Level 5 photography
Portraits
Evaluation

This project I feel has been quite a success as i have produced my black and white prints and handed in on time even though i thought that printing 20x24 was going to be daunting because the size of the paper is bigger but when i pushed myself in doing it, using test strips to sort out the timing of light needed it ended very well and not much time needed as I thought but mainly this worked quick because I have done film in first year and most of the class are willing to help if needed. When I have been given the portraiture brief I thought I would enjoy it but when doing this in film it took away the fun as it is very timed consuming and it easily disappointing and takes away the motivation in finishing this project as all you feel is ' I bet this doesn't work and have to retake and retake till the film not under or over exposed, aaaaah am going to fail'. I prefer digital by far as you can see what you have taken and can retake the shot straight away what I have planned to do but with film I had only bought a few and wanted to collect as much strangers as I could because you do not know what the emotion they will pull and to be honest I do not like much mystery when taking film because it makes you over think and worry too much and hard to get you to actually develop the films in case get disappointed and through the rest of the day I am in a bad mood and not wanting to try again till am desperate in need in negatives to print.  For finals to black and white prints I liked the idea of shooting outside against urban backdrops for example brick walls, if I was going back to this project I would go shooting with someone I know has full confidence in shooting with a 5x4 field camera but then I should of just gone shooting by myself and figured it out but no I didn't because I don't believe in myself enough that I will be ok doing things myself and face the mistakes on my own.

However using the hasselblad was much more enjoyable as I have done it in first year but in digital hard back, using film instead was scary because I didn't want it to be disappointed loads like field camera but actually colour film wasn't disappointing they all came out great apart from sunlight beams going over the face and using a metz flash attached to the hasselblad I felt like I was learning more about settings on camera's to understand apertures and speed and the flash has made my images better as the subject was standing out more than the background as the subject was getting more light.

My main problems to this project is that the colour paper was running out very quickly as everyone has not done colour printing before and when the university gone to order more paper the company was out of stock so we were all told we have to hand in the colour prints at the same time or before the still life project which is a big concern as it will be a big struggle in completing both projects in time but not going to be too much stress well I think so because other people in the course are waiting for paper. Personal struggle I had is going to strangers to ask permission to take their photo's as I thought me having a social anxiety it has really daunted me but luckily in my first shoot I was working with Jess Walker to shoot with field camera and had Rachel with me too and was her first time and she is just as shy as me in asking so we pretty much got Jess asking for us but when we go one film left we pushed to ask ourselves.

How I got my ideas for colour shooting is by being influenced by Alec Soth as his work is mainly about how to take images to identify a person and documenting them as a character different to his other subjects to give each person a uniqueness. When doing my second shoot in colour films  I have linked it with Alec Soth in a way he creates his grey or white backdrops and making my subjects to pull serious faces and just being themselves so that you can read from their posture and facial expression on what the personality is.