Evaluation

Step by step

I decided to pick a macro theme for my exhibition because when we had to do task 1 (which was taking my own photos of different photography topics e.g. portrait, abstract etc.) I found that macro was my favourite topic out of them all and I found that I would be able to achieve taking images in this category.

I got inspiration from photographers like Heather Angel’s because I found that there images were really sharp and had a lot of definition on the object that they were taking close ups of. Because of the way they did this I wanted my images to have the main focus on the close up subject I was taking my image of.

For my images I used a canon 1100D on macro setting so that I could get really focused close ups of the object I was taking an image of.

For my final 6 images I edited all of them in the same way. I wanted to make my main focus of my image stand out the most so I decided to make my main focus in bright colours and make the background and other surroundings in black and white because I found that this made the images look more effective and then you can focus on the main subject of the image. Doing this effect also really makes the image stand out because of the different contrasts of colours.

To do this I used Photoshop to edit all my images. First I would use the quick

selection tool and go round the parts of my images that I

wanted in colour, going round as neatly and precise that I could. I then right clicked and selected layer via copy, this would then create another small image on the right above layer 0 and say layer 1. I would then click on layer 0 and go on images and then adjustments, then black and white and make it as dark or light as I wanted. After doing this I would then select layer 1, image, adjustments and I would either select brightness/contrast or colour balance to really enhance the colour on the selected parts of the image.

Evaluation

The strengths on my images is the actual macro close ups I think for the images like the eye, flower and leaves the images are really effective and I have achieved what I wanted. Also the Photoshop edits of those 3 categories I think

have

worked out well because the detail from the images really shows up with how I have edited them and make them look intriguing. My weaknesses through this topic I think was actually having more ideas of what to take images on because I found that I did basic macro images e.g. plants, facial features and because I ran out of ideas I took some images that I didn’t like e.g. the tree bark and close up grass images. These images were also very hard to Photoshop because when editing them how I did with the others images, they didn’t look very different and were very time consuming and hard to use the quick selection tool around every grass piece for example.

I am pleased with my final edited images because I think that I have edited them the best that I could and wanted them to look like. I like the contrast of the different colours involved in the image because I think 6th shot from my plan

that it makes the image more interesting than just either in black and white or just colour. Most of the images I have planned turned out the way I wanted apart from on my plan for my sixth image I wanted to do an extreme close up of an orange. However I didn’t do this because I didn’t actually like the idea and I felt that it would have been a random shot because most of the images that I took tied in well together. By doing this task I think I have improved my camera skills by using the macro setting as I have not used this before and by using this setting it involves keeping a steady hand and focusing on small detailed parts of objects.

If I had to do this project again I think I would make sure I plan more interesting objects to take images of so that I can follow my plan throughout and not have to change a few shoots. I would also choose a different category as well as macro e.g. taking portrait and macro images so that my images have more a variety of photography techniques.