Assignment 1: Feedback

I have just received my tutor feedback on my first assignment with the OCA and I am very pleased with the comments.
I have been given plenty of advice and lots of extra reading which i cannot wait to get started with.

I actually felt slightly nervous while opening up my feedback, but on the whole it was very positive. I agree that some photos worked better than others and that a continuing narrative could work very well.

So, i’m off to get starting on my extra reading 🙂

Tutor Feedback:

SCAOP1

As mentioned in the OCA handbook and also in my tutors comments, we are not required to make changes to this assignment, but I did crop the examples for ‘straight’ and ‘curved’ so they were more uniformed. No other changes were made.

 

Assignment 1: Contrasts (TAoP)

Objective: To pick 8 contrasts from a list (provided by the OCA) and pair up 16 pictures that demonstrate the chosen contrasts. In addition, produce one photograph that demonstrates contrast ‘in one picture’.

I am so pleased to be immersing myself into the first assignment for this module. The practice exercises have been extremely beneficial and already I feel much more confident behind the camera.

I’ve spent the last few days really trying to focus on the contrasts I have chosen as I want to ‘think outside the box’ if possible and try to avoid cliche shots such as photographing a lemon for sour etc.

Pointed:

Blunt:

Straight:

 

Curved:

 

 

Hard:

Soft:

Rough:

Smooth:

Broad:

Narrow:

High:

Low:

Many:

Few:

Liquid:

Solid:

And finally, my 2 contrasts in one – black and white:

I’m very pleased with my final selection and although some were more thought out than others I feel they demonstrate my objective.

I used several techniques that was taught in the previous exercises such as altering the aperture, varying shutter speeds and experimenting with framing the subject.

I also learnt the importance of planning! From sketching a potential idea to making sure my battery was fully charged, having the right equiptment and organising my pictures onto my computer ready for the editing phase. (I have used minimal editing for these pictures as I feel it was not a major contributing factor to the point of the assignment – sometimes there is a tendancy to over edit resulting in the picture feeling less ‘real’)

For most of these pictures I took lots of shots – often between 20 – 30 so i had a huge range to select from. Some ideas worked, others didn’t. Sometimes they had very small differences i.e a small change in exposure, or a slightly higher aperture. I found this to be rather comforting in that I could select my favourite from many – rather than having the pressure of getting it right with one picture. This did however mean I sometimes ended up changing my mind several times between 2 or 3 images for my favourite.

I look forward to recieving my tutor’s feedback and getting stuck in with the rest of the course.