Photography GCSE Portrait

What is my formal element for this term?

Based on successful projects my work could be displayed in a gallery at the end of this term

The formal elements

Photography gallery exhibition

Must be 3D A three dimensional object that is mostly always a solid

These are the things that make photos appealing to the human eye

I'm going to display it by using the mini figure with writing in the background of the character

My photo are focussed on shape, space and tone

The materials im going to use will be things like a mini figure

GCSE Photography: Portraiture Project (Autumn Term, Portfolio Project 4) This term in GCSE Photography you will: ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

Generate ideas through mind maps and statements of intent Investigate appropriate references and sources connected to portrait photography and your chosen theme Develop critical understanding/photographic terminology whilst researching/analysing the work of photographers and photographers that present their work in three dimensions Build photographic skills through replication and reenactment of photographers processes or outcomes Produce tests and experiments of 3D photo sculptures Understand/demonstrate higher levels of photo editing processes Plan and prepare photography shoots and document this in your digital portfolio Effectively develop initial ideas and concepts through rigorous tests and experiments Create a meaningful photo sculpture linking to portrait photography and your chosen theme Exhibit final outcome and reflect on audience impact

In your practical exam, you will have 5 hours to create a final outcome(s) responding to your chosen Starting Point.

Personal response

Rigorous process

Clear and well informed intentions

Awareness

Sophisticated ideas

Synthesize ideas

Willingness to take risks

A strong and sense of independent thought and reflection

Mind map

I am planning to bring in different clothing for my photos instead, and use the town centre in yeovil to get a good vibe like these photos, i may even go to london or bath o get some photos as most of my inspiration photos are taken inside of a big city. ●

Statement of intent

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Some of these could look like a movie poster Kind of has a relation to mental health

This term im planning to have a mix between an old and modern dark, street theme when taking my photos, i have researched a few photographers that i like the look of and who i want to base my photos on they are Dp Grey fraser who does more cinematography, joel meyerowitz, robert frank and henri cartier bresson, on the left of the slide are some examples of photographers As of currently i have not decided the exact photographer i want to choose but those are my top picks, my main intent of these photos is too get an old vibe but it be in modern timing.

This top right photo also represents something i want to do, this photo it shows the man's feelings, he looks depressed and sad, lonely and overall looks like he isn't enjoying life, if you think into it he may have lost all of his friends and family and he's the last one left. This top left photo shows the type of black and white i want to use in my photos while i'm working on this photographer, having the darker look to black and white makes it look like it not edited as much as the other ones.

References and sources

Having photo in a motion is the sort of picture i want to take. When they are taking in motion, to make the day in the life theme come to life, this bottom right photo and the bottom left shows this perfectly. Unlike the top right they feel like it wasnt posed for.

Joel meyerowitz uses the same design with the black and white modern theme Joel was born on march 1938 he is still alive at the age of 84

Joel meyerowitz is an american street photographer who does landscape and portrait, he gagan taking colour photography in 1962 Joel went to the city university of new york to study a 3 year course of photography.

Joel meyerowitz

Joel also got multiple rewards for hi photography in both the united states of america and canada.

Research slide for artist

Joel also have 2 children called Ariel Meyerowitz, Sasha Dorje Meyerowitz.

Contacts sheet, without editing

I took the photo in this specific place to get the best view and background in the whole school, i also like how every window is identical to the other it just gives the dull feel i wanted, i edited this photo to give it an old styled feel to it to match my photographers work. Above is what i edited

When i edited this photo to black and white my plan was to make it look more like one of these 3 photos, i think the black and white mostly fits this one though

When i took my photo i wanted it to look something along the lines of this in the bottom right corner, i think i succeeded with making my photo look like this in my opinion, both photos have a similar look to it and focus on one particular person.

