Post Production Evaluations

As part of our portfolio creating unit, we had the task of shooting and printing 6 more images for our portfolio. To do this, we worked from our previously created Portfolio Plan – an Adobe Spark page for use as a guideline for our shots.

 

 

Portfolio Image  – Shot by Diana Ferguson (my own work)

This portfolio image (above) was created with the use of filters with inspiration taken from my portfolio research. I used a handmade filter for this image and found that it showed contrast against the blue sky. To change this image and make it brighter, I opened it on Photoshop so that I was able to create layers that allowed me to play around with the colours. I brightened the blue and orange areas of the image and also left the building slightly darker than in the original image. I feel that in doing this, I created a more vibrant image that accentuated the original colours. Once I finished adjusting my image, I then embedded it onto a previously sized canvas ready for printing.

 

Portfolio Image – Shot by Diana Ferguson (my own work)

This image (above) is my harbour portrait and was taken using natural light. The main adjustments I made were changes to the exposure, shadows, highlights and white balance. To make these adjustments I opened my image on Photoshop and worked from there. Once I finished adjusting my image, I then embedded it onto a previously sized canvas ready for printing. I really like this image as it links my theme of home back to my portraits, and also ads diversity to my portfolio as it is a location portrait.

 

Portfolio Image – Shot by Diana Ferguson (my own image)

My next image (above) is one of my two studio portraits. This portrait is based around the theme of ‘Red’.  To achieve this image I had my model (who was wearing red) to sit in front of a red background. When making adjustments to this image, I tried to keep it to a minimum as I was really pleased with how the image originally turned out. I adjusted the exposure slightly along side the shadows and highlights. Once I finished adjusting my image, I then embedded it onto a previously sized canvas ready for printing. I am extremely happy with how this image turned out as it really highlights my theme and showcases the natural beauty of an image that hasn’t been overly edited.

 

Portfolio Image – Shot by Diana Ferguson (my own image)

This image (above) was shot at the harbour and was to be focused mainly on the hut in the centre of the image. For this, I cropped the image slightly using Photoshop to make sure the hut was in the centre. I also changed the exposure slightly and adjusted the colours so that the red became slightly more vibrant, the blue of the sky popped and sharpened it so that the rocks at the bottom of the image were more prominent. Once I finished adjusting my image, I then embedded it onto a previously sized canvas ready for printing. I feel like this image captures my theme of home well as it was shot in my home town and highlights something close to my heart.

Portfolio Image – Shot by Diana Ferguson (my own image)

For my second studio portrait (above), the aim was to create a moody feel to it. This image was taken in studio using side lighting to light only one side of my models face. When making adjustments to this image, I first changed the colour of the background to a grey tone, then changed the exposure slightly. I then adjusted the highlights and darkened the shadows to highlight the exposed side of her face. Once I finished adjusting my image, I then embedded it onto a previously sized canvas ready for printing. I feel like the side lighting really helped create my desired moody feel to the image and think it is a very good technique to use when creating atmospheric images.

 

Portfolio Image – Shot by Diana Ferguson (my own image)

For my final portfolio image (above), I shot a still life image. This image was taken in studio on a piece of white card and a soft box. When adjusting this image I worked on the exposure slightly, and also the highlights. As well as that, I changed the background colour slightly just to make the white more vibrant than what it originally looked like. Once I finished adjusting my image, I then embedded it onto a previously sized canvas ready for printing. I think this image came out really clean and am very happy with the finished product.

To get my images printed, I used Deadly Digital and printed on Permajet Gloss paper and I am extremely pleased with the appearance of my images after the retouching process. When creating the canvas for my images next time, I feel like I could resize the borders slightly better to fit my images. Over all, the process as a whole worked well for me and I enjoyed doing it.

Portfolio Plan

Attached below is the link to my Adobe Spark page on my Portfolio Plan:

https://spark.adobe.com/page/en959kc1HNbGs/

Portfolio Research Task

Below is a the link to my Portfolio Research Adobe Spark page.

https://spark.adobe.com/page/H2ST7AFRtLRz7/

Portfolio Evaluation

How effective was your choice of images and the retouching techniques used in your images? Why?

I think my choice of images were effective in highlighting my skills as a photographer. My images cover a range of subjects and techniques in studio and on location. It shows my capability of shooting portraits, still life, candid and creative images along with many others.  They also show an insight to my life in regards to the people in it and the places I have been. When retouching my images, I usually tent to stick to the basics unless I intend to make obvious changes. I usually focus on adjusting the exposure if needed, along with the white balance and colour balance. I sometimes adjust the highlights and shadows slightly if I want to highlight or darken certain aspects of my images. I find these techniques extremely useful as even the slightest change can affect an image as a whole, and I enjoy touching up my images to their full potential.

How effective was your choice of presentation and layout options in creating visual impact and why?

I chose to make my portfolio as enticing as possible. I decided to do this by having the first 6 images in my portfolio darker than the others, using my best images first then moving down the line of my favourite shots. All of my first 6 images have dark backgrounds, which I feel creates a dramatic feel to my portfolio. I decided to link my dark and light prints by a common theme, which was still life. My last dark image is an object still life image, linking to the first light image which is my product still life. I then progressed through to a more homely theme, including images of where I currently live and then on to when I originally come from. I rounded up my portfolio with some more portraits, tying to the theme of home with a portrait of my brother at the harbour where I come from and moving to some studio shot portraits. I feel that my choice of prints and the order that they are in achieves my goal of an enticing portfolio while showing an insight into my personal life.

How effective was your choice of print process used? Why?

My images were printed at Deadly Digital and I chose to get my images printed on Permajet Gloss paper. This choice was purely made on the cost of the paper as I was on a tight budget and didn’t have much leeway with how much money I could spend. I decided to go for Gloss as it was what I was used to and wasn’t entirely sure how the other paper types would look.  I think in the future I will go for a more adventurous paper time, something like Hahnemuhle German Etching or Brilliant Satin Matte White. I am still very happy with how my prints look on the Permajet Gloss paper type.

How would you improve on any of the many steps/choices you made in retouching, layout and printing of your images?

I think in the future I will start spending more time retouching my images and using more of the techniques I have learned throughout this year, also working more on my borders and the sizing of my images on the canvas. I would like to work on widening my variety of images and finding subjects that flow together to possibly try and add two pictures onto one page. I will definitely stick with getting my images printed at Deadly Digital as they have a wide variety of printing and paper types for reasonable prices.

Portfolio Building

This task was a was for us to choose what images to use for our portfolio.

We were given the task to select 40 of our best images and create a folder including the images.

 

Once we had created our folders, we then put them onto contact sheets using Photoshop. Once the contact sheets had been created, they were printed off and taken to class where we stuck them up on the wall for the class to view and select their favourites.

 

Above is a picture of all my contact sheets up on the wall.

As a class, we went around and looked at everybody’s sheets one at a time, marking off the ones we liked the best. We also had a group discussion about what we would ideally like to include in our portfolios.

Once we had chosen our favourite images, we then sent them away to be printed so that we could see physical copies of our work.

 

 

After that, we were able to select our favourite 6-8 images to prepare for our portfolio.