Tutor Report
Overall Comments
You have done well with producing a range of different
types of image that meet the brief in terms of finding and portraying the range
of colour relationships. Where I think you still need to concentrate on is
combining success in fulfilling the brief with producing images that stand out
from the crowd. You need to be thinking more creatively about your image
making, use other people’s work as a source of inspiration but in applying this
on a shoot, use your own imagination. In this way your images will develop and
reflect your own particular voice.
Remember that the brief for the assignments are there to
give you a structure that you can adapt and alter to suit your own purpose. It
is not necessary to rigidly stick to the letter of the course material.
Feedback on assignment
As I have mentioned you have done well in finding good
colour relationships in most of your images. I think your strongest points are
your observation of the colours in a scene as well as finding the ratios of
colours to match Goethe’s observations. Your weak points are in framing and a
consideration of what to keep in and what to leave out to concentrate
attention.
For example your image of the man on the seafront at Mabelthorpe
catches the colours well and you have used the telephoto lens well to concertina
the view and bring the people and hence colours into close proximity. But I
feel it could be better by cropping out some of the top of the image as it’s
the figures that are of interest and the tops of the lamp posts aren’t.
Again, the image of Bailgate archway - what was your
rationale for including the window in the frame? You are wanting to concentrate
attention on the red door and as you point out the lines on the wall leading
the eye to the greenery. I would suggest therefore the window is a distraction.
Your eye caught well the violet coloured flower with the
yellow stamen but perhaps you haven’t made the best of this including the
strong diagonal of the green stem behind the main flower. I wonder if you might
have done better to have taken the flower home to work on a still life with
planned lighting to being out the shape as well as the colour of the flower - look
for example at Weston’s shell image (http://www.edward-weston.com/images/ Edward_Weston_Natural/Shell_1927_(1S)_large.jpg) or Cunningham’s “Two
Callas” ( http://www.photoliaison.com/imogen_cunningham/
Imogen_Cunningham.htm ) although they are black and white
they show the potential of concentrating on shape and texture that you
could then introduce the additional factor of colour with your flower.
Your Staunton Harold building captures the blue sky well -
I’m not so convinced about the orange - it’s subtle and while I can understand
you going for symmetry but you might want to think about an alternative composition
of the main elements:
Similarly with your image of your cat - it ’ s a good
image but one that has been done
many times but an alternative crop not only fits the bill
of the colours but also makes for a more unusual image concentrating on the diagonal
of the eye and nose.
Your image of the international food market is good in
that you have made an interesting composition and used the diagonal well but
unfortunately the red and orange combination falls more into the category of
similar colours rather than contrasting colours. You may want to reconsider
substituting this with one of your weaker images - either the green and yellow of
the church pews or the cards.
Your picture of sweet wrappers in the contrasting section
while they fit the bill of the assignment well lacks a little in imagination - the
work is done for you with the colours of the wrappers and the composition of them in
the frame is rather ordinary. Look at some of the pack shots in advertising
and see how they have introduced some originality.
Your shot of the organiser lends itself to development – did
you think about scribbling a message on the pad in blue ink to inject a little
irony or humour? What about a graduated neutral filter to darken an edge or a
corner?
In your accent group your strong images are Face on wall -
with this is there any reason why you have cropped off the top of the spire?
Alternatively you could try a different tighter crop that made more of the
interesting graphical shapes,
Donkey faces and book shelf are also good - simple,
straight forward but well done.
The Cathedral is weaker - it has the people cropped off
and the additional competing colours - yellow and gold with the red.
Learning Logs/Critical essays
It’s good to see your review of other photographers work
in your blog and together with your analysis of your work this is improving
but you could still include more reflection on the outcome of your shoots -
what has worked well, what you might do differently and how you might
incorporate aspects of other people’s
work into yours.
Student feedback
Finding the colours what quite a challenge so positive feedback on achieving this was welcome. I do find it hard to think creatively, I find myself too busy thinking about fulfilling the brief, selecting the appropriate settings, the composition of the frame, light, colour, and find little room left for creating something different. I hope I will get to the stage of subconcious competence which will allow creativity through.
In this assignment I was aware of the mistake in the previous assignment, that of size of the image. I therefore held back on the cropping which has clearly not paid off, and my focus was entirely on the colour combinations.
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