Overall Project Evaluation

Exploring advertising in this unit has been an inspiring and interesting experience. It has most certainly helped me decide whether or not I want to continue with this theme in any upcoming work, which I will definitely be developing in unit 4. The main photographer that I enjoyed researching was Richard Pullar, because his work is always bright and full of life, with his white backgrounds contrasting with the subject and emphasising their shape, colour and overall appearance. Another photographer that I found to influence one of my most successful shoots would be David Gilliver, who's work I responded to in shoot 9. By manipulating single photos and piecing them together with others to create one, I was able to create messages with my work, and advertise them in fun and creative ways. 

Food photography was one of the most successful themes that I explored in this advertising unit as I was able to experiment with colours, layouts and camera angles to decide what made food products look the most appetising. In shoot 7, where I captured visual recipes of an orange and banana smoothie, I took a photo from a birds eye view with the ingredients situated around the frame in a complimentary pattern, spread out evenly across the composition. This shoot was inspired by Kimberly Davis' picnic picture. I then applied the "image and text" task to a couple of the pieces from this shoot, one acting as a title to advertise the drink I am displaying, and one acting as a list, with the recipe informing the audience on how to make the drink and what to include. I enjoyed adding text to my work as it adds that extra potential for a magazine advertisement; something that I also experimented with in shoot 2 with the variety of perfume bottles.

I used the studio for shoot 1 and 2 of my coursework because I was experimenting with gel lighting. In shoot 1 I used two lights with snoots in order to direct a beam of light towards my subject, Connie, casting a yellow and pink tinge across either side of her hair. I then used this same set up, but with one light shining down on a perfume bottle from behind, with two light boxes in front of the subject lighting up every part of the packaging. By using these light beams and colours I have made my shots look feminine and emphasised the beauty. In shoot 6 I also used this same set up for a shot I captured of another perfume bottle, along with developing this by changing the colours and putting each individual picture into a 2x2 collage as part of my computer experiments. I enjoyed shooting beauty products and feminine objects, as I also explored this topic one last time faintly in my 10th shoot, adding a touch of surrealism with the cut and paste tool in Photoshop.

Ultimately, exploring different themes in this unit has allowed me to see the potential that advertising has. I have not specifically been focused on just one theme, as I am an extremely creative person interested in all types of areas to do with photography, which is why I wanted to explore this in my coursework. I have specifically been fascinated by the surreal theme, such as my Momiji doll piece in shoot 6 and my book photography in shoot 9. Here I was able to experiment with my skills in Photoshop which resulted in some clever and fascinating pieces to link to my advertising topic.

Final Pieces

My Top 40 Photographs

Physical Experiments

As my project is based around commercial photography, creating physical experiments wouldn't be effective or relevant to my topic as I often use Photoshop to create experiments. In replacement of these, I will create a few gifs to link to my work instead.

Print Techniques

Selective Colour

Image and text

Image within an image

Repetition

Framing

Cluster

Montage

Photojoiner

Weaving

Duotone

Overlay

Computer experiments

Work Diary - Shoot 10

Evaluation

For shoot 10, I was only able to capture one photograph, as it was something I'd intended to piece together rather than experiment with in the studio. I already had the idea below in mind, and I'd taken each photograph at a different time, so I wasn't able to develop any more photographs to do with Batiste. However, I will be capturing more images with this beauty product in my exam in unit 4. 

I like the way that I have formed the composition of this piece, by taking two separate photographs - one of the Batiste bottle and one of Danielle - and merging them together in Photoshop by using the select and free transform tool. I selected the bottle with my hand holding it and dragged it onto the picture of Danielle, adjusting its size with the scale and rotate tool and having it sit at the left side of the frame to fill the empty space. I made Danielle puff her hair up either side of her head to emphasise the volume this dry shampoo gives you, and the motion you need to make when rubbing it into your scalp. I used the brightness and curves tool in Photoshop to enhance the brightness of this picture, providing the connotation of freshness, which connects with the flower designs around the bottle's packaging.