Images and evaluations

Above, is a random image of Llawen. Originally, this image was just a test to see how the lighting was against the back drop, but when I connected it to the computer I decided to play about with it and came up with this.

The image as a whole is a nice, simple, cold looking portraight, I feel it doesnt portray much about the personality of the person but the image is suggestive. The cold greys work well with the image and give it a sense of depth and drama. It's a very 'still' image, it could almost be painted, and because of this, the eye is drawn to the subject himself. The darkened areas on Llawens face make the image sharper and more crisp, althought perhaps a slight bit of work could be done with the facial area to bring out the features more, perhaps burning in a few colours.

The image might have benefitted from less saturation, however in addition to that on some level I feel the coldness of the image works, it sets it apart from a boring portrait. It looks almost as if a sheen of colour has been placed over it to take away certain colours. I think this type of editing could work well with a set of images to perhaps portray a persons outter shell without letting the viewer in to the subjects personality etc. If you didn't know Llawen, i think it would be difficult to establish much about him from this image and that's why I like it - because it means that the viewer will wonder as thats what I'd want people to do.

I think it's more of an editorial piece over an artistic piece, you're more likely to see it on billboards advertising a make of clothing rather than in a gallery, but in a whole it's a good image. I have the composition right in the sense that the head room between Llawens head and the top of the image isn't too much or too little, he's centred in the image and symmetrical in his stance, which works wel also - it keeps the image balanced.

The magazine I chose to base the idea for our band on was IP1. I chose this because it's local, simple, interesting and appeals to the youth market. I looked through copies of the magazine and on www.ip1zine.com and had a look at a few of their page layouts and styles. From writing for the magazine, I understand that every word is valued and band shoots and interviews are a favourite and a regular slot in the issues.

The boys seemed laid back and easy about what they do, success wasn't their first goal and they said they just wanted to make people happy. Therefore, I decided a local, less commercial magazine was the way forward.

With my first finished product (red background), I am quite pleased. However, it is slightly overpowered by text. To overcome this I could potentially take out a few questions and answers and insert a few captions and comments related to the text. The photographs on the first page I feel work well. The boys wanted to do a shoot with a red phone box, however, which I found more difficult to put into an editorial context. The photos as an individual image were very rough and needed a lot of editing and adjusting to fit into a decent format to place in a magazine spread.

These type of photos I feel would not really be seen in magazines. Location shots may have worked better, or, with more planning we could have come up with better ideas. I feel us as photographers and the band did not explore the creativity that can come from these kind of shoots enough. The layout on the first page is definitely a lot better than the layout on the second page, perhaps using a double page and one single page would have worked better and in hindsight, it's easy to say these things.

The writing could be broken up a bit, possibly even only using the text from the first page and expand it out over the spread. it was my first attempt at designing a magazine and I found it harder than I originally imagined. Currently, I am in the process of making several other designs using different images to experiment and play around with types of layouts I could use.

This is one of my favourite images that I've taken - a shame that it's in such poor quality (taken on an iPod Nano) but I love how this image is almost a mirror image of itself. It was on the train to falmouth where I enjoy watching the orange and red cliffs roll past and thought about how it's weird how between the sea and the cliffs there's a random train track.

This image again, was by chance and in turn, I feel it works really well. The mans arm represents a mirrored image of the cliff outside, while the train window mirrors the train track and the dark blue colours within the train mirror the sky outside. It's a reference to how natural beauty goes so unignored these days and how it's often ruined by man-made builds. The image has beautiful colours within it, bright blue sky with loads of clouds, bold oranges and yellows - a contrast to the dull colours within the train.

Composition wise this image doesn't quite conform, but it's awkward and sparks thoughts in the viewers mind. Why would anyway take a random photo of half a train, half a cliff? If you look into the image you can see there is more to it than that. I did conform to the rule of thirds though so various parts of the image draw your eyes in to different points. I'd want this image to calm and relax people in the same way the train journey does to me.

Editing would have done this image little justice, because the quality is so distorted I feel it would have made the image hard to distinguish if any other different lights or effects were added over it. I think it relates quite well to the gorgeous work of Philippe Sainte-Laudy http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/30/50-beautiful-examples-of-reflections-photography/ <- work seen here, who focuses on images of reflection. 

Although I'm sure his work was probably a lot more well planned out than this quick snap shot. 

The image would definitley be even better if it was better quality, but sometimes spur of the moment shots work better than those that have been captured after days of waiting. A series of image taken with the same camera using similar methods of looking through a window or reflecting something would make a lovely thing to view, afterall, not everything has to be perfect. The roughness of the image kind of reflects the content within the image also, but I think this would have been beautiful taken on a film SLR. Black and white with the grainy paper would really add to this image, perhaps something I could toy with if i were ever to make this journey again.