Evaluation

Matt Smith – Photo Skills B Evaluation

My initial ideas for this project were a little vague. I was unsure what to focus on but I was finally intrigued by a news story about a Para Olympian allowed to compete in the normal Olympics despite being a double amputee with mechanical limbs. When developing my idea I was still unsure of a final outcome and I talked about creating a panoramic image with several models in all having been manipulated in some way by having a limb replaced with a mechanical part and the theme would be sports. I decided against this in the end as I felt a single portrait would be more suited as I felt the focus might get lost amongst the business of a multi-person shot.

When I got this project I wasn’t excited or motivated by it, I thought it was pointless but in hindsight it got me thinking a bit more about composite images as a whole. I always try not to manipulate my images apart from exposure changes. I have always seen manipulation of my personal work as cheating or fake but having thought about it most photographers working today work heavily alongside Photoshop and that’s the benefit of digital photography. I would like to continue to think about how I can use manipulation in personal and up coming projects to enhance my ideas and final outcomes. Photoshop is a powerful tool if used right and this brief has helped me re-realise that.

I found it quite hard to research and get inspired for this project, every search for ‘cyborg’ seemed to bring up terminator related images or images of that nature which I wanted to stay away from since the first day. However I managed to use photographers I was already aware of and some new research to see how digital manipulation and composites can make up an image to combine several ideas into one. It was nice to have the freedom in this project to express our ideas and not be constrained to using certain techniques, which is why I chose to shoot with a wider lens than I normally would for a portrait. The sigma 10-20mm isn’t generally a flattering lens for portraits as it drags out features and either squashes people or stretches them out but since the key focus of this project was something a little out of the ordinary I wasn’t as bothered about getting a textbook portrait and I think this has helped add a unique perspective to my final image which I wouldn’t have got if I had gone with my original play of shooting at 30mm.

I’m happy with my final outcome. I made the mistake of not backing up my original images, which left me needing to go out and re shoot and on the second time I was much more direct with what I wanted. I had already edited my original images so I knew what to avoid making life easier in post. I decided to include a football net in my final shot to add to the sports theme and also distract from the background elements that were somewhat unrelated. I am glad I decided to push myself to add the hologram style effect to my images and I think this helps make my ideas more literal. Originally I was going for subtle editing but this felt like the easy option when push came to shove I decided to experiment a little more than I usually would and I’m happy with the results.