i used for my first shot which i have written about, however i dont think this shot worked out as well maybe because i wasn't spinning fast enough or the camera wasn't on the right setting.

I enjoyed this task as i was able to experiment with different settings on the camera whilst learning about them at the same time as i didnt really have any idea about them until this task. If i was to change anything, i would maybe experiment more with the settings i was told to change as i only stuck to a few and also i would take more shots so i could see more clearly which settings work best depending what the shot is taking a photo of. 

Painting with light 

This task was in a studio which was dark. We had to use an object these could of been eg candles, glow sticks, torches etc. Then we had to change the camera to a long exposure which would capture the light in an effective way . This task was really fun and easy i thought, and the shots afterwards which i had taken looked really clever as i had never seen anything like it . I was learning throught this task as i had never heard of painting with light and i wouldnt of really thought it would of been to do with photography because of the process you have to do and the set up before hand. I took shots of colourful light and just one colour which meant i had a variety of images to work from. I think if i was to do this task again, i would take more shots using colour .

Task 2 

For this task i went on a trip to Harrogate and knaresborough where i was given a film camera to take a total of 18 images in each place, these being images of; people, transport and nature. This task was difficult as you just had to set your camera to a setting which you think would work when you saw movement then take the shot however you couldn't view your image afterwards. When my negatives were developed, a lot of my shots were too dark which meant it had been over exposed, quite a few had turned out okay as you could see them clearly . If i was to do this this task again, i would make sure i checked my settings carefully before i took the shot, especially the exposure as a lot of my images were too dark. 

Task 3 

This task was all about flipbooks which i had to research into how they were made, what made an effective flipbook etc as i needed to know more about them in order to make one. I had a total of 4 ideas which i thought would work well as a flipbook. One of my ideas which i chose to shoot for was my board game idea as i thought it was something different and interesting.I had to set my camera to continuous shots which meant that my camera would take shot after shot and capture the movement so when i put the flipbook together, you would be able to see the movement as if it was actually happening in front of you. My second idea which i actually decided to use for my final piece was an animation which i used little figures for. This plan was different as i had to change my camera settings to single shots for it to work because i had to keep moving the figures slightly in each shot. If i was to change anything, i would maybe take more shots. I think that my flipbook was successful as i took 47 shots for it, however if i had a few more it would make it better so when you flip through it it would last longer. 

This task was my favourite task because i enjoyed taking shots which were easy to take which i then put together into a flipbook which was creative and fun and worked really well when you flipped through it. 

Media Museum Kodak gallery quiz

I went to the Museum in Bradford to do this task which was research but different to my other research tasks as there were questions on paper which i just had to fill in when i was walking around the museum. I found this an easier way of learning because i had to read through information which might not of been aplicable to what i had to research, but the way the information way lay out, it was easy to read and also because there were pictures and sometimes objects to go with it made it more interesting.Some of the answers i found were quite difficult to find but the majority was easy enough to find and i filled in nearly all the answers which i had to fill in on the sheet. 

Darkroom printing and timeline 

This was also one of my favourite tasks as i got the chance to experience the darkroom. The first time i went into the darkroom i learnt all about how you set up your easel, focuser,paper etc then learnt about each tray and how long you had to keep your print in them for. When i did my first prints in the darkroom, i found that they came out toodark which meant they were under exposed, so i had to change the amount of yellow and magenta and also the amount of light reaching my print. In the end , my print was too light so it was over exposed. This made me learn from the settings which i had to change, so next time i would know what to do if it was to happen again. The second time i went into the darkroom, my prints worked out slightly better the first prints which i did. For my first print i kept the gradient the same which i was to start of with, and the exposure. I then for my second print, changed my exposure which made my image too dark.By changing the gradient and the exposure back to the origional number i started with, i found this made a big difference. 

When i had got the gradient and exposure right, i decided to change the timing to see what difference this would make, and i found that this made a diference. For my final piece,i had to clean the film first because as i looked at my previous test prints, i had dust on it and this was showing up a lot. The gradient on the print was 6 yellow and 102 magenta, exposure to 11, and the timing on 8 seconds which made my image come out clearly without any lines down it and different contrasts on it.

On my second final piece i chose it as i just thought the shot was taken at an effective angle. I took the photo on a bridge over looking water which was the movement in my photo. The setting for this photo was 23 yellow and 56 magenta which was the gradient i set it to. The exposure was set to 56 and the timing on it was 18 seconds. This photo turned out clear with no lines as it was all the same gradient throughout. To improve this shot, i would of taken the shoot of maybe just the movement which was the ducks in the water in the shoot, so then it was focused on just the movement rather than on the buildings which werent really necessary on the left hand side. 

To improve on this task, i would re take a lot of my shoots as a lot of them were too dark and the images which i used for my final piece wereb the clearest so i used them, however i would shoot again because the shoots which i chose, you cant really tell the movement which was happening in them at the time.