Research slide Who is Joel? Joel is a american street photographer who does portraits in black and white, and he colour photography after the year 1962

Joel Meyerowitz

I have chosen this photographer because i like the mix of his work being black and white and also have a modern feel to it. I'm going to be taking all my photos in the town centre but when im at school i will take them probably in upper school somewhere

I will take normal photo with a medium ISO and average aperture, but when it comes to editing i will make my photos black and white

He began his photography career in the 1962 before this time he still did photography but in black and white

Contact sheet

In these photos all i did was stand there and talk with josh and harry i wanted to get a day in the life feel to this photos to once again match my photographers work, i had an auto focus on with a 800 ISO

The reason i chose this photographer for the 3D photographer because i like all the things that he takes pictures of, it's also extremely simple to take these pictures and doesn't take much effort to set up, there high quality and also easy to take

Mitchel Wu

Mitchel wu lives in los angeles and is also based in los angeles, every single photo he has taken has been taken in his home city, michel wu has a networth of 70 thousand dollars from taking these simple pictures of the toys

The best things about michaels photos is the crisp focus they have and that's what caught my eye on his photos

Taking such crisp photos of small objects is just something i admire in photography

Photo analysis

He also plans out all of his photos really well and has everything set up perfectly

Photographer 2 photos I like the contrasting texture between the wood, metal and the person sat down

All of these photos are going to be edited in the future to fit the photographer work even more i also plan to start to add extra background things in the future to fit the photographer best

Mini figure photos Like i said in a previous slide i like the smaller objects being taken photos of

I like centrally composed photos so that's why i like these

These photos will be improved in the future with lighting,background and writing in the background but overall this is the thought of photo im going for.

Edited versions of photos, practice one:

When it comes to improvements i think it's very easy to make that a positive with my work, all i need to do is concentrate more while working and i think i'm currently doing good at that My initial reaction to this feedback was that everything there was expected, i didn't really expect many glows as the start of this year wasn't great, but i have plans to turn it around and go for an above grade target

As much as im happy with my glows i think that i can have a lot more glows added to the list if i'm honest, i hope something like concentration will be there soon

My aim for this project is to get a better end of year grade than all of my other portfolios, my aim is to try get a grade 5 and if i can push for a grade 6

Feedback

I have changed all of yellow boxes on my slide but 2 slides so i have already improved my feedback

What i used for my photos

Contact sheet

Annotating my best photo Personally this is my favorite photo out of all of my test shoot 1. Purely because of the placement and colour, i think that the placement of the mini figure in this photo is perfect. Its centred and in main focus, the colour is a set theme pink, white and a bit of yellow with the mini figure also have a light blue shirt that makes the mini figure fit in much better than if it were a black, grey or brown one for example. I also chose the background as a piece of greenery so even if you can slightly see the background, it would fit because the greenery on the fake plant would make it match.

Second photo shoot (without edits)

Early morning

Midday

Night

Edited versions of my test shoot 2

Annotating my photos

In all 3 of my photos i had seemed to have got my photos in a somewhat theme of night, morning and midday

My personal opinion on this photo is that its one of the most creative, detailed and overall best photos i've ever taken in photography GCSE

I personally love the shadow on my second photo, i think it really brings the photo together and makes it feel more compact With my photos i wanted to make it seem like the person inside the jar feels mentally trapped, i think that making my photos link to people's feelings and mental state

In my 5 hour drop down day i am planning to create a photo of a mini man inside of a jar, and making it seem like he's in a real environment. The point will be to give an in real life illusion to the picture.

Final photo plans

For my final piece, i'm going to need a jar, mini figures, astro turf grass, a plain piece of a blue paper, paint, coloured lighting and tape. The quality of the jar matters a lot because if the jars glass is too thick it could affect the look of the photo a lot, i also need to make sure that the lighting is not too bright and also not too dark, if it's too dark you won't get a shadow, the shadow to me is very important because i think it makes my picture look more realistic

Timings The formal element that my work uses is composition, the placement of the jar, mini man and the astro turf grass produces the formal element i am planning to use. The composition of the jar is great for its shadow.

My piece of art that im taking a photo of was very much inspired by a website i saw, they posted photos similar to these with small things inside a jar, and mixing that will my original idea of michael wu’s photography with the scenery.

I plan for my final piece to use composition to its advantage, using this can make my photos look a lot less cluttered, focus on a particular thing, using this could definitely make my photos look much more professional.

