Self-evaluation of women in football photo shoot

For my women in football photo shoot, I aimed to make the models stand out, so for example, by either making the background darker or doing something to it, then making the models brighter or make them stand out more against the background and emphasise their presence. In these photos I have edited, you will be able to see I have done that. The reason why my aim was to make them stand out is to promote them, make people more aware of women’s football and get it more out in the open as it is often over shadowed by men’s football.

The hardest part of the whole project for me was updating my project schedule as spreadsheets confuse me a lot, but after a while of updating it, I eventually got used to it and got into the habit of updating it on a regular basis. At the end of every week we had to update a production diary which would say what we have completed in the current week and what we were aiming to do the following week. This had to match up as best as possible with our production schedules so when something wasn’t done one week, both the project schedule and production diary had to be changed to match up which sometimes became a bit complicated and confusing. Below is the first project schedule I did and part of the production diary which also had to be kept up to date. There is also my final project schedule which shows how different it is from the first and how many changes were made along the way.

I found collecting research was difficult because there isn’t a lot of stuff on women in football, but when I went on to one website, it linked me up with another and so on, therefore allowing me to gain more access into photos I wanted to use to inspire the look of my photo shoot, as well as videos and articles. I also did a survey to contribute to my primary research. I had two ideas for my final major project and asked people which idea they thought would be better, as well as briefly asking their views on women in football. I had a lot of respondents to the survey and felt it was a successful outcome. As well as getting primary research, it was also important I got secondary research, so for this I looked through websites which had articles on women in football and sourced them. I did the same when looking through some of my old football match programmes which had a section dedicated to the ladies football team and I also looked in magazines to see if there were any articles in there on women in football or any posters promoting them, which I found one and sourced it like I did with any other secondary research I found.

Before conducting my research for the ideas I had chosen and the final idea which the surveyors helped me decide upon, I did two different ideas generations, one for a women in football photo shoot and one for a photo shoot which would have been promoting makeup, so using bright colours and experimenting with makeup. I then decided to do a women in football photo shoot which I had to ideas for. One would be having models in nice clothes on a field with a football and posing. This is the idea found to be most popular amongst the people who answered the survey. The aim of this idea was to get rid of the stereotypes of women in football and show they can look glamorous and play a sport; they’re not all necessarily boy-ish. The alternative idea was having the models looking sporty and being in football kits.

I felt I had produced a good amount of research for the pitch for my idea. I created a script which I then shortened down to write on cue cards when it came to actually doing my script. I also made a powerpoint which was to run in the background which I thought had a good amount of images on to help portray the idea I had in mind and the inspiration behind the project.

The photo shoot was fun to do. I got almost 400 photos from each of the individual shoots I did. I decided to do around 5 individual shoots. This is because the models had other arrangements and the weather wasn’t necessarily good each time a shoot was arranged so it had to be cut short and re-arranged for another date. I broke up the shoots in different sections such as starting off doing some of the individual photos, then on the next shoot finishing off the individual photos that I needed, plus any extra shots I wanted or needed to re-do. Next I had a section where the group shots would be done. Another section is when I decided to re-do any shots for the group one once I looked back through them all, then the final shoot I thought it would be a good idea to try and get some shots of two people, rotating the models with each other giving me more options to choose from, as well as capturing any extra images I thought would be a good idea. I was happy with the overall outcome of the photo shoot as I felt I had a lot of images to choose from as part of my final 10 and that would be good to edit. I think that the majority of the photos are of a good quality. Some turned out a bit blurry, unfocused and some were not in the centre of the frame but there were plenty of good quality shots which I could choose more than 10 images from, which was good because it meant I had more variety excluding the photos that weren’t of a good quality.

