Ben Everitt

Evaluation

How did you decide what area to do your exhibition on?

I decided to choose landscape and macro because I have

previously taken both photos of my chosen category and

thought they were good photos. For macro I knew that some of

the photos were good, for example I got a photo of a spider and

the web all in focus and I thought it looked quite professional as

I was a little inspired from previous research. I always have liked

taking pictures from close up or have seen cool replicated

photos, also with landscape there are so many interesting

perceptions you can make from one photo.

Where did you get inspiration from?

I got inspiration from the internet on a website called National

Geographic, and I got photos from the page “picture of the day”.

The man I got inspiration from was a man named Chester Boyes

and he lived in New Zealand and I found him on this website.

I love this photo

because of the scale

in comparison with

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this huge rock and the man climbing up it, this really gives a feel

of how big this random rock. What also makes this photo look

good is the fact that it’s in black and white, this makes the photo

and the background look more bland, which gives us a feel of

how random and abandoned this place is, there is nothing

around it, it is in the middle of nowhere.

What equipment did you use to take pictures?

The camera I used to take all my pictures was the cannon 600d; I

used this as supposed to the 1100d because it doesn’t have the

flip out screen and because the camera is slightly better on the

600d. The reason I liked the flip out screen was so I could get

low shots and see the image from high up by angling the

‘liquid-crystal display’ screen. I also like the 600d because it has

a better colour depth, I know this as the 600d has 22.1 bits and

the 1100d only has 21.9 bits. I also used to edit some of my

photos with Photoshop cs4; this is a high end photo editing

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software that is provided with the school computers. I also used

manual focus for all the photos so that I could take the photo

quickly for example in the jumping photo of Kieran and Dan, I

could also see if it was good quality.

Did I change any of the camera settings?

I didn’t change any of the camera settings because I thought

they were appropriate for the images I chose to take (macro and

landscape).

Did I edit any of my photos and if so how?

Have I learnt any new skills or used any tools you haven’t

before?

I leant how to get more effective macro and landscape shots

within my exhibition. I did this with trial and error this helped me

as I could see what I did right, or what I did wrong, and then

how I could improve taking a similar shot in the future. I haven’t

used any new tools as we have handled the cameras and tripods

previously, but I did have a privilege of taking this home to get

some photos near or at my house. This is an example of my trial

and error I did with pictures of two very different shot types of

the same horse:

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I dint use this

picture in my final

6 because some of

the important parts

of the horse that

people like to see

(the head) was not

in focus or in frame hence I did not use it.

Instead I used this photo of the same horse.

I used this in my final 6 because it has a nicer background, it is

more lit up and not so dark and dull, the horses head which I

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thought is important is both in frame and in focus, and finally it

is looking at the camera, this could be a little more engaging

with the viewing audience and find it more happy and jolly.

Overall in my opinion I think this is a good picture to use.

Because I had to choose two of my best photos as there were

too many overall in the class this was my other favourite photo

along with the horse one.

The reason why I didn’t use

this photo was because it

looks like it is in the school

field, I didn’t want to use this

because otherwise it looks

like I haven’t made an effort

to go out and take photos

independently.

I chose to use this photo

instead of the original one

because I edited the trees in

the background to make it not

look like I have taken the

photo in the school field but in fact somewhere else. It also stops

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people being distracted apart from the two boys having fun; it’s

almost like the billy Elliot front cover that looks like he is having

fun.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of my photos?

Strengths

I have chosen two photo types, landscape and macro, the

good thing with this is that I have a bit more range when it

comes to taking pictures rather than just being stuck with

one category.

They are very clear and not blurry at all, this makes them

look more professional and better quality, the way I made

sure they were good quality and clear was to keep on

adjusting the manual focus.

Anyone will be able to tell what topic I have chosen, which

means I have succeeded in my goal.

Weaknesses

From where I have edited the photos and used the spot

healing brush tool in Photoshop, there were minor defects

of the photo that you can only see if you look closely at the

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specific point of the photo, this only occurred on the sports

photograph. For example I removed trees from the photo

of the two boys jumping and also two birds...

I couldn’t get hold of a 55mm, to 200mm lenses to get the

long distance shot I could not get with the standard 18mm,

to 55mm lenses.

Am I pleased with the photos I took?

I am quite pleased with the photos I took as the selected two

photos are both very different. The jumping sports photo is a

very lit up picture and cantered, whereas the horse photo fills up

the whole picture with its head, and the lighting was very dull

and in low light conditions.

Has it turned out the way I planned?

Yes and no. I wasn’t supposed to use the one of the two boys

jumping in the air, but it came out the best quality and it was an

overall a good photo. But the horse one went to plan, it took

quite long to get the right moment and it was massive which

was a little scary.

Have I improved as I photographer?

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Me reflecting on the feedback from others?

People really liked the landscape picture I took but the downside

was that they said there wasent enough of them, (which I agreed

with). I thought that th cat picture was the best one and other

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people aggreed with me, even though they did not say this on

the feedback sheet I created.