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1st hour will be on setting up my photo 2nd hour will be taking my photo 3rd hour will be annotating my unedited photos 4th hour will be editing 5th hour will be annotating my edited photos

The challenge of this 5 hour exam will be sticking to it for 5 hours.

Slide 1 Bucket and funnel

A large jar Sea rocks

Camera Cellotape

Scissors Thin yellow paper and a phone Mini figures Astro turf scraps

Behind the scenes

Slide 2

Slide 3

Contact sheet

Slide 4

Editing process 1

Slide 5

Editing process 2

Slide 6

Editing process 3

Slide 7

Editing process 4

Slide 8

Editing process 5

Final photo This also links to my formal element to this term, my formal element is composition which is all about the placement of the things inside your photo/picture, My final piece shows composition by the placement of each jar and mini figure. Having my jars placed this way made the focus on the mini figures in my opinion look a lot cleaner, i feel if i had went in smallest to biggest order it would have been tacky, unoriginal and just couldn't have looked as well done as mine turned out to be

The point/motive of this photo was just like the last view experiments i did, it was too make the viewer feel like these figures are trapped inside their own thoughts, and i think that all of these jars represent that very well, there are climless walls all around these 3 men while they are stuck inside in the theme i was going for, one thing i think i could of done better was too have the mini figures pop out a lot more, i think i could of done this by either editing it too make it so they are much more clear in the photo or found a way outside of editing to make them pop more in the picture

I think the main point i was trying to get from this picture was for people to relate too it, i think when people relate to a photo they will look into it more and find those small little things and details that are in this picture, maybe its a bad detail they find but the point is the person looking at it is interested and intrigued by the picture

When taking my final photo, i went to the dark room to shoot the photo as i needed an overall dark feel to it with a yellow glare shining over it, when i took the photo i placed 3 smaller jars filled with small sea pebbles at a slight angle, to make a slope with 3 mini figures inside them to add more detail and to create the effect of people being stuck. And behind the 3 small jars there was a much larger jar filled around ⅓ of the way with small stone to have the effect of a background, it also makes the small jars seem much smaller compared to the large jar and i think that gives the photo a much better look to it.

Project reflection In both year 11 and year 10 i think that i have done an all round good job at researching about photographers and investigating about them, I do think at the beginning of this year i could of done a better job with my work but as of now i have changed that and tweaked my work a little bit to put it up to standard. I definitely think that my mini figure project was my best as of this year. I also really enjoyed and liked my history of photography finale piece, These two were my favourite out of all of my work in all of my photography, overall i think my annotations have got much better since year 10 they improved in detail and depth, i also think that my presentation got much better from year 10 to year 1 1. As of this final piece from this year 11 term i am overall impressed with it, the difference in quality of work from september and october to these last 2 months being november and december has been a great improvement and im positive my final piece can show that, my annotations have been improved greatly, also highlighting key words was never used by me in year 10, and this term i changed that and have added highlighted keywords.

I still think that there were places that i could have improved in and done much better, one of those things has to be my editing it definitely improved from year 10 but i still think there was some work to be done there, i am happy with my editing slides and annotations i think they have improved to a good enough state, it's more of the actually edited piece that i think most of the time could come out looking a lot more cleaner and better looking quality wise, although this did not come up too the standard i was completely happy with it still came to a decent standard and definitely an improvement from year 10. I successfully annotated all of my photographers i worked on with decent annotations even through the struggle of what to put, this year it was definitely harder to annotate my photographers as they were much more in depth and harder to find information about them.

The part im most happy about this year in photography has got to be the quality of my photography, all of my photos have improved so much ever since year 10, my photos have much better placement/composition so everything look aligned and not out of place, the overall quality of all of my photos has got substantially better compared to the blurry pictures i used to take, lighting is another thing that has improved, the angle i have the light pointing towards my set is just a massive improvement. There is a clear connection in my year 11 portfolio with my work and my photographer, michael wu is a great example for this. Everything i've done so far this year has been a all round great improvement