WEEK TEN

Week Ten:

Fortunately there were clouds on the Monday which enabled me to complete my final images. While I was there there were 4 people I could have shot. Two of which I had never met before meaning a new experience to use my improved communication skills,  and my confidence with portraiture. I finally understood how I would like my images to look like, making the process for the last shoot easier. The volunteers that I had never shot before seemed slightly on edge although were comfortable with me using them for my project.

All the volunteers were really understanding will all that I wanted to do. Especially with a decision made at the last minute (in another tutorial) to collect numerous hand written testimonials of the questions I had previous asked twice. This decision hopefully will affect my final presentation, when presented in a box alongside the other 6 portraits. With having 3 days to collect these, I felt it was a push to complete all the images ready to send off to Lee.

My final presentation has always been at a similar layout, with showing a few portraits alongside either book/ magazine etc. This idea was out ruled due to the number of images/ portraits I had. When in a tutorial with Lauren we went through the different ideas that could enable me to show more with my final prints. I am pleased with the decision we made, as I wanted to show more than just their portraits. Having the prints of the testimonials will hopefully highlight the importance of the Foodbank, and why the Church has such a massive love for its work.

I used Photoshop for final edits, ensuring the backgrounds were of a similar tone and colour. With sending the images off, means I can now focus on writing my Critical Review, finishing my bibliography/ updated Time Plan as well as my evaluations and sketchbook.

Overall I am pleased with my Final Images and presentation, I feel the Foodbank volunteers show the true reason for why the Church works within the community.

Foodbank Final Shoot

Due to the weather it held me back a couple of days but I was still able to complete one last shoot in time to prepare for the next steps in the process of my project.

This last shoot contained strengths such as:
- With the cloudy day meant the images like previously had great natural lighting meaning the models face was not glared down by the sun.
- I was fortunate to once again complete re-shoots on some of the volunteers as well as meeting two new ones. I never went in on a Monday meaning I never crossed path with some of the volunteers, this meant more voice recordings and portraits.
- All the volunteers have been more than willing to help me out, with the images and the honesty with my questions.
- I eventually knew the correct settings for my images and was able to use that same one through out the shoot.
- I was comfortable with all aspects of the shoot of which beforehand some of which were weak, such as instructing confidently.

Despite it being my last shoot there were and are still some weaknesses:
- Due to natural light always changing, clouds moving etc, meant the backgrounds of the portraits are slightly different colours despite being in the same location. I plan to use Photoshop for last adjustments.
- With the two new volunteers being shot for the first time meant hesitation but led to being comfortable with the camera.

WEEK NINE

Week Nine:

The end of the project was getting closer and this week I completed half of my final images. With only 3 volunteers being at the Foodbank the first time I visited for my final portraits, meant that I needed to complete more re-shoots. During the week the weather picked up and was relatively sunny, so when I returned for a re-shoot the images had a harsh shadow and a bright glow. To overcome this I could only plan spontaneously my next shoot. Although this at the time felt incredibly worrying with only having a week until final images need to be sent off to print. The strengths of this week are that my first few images are complete, whereas the weakness is that fact that I need to re-shoot my images so close to the deadline.

Tutorial

As the project deadline was drawing near, we were given regular tutorials to check our progress for final images and presentation. This tutorial was with Lauren Forster, I was pleased to have a tutorial with her due to the religious based projects she has completed for her own personal work. With getting her feedback will help me strengthen my portraits for the final hurdle. The strengths from this tutorial was her help towards selecting my first final images. At stage I had completed a few of my final images, of which she and I were pleased with. I felt confident that my images had a range of expressions and positions to interest the audience.

Foodbank Re-shoot 3

Each shoot that I complete will always have improvements and non successful aspects to fix. With these portraits I am shooting, step by step I am getting the grip to what I want the image to look like and what aesthetically looks the best. After my attempt of focusing closer to the face, my backgrounds still were the issue, until one image was taken in front of a plain, and simple white wall. I was oblivious to this perfect section of wall until it was pointed out days after the shoot.

Leading on from this another tutorial helped put my decisions into a plan for my next shoot.

Strengths:

- I was able to try out the use of different media's such as a voice recorder. With asking questions before and recording their answers by hand, I needed to think further ahead to exhibition presentation too, this led to recording my questions and their response. 

- The volunteers were once again open and well received the idea of recording their answers.

- With returning to the Foodbank often for more images, they have no problem with confidence and comfortability around me.

- After many re-shoots this one proved most successful due to finally having an idea of what I wanted the images to look like and what made the images look good.

Weaknesses:

- With recording their voices meant their was a high risk of background noise especially when visiting a busy work place, despite recording in a closed room.

- On this specific day, there were only 3 volunteers that were available to record and shoot. This was slightly worrying due to the time left to shoot. 

After this morning I knew I needed to return for more images and recordings the following day to build a wide range of volunteers. 

The only strengths from this shoot would be that the volunteers now know me well and know what I'll be there for so they're more than willing to help out. I was able to get some more recordings of their answers too.

The main weakness which makes the shoot unsuccessful was the weather, throughout the other shoots it has been a grey/ cloudy day, but this is perfect to create perfect portraits as it acts like a huge light box. But on this day it was sunny, and created a yellowy background, with dark, harsh shadows on their faces and on the wall. These images I can not use for my project but show another test and how I shall move on from this. 

WEEK EIGHT

Week Eight:

This week I had a tutorial with Matt and Joanne Paterson, this was incredibly helpful, to received advice from other photographers outside of the university. From receiving both their opinions and advice hopefully it will lead me in the right direction for my final images. This week mainly was focused around re-shooting at the Foodbank taking on board what was advised. The more I complete re-shoots of the volunteers helps me build my confidence with communication towards them. I am pleased with my process so far, it shows a gradual strong development through learning and gaining skills when photographing portraits.

Foodbank Re-shoot 2

The Foodbank was proving to be more successful each time I went to shoot, my images are improving each time but there is always something missing or something to adapt. Which is all apart of the learning process, making the mistakes and learning from them. This is my second re-shoot at the Foodbank, the first one was a success when comparing it to my original images but the framing of the portraits needed another look at.
We had a tutorial with Matt Theodore and Joanne Paterson; there was one comment that Jo said which has helped me lead to this shoot more specifically. When Jo looked at my previous images she found the faces of the volunteers hold deeper stories and so advised that I should take portraits of them but focusing more on the neck above.

Strengths:

- Massively more confident with the volunteers : asking them questions and taking their portrait.

- More comfortable and confident with giving directions and instructions: they listened and followed well.

- Each time I go back there is something different I do and each time my images improve.

Weaknesses:

- Occasionally technical ability let me down, such as the images being too over or under exposed. 

- Lost variety in positions, with small knowledge of portraiture this is a great learning curve for me to expand my knowledge in this area.