Technical quality of final product and production skills I have newly acquired and existing skills I have further developed:I enjoyed editing the photos and experimenting with different editing tools and techniques. Throughout the editing process, I did some copies of photos so I had choices to choose from when I chose the final 10 edited images to go on my blog and submit them. I used a variety of editing tools. Adjusting the brightness, contrast, vibrancy and saturation on my photos which was fairly straight forward and easy. I also used tools such as colour range which allowed me to change the background into black and white then a selected area into a colour which would make it stand out and look different. This was my favourite thing to do on photoshop because I liked how the colour looked and stood out on the black and white background – this was part of my aim for the photoshoot – to make the women stand out more, promote them and put them in the spotlight. I also used the clone tool for things such as hair to make it look fuller, adding grass to parts that there was concrete to make it look like a full field without any parts looking odd in the background. I also used the clone tool to extend on fences and add on more leaves on to trees to help cover the houses in the background. I used some tools which I already knew how to use but this time I got to use the clone tool a lot more and understood how to use it a lot more than I did before so I think I have developed my skills using that specific tool. I used the colour range tool in a previous assignment so this time I knew how to use it without having to ask for help and I managed to get on with it independently. I also came across the gradient tool which I felt gave a different element to the photo which I used it on and made it stand out which is what I intended.

Time management and problem solving:My time management and organisation I felt was good. This is an important thing to manage when doing a photo shoot so I needed to make sure that dates were set in advance and I had plans of what to do that day so I didn’t get side tracked. Luckily enough, the weather managed to hold out for

most of the shoot so we didn’t need to relocate. I did have back up locations just in case of this happening. If we were cut short because of the weather or time, then we would just make time in the next shoot to do the shots we didn’t manage to get in that shoot. The models were very flexible when it came to organising dates which was good. As well as them working around the times I needed to do the shoots, it was important that I also worked around the times they were available. We were all very compromising and worked well when it came to organisation and meeting. There were times which we would have to postpone the shoot for a few minutes or so when there were people in the background or if it was quite busy as I wanted to get a clear background.

How closely my final project matches my original intentions:I believe my final major project mostly matches my original intentions as I had models which dressed up in nice clothes and posed with the ball which is what I needed done in my photoshoot. I did have the idea of the models being more glammed up but I also wanted them to feel more comfortable in clothes they wanted to wear that still looked smart and feel comfortable in make-up of their choice because otherwise the reflection of how comfortable they feel would show in their body language and facial expressions in the photos which I didn’t want so I am glad I became a bit more lenient on the clothing and make-up to make them feel more comfortable.

Reaching the target audience:It matches the audience’s requirements because I have set out to do what they answered in the survey and that was to produce a shoot of women looking glamorous while playing a sport and being in a sporty environment, therefore making them stand out because not many people think being glamorous and being sporty is a combination. This is a different idea and makes it stand out, which is what I wanted for this shoot.

I created a survey which I sent out via email and social networking sites along with a link to a blog I created which would contain only the edited photos on so I could get audience feedback on the shoot. The questions were simple and only required an answer from a range of answers which were listed. The survey consisted of asking the audience which was their favourite and least favourite image, what they think could be improved, their thoughts on the overall idea of the shoot, if they thought the photos were of a good quality and if they think the photo shoot portrays women in football in a positive light which I uploaded to my blog. Overall the audience feedback was quite positive. There were a lot of respondents which was important in order to get various views and opinions on the shoot.

Summary conclusion:If I was to carry out this project again I would take more care into the research and make it more detailed. I would also try to find more similar locations that could be nearer to the models to make it easier for them to commute to the location. Next time I would like to experiment more with the tools in photoshop and get the best edits that I can. I would also like to start doing the photo shoot a lot earlier so I would have plenty of time to experiment with editing tools which would give me more and better options to choose from when selecting the final images to go on the blog. Although I did experiment with different editing tools this time round, I would like to take more care into editing next time so I will produce the best photos I can. Overall, I think the women in football photo shoot was a success because I produced what I had in mind originally and met the audiences needs when they answered the survey on which they preferred. I didn’t stray from the idea at all which meant I didn’t do any time wasting by changing my mind all the time, I stuck with the idea and got the best I could out of it. I also stuck to the main aim of the shoot which was to make the women stand out, because I feel that in sport that is stereotypically dominated by men, it is important women have an impact on those to so young girls can have female role models in sport and not feel like they have to be a tomboy or act like a boy to fit in, they can still be girly and whatever they want and still play a sport.