Final Evaluation

For unit 4 the theme was flaws, perfection, ideals and compromises which I decided to focus on the themes of flaws and perfection. I have enjoyed doing this project, I think that my work has met  my intention, the criteria of the theme and explored into flaws and perfection. I have shown the theme of perfection through the use of editing portraiture images where I am getting rid of what society and beauty magazines consider to be imperfections on the skin and airbrushing the image to make create perfection. I have shown the theme of flaws by doing the opposite and using objects and materials pre-production and editing post-production in order to morph and distort the models or the images to create flaws in the overall image.

The part of the project I found most interesting was editing the images to create different tones and effects to make them catch your eye more or look more flattering. I had the most fun editing shoot 1 because it was really interesting to see the transformation from the first image which was flawed to the final image were I am trying to make the model look more perfect by whitening her teeth, getting rid of blemishes, making the nose, face and body thinner etc and I think that my editing technique was very successful on this shoot. I feel that I have developed my skills with the hue/saturation tool and learnt some new techniques on Photoshop mainly from editing shoot one as I have learnt how to use liquify and forward warp tool. I have also learnt about creating the right amount of tonal balance between the black, white and grey tones and what effect cropping has on images. What I feel didn't work with my editing technique is that I ended up doing mostly the same kind editing on every image with the flawed shoots as I was always changing the image to black and white or playing around with the brightness, levels, contrast and saturation tools however at the same time I do not feel I could have done any more or different editing with these photos with what I was trying to achieve. 

The 2 photographers I research and have been influenced by throughout this project were Annie Leibovitz and Jenny Saville. You can see Annie Leibovitz influence in my work through the use of taking portraiture images in the studio and editing some of them so that they are in black and white in order to help follow the theme of perfection. You can see the Jenny Saville's influence in my work where I am manipulating the model and setting them up to intentionally make them flawed before taking any photos in order to help follow the theme of flaws. For example, i my images the models faces are being deformed as they are squashed up against the wall and they look very similar to Saville's paintings of people pushed against glass.

I think that the most successful parts of this project are my portfolio, my final prints and my editing. My portfolio presents a very nice chronological, simple and effective overview of my work that is set out very clearly and shows of my work nicely. My final prints I think are really good examples to support my theme title and the way I am going to present them are a strong and interesting way of doing so which I believe will work well when displayed and will effectively incorporate all my artist influences. Finally with my editing I have worked very hard with it to create a variety of different effects and produce very strong edits. 

In this project I did encounter a few problems and I feel the least successful part of this project was my photographing technique as I have never really done portraiture before so some of the studio shoots weren't as good as they could have been so I need to widen my skills at portraiture and get more comfortable at telling your model what to do and what positions you want them in. Another weakness actually getting around to developing my ideas and doing some more experimentation such as using different cameras and lenses or using the photography light box instead of relying on the natural light from the sun. From this I learnt more about myself knowing that in the future I need to open up my ideas more and not be afraid of trying something new and different even if it doesn't work out in order to test out new ideas and see what does and doesn't work so well. However I am happy with myself as I did get out of my comfort zone and experiment with portraiture which I had not done yet. I do not feel this that has effected my final prints due to that I have edited the images well so they look much more improved from the original images. 

If I was able to complete this project again the things I would do differently are trying out different cameras and lenses and using the light box  to see what effect they have and expanding and exploring my ideas further not being afraid to do more experimentation. I would also do another shoot on my artist Annie Leibovitz following on from shoot 1 and do another portraiture shoot but trying to make it better than the first. My final pieces relate to my research as they are showing the theme of flaws and perfection in a way that you can contrast and compare them. Overall I think the project went well and I feel I have reached my aim but there are things I could have done to expand and look deeper into it.