The Square
My Evaluation
My concept throughout this project was ‘Revisiting fairy tales through adult eyes.’ Fairy tales played such a huge part in my childhood, whilst growing up. Therefore I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to recreate my own version of my favourite fairy-tale, Little Red Riding Hood. When we were given the project brief, my mind was overflowing with ideas! However I cut it down to two ideas, fashion, and surrealism/fantasy. Originally, I had my heart set on fashion, however I soon realised that fashion seemed to be a rather popular choice within the class and I wanted to do something that would stand out from other students work at the exhibition. Although now, I am thoroughly pleased and proud of what I have produced and I am so glad I went down the fantasy route!
Looking over the past four weeks, from when I first started the project, the part which I enjoyed the most was my photoshoot. I got so into my shoot, that I felt I was in the fairy tale myself! It was great fun recreating the tale and directing my model as to what I wanted her to do. I was extremely pleased with the location I used, lots of trees, rocks and boulders covered in moss and the river which I included in some of my shots was beautiful. I felt it was the perfect time of year for what I wanted, with the autumnal colours in my background, complimenting my model and shooting on such an overcast day, created a dream like feel, I thought it set the mood perfectly.
Throughout this project, I have done a lot of artist research. From doing this, I have learnt about some really inspiring photographers who I had no idea about before now, such as Margarita Kareva, whos work i adore and has definitley helped inspire me when planning my shoot. I researched the story of Little Red Riding Hood and i never realised there were so many different versions of the tale, such as the Brother's Grimms version and the Charles Perrault's version. I discovered that in one version of the tale, tha cape represents the blood of menstruation, braving the 'dark forest' of womenhood. I then linked this to my photo shoot, by using an older girl, who is now not so innocent and niave, but more in power and bold, due to the fact she has discovered herself and matured.
I also learnt about shooting in Raw, something which I have never done before starting this project. I learnt about the positives and negatives with using Raw. I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that I will be using Raw to shoot in from now on, it just holds onto the quality. Even after editing my images and creating several different layers, it still managed to keep hold of those crisp details within my photographs.
Once I had edited my images on Photoshop, I found it rather difficult deciding which images could possibly be my finals, because there were so many I was fond of! One way I managed to solve this problem was by creating a contact sheet. I did this by using Adobe Bridge, which is another piece of software which I have learnt to use, since starting this course in September. By being able to look at all my images, side by side, it gave me a much clearer view as to which ones I preferred. I was able to scribble thoughts and opinions on my contact sheet, giving clear indications which images were worthy as final pieces.
I feel since starting this project, I understand aperture, shutter speed and ISO a lot better than before. This was something I felt I struggled with at the beginning. However after doing a lot of research and figuring out what settings I would need for my shoot in the forest, I feel my skills have improved immensely over the past few weeks. For example, I felt quite rusty and unsure about what aperture I would need to use. However after doing some research and experimenting with my camera in my own time at home, I soon felt more comfortable with depth of field. I decided to use a wide aperture of around F4-5 whilst shooting, as I wanted to create a shallow depth of field. Meaning my background would be slightly blurred, I wanted to do this as I wanted all attention on my model and I did not want any distractions in the background. However, I did experiment with using a small aperture, to see the comparison and this helped me to choose what I thought worked best for my photoshoot.
If I was given the chance to do this project again, I would take more than just one shoot. I would recreate other fairy tales in a similar way. The only reason I did not do that this time round, was simply because I struggled with the time limit.
After asking several people for their opinion on my work and looking at each image for hours, I finally came up with my two final images. I have decided to print both images A2 as I wanted my images to stand out and be big enough to be able to see the detail within my work. However, I struggled when it came to deciding what paper to print on. I was unsure whether to use glossy or pearl. I contemplated using glossy paper as it generally offers the widest colour range and best resolution. However I worried about the glare, which could be a problem under the lighting conditions at the exhibition. Although, after a while, considering both options, I decided to go with printing on the pearl paper. I decided this would be best for my work as it has a slight sheen to it and a light texture. It would also mean I would not have to worry about reflections getting in the way at the exhibition. I did a test strip using the pearl paper, just to see how the colour differs from looking at my images on the computer screen. I was pleasantly surprised as to how well the colour had come out. I was worried the red would not be as vibrant, but it came out looking just as red as it did on the computer screen, so I was thoroughly pleased!
Overall, I am thoroughly pleased with the work I have produced and rather proud. Looking at my work from the start of September, I can already see huge improvements! I loved the independence and freedom within this project, as I have a huge imagination.