Overall Evaluation

Overall what I have really enjoyed about this unit is choosing exactly what I was to photograph while still having the techniques to learn in order to give more experience and techniques to use for our personal shoots. For my personal shoot I chose to look at food photography as there was endless ideas for shoots and foods to photograph. I could also use a range of both location and studio shoots and end up with unique professional photographs. For this project I mostly used the close up lens with a boom set up in order to get the brightest lights possible to show the shapes and colours of the photographs. I found that brightly coloured foods made the best photographs as they stood out and create very eye-catching and enticing photographs. Textured foods under the boom created interesting and detailed photographs. At first I decided that I would actually make the food in which I would photograph however after making a few items I found it was far less time consuming to buy the products and had just as positive results.

The definition pages meant that before starting any shoot I had an idea of what all of the words related to food photography meant which helped me to understand what my aim for each shoot was. I found four photographs from existing food photography and looked at all of the different features which make up the photographs and what makes them attractive and enticing. I also looked at the dictionary definition of food photography in order to understand the actual definition and then came up with my own interpretation of the definition to make the work personal to my project. For the image banks I found and annotated six photographs relating to each of the techniques and twenty five photographs relating to my personal project. By finding and annotating twenty five photographs for my personal project this allowed me to gain in-depth ideas for my own shoots and understand the requirements for food photography shoots. For the research log I found 20 different photographers who work in the food photography industry and researched them and there work. This helped me ensure that my work was presented professionally and continued to give me ideas for my own work. I then chose my favourite three photographers and looked at there work in more depth looking at how they would influence my work and what I liked about their work. Doing this with five photographers meant that my work had lots of different varieties of influence. With the techniques image bank this gave me an idea of what I was intending to achieve before starting so this made sure that all of the work was more successful.

After every shoot I would make a work diary discussing the points that were successful from the shoot and what could have been improved. By doing this I could decide after each shoot how best to improve the shoot for next and in order to end up with the best possible work. Work diaries also helped me expand on work that I had already done as by looking back at my own annotated work it was easier to see how work could be expanded to make it better and more detailed. To improve my work diaries I would make sure that every aspect of each photograph was discussed to ensure that all areas were covered.

After I had finished all of my personal and techniques shoots I connected my work to five different photographs. By doing this I could see how well my work fitted into the food photography industry and  how it connected from the work produced by others. To improve my connecting essays however I would look further into the meaning behind each photo and connect on more than a visual level. My connecting essays looked at the photos detail and meaning in comparison to that of a professional which allowed me to choose the best way to improve my work and whether it fitted into food photography.

Creating the print techniques allowed me to practice and experiment with the different features of photoshop and also improved my skills throughout the project. However to improve this section I would try and use even more varied and difficult features to make the work more interesting and unique. I mostly just did one thing to a photograph and then called it finished where as I would like to in future look more closely into each print technique and create an effect relevant to the photo itself.

Since the beginning of the project I feel that i have made huge progress in all areas of photography especially in planning and developing shoots. With regards to editing I think i have made huge improvements with using software such as photoshop which at the beginning of last year I was completely new to and the start of this year was still a novice. During this project as well as learning the techniques I also learnt how to create animation which are some of my favourite pieces of work from the project. I also feel that this project has improved my composition and layout of my work resulting in generally improved photographs.

Overall I have really enjoyed this project and the work set throughout. What I have enjoyed the most is the choice of what to shoot while still learning new techniques that can be used throughout my own personal shoots. To improve this project I would try and develop all of my shoots as much as possible just so that I have explored every area of food photography that is possible.