Hello! I’m Laura and this is my learning log for the “Photography 1: Expressing your vision” part of my OCA Photography Degree.
Here is where there will be my assignments, coursework & learning log for this part of the course (starting on the 29th of January 2018).
I will tell you a bit about me. I decided to join OCA once leaving compulsory education back in June 2017 as I wanted to learn more about something I’m very passionate about, which I was unable to learn about for my A-Levels. I have had a life long love of photography but since about 2012 when I first began my Art GCSE, I completely fell in love with Photography as an art form and have wanted to expand on my knowledge and improve my skills ever since. Thanks to OCA, I have been given a distance learning opportunity, so I am able to work on my studies and improve my skills in my own time and stay comfortable with my surroundings while doing so.
For this assignment, I chose to do portraits, as it is something I haven’t done very much, and I wanted to improve my portrait photography skilled. The subject for these photographs is my cousin Chloe. I decided to do standard headshots as inspired by David Bailey but have her trying out different facial expressions & a small range of poses. The poses more inspired by Yousuf Karsh. These photos were originally taken in colour but edited to be black and white, which is my preferred style for portrait photography, as it originates back to traditional portrait photographs taken in the early days of photography and it also matches the photos of the photographers I have been inspired by and have researched for this assignment.
This is my final version of this assignment, which is an improvement upon my initial photos taken last year.
Description of Images:
While taking these photos, I was using natural lighting, as the photos were taken in the garden of a family member. I had issues previously with using the flash and thought it would be better to use natural lighting, especially as it was a bright and sunny day when I chose to take these images. I took the photos using Aperture priority, so the shutter speed and ISO were not under my control. All the photos had an ISO of 100 & an aperture of f/5.6. They were taken with a Nikon D3400 with an 18-55mm lens, which I found to be better for portraits as a whole when compared to my 55-300mm lens.
Because the lighting was nice outside, I was able to use a quick shutter speed, which meant I could hold the camera myself and move around freely to get photos of Chloe and keep focus on her without any blurring which is unfortunately what happened with my previous photos of Elliott.
When editing the images, I made them black and white and tweaked them to ensure that the brightness, contrast and clarity looked good & I even added a slight black vignette which is something I personally enjoy doing with portrait images.
I believe my technical skills actually improved since the previous attempt on this assignment. I managed to find an aperture that meant the subject was in focus and there was a nice blur in the background, to enhance the interest on the subject. The sharpness and focus was much better and I overall think not only do I understand this camera & the settings better, but I have made an improvement in my photography as a whole, so my photos came out much better, especially when looking at the technical side of it. I feel like I was able to take some very good images.
Quality:
The quality of my work I thought was much higher compared to last time. They’re also 6000×4000 pixels due to my cameras quality, and the versions on wordpress are 1500 on the longest side as expected with the learning log. I do think these photos are much better so I would say they’re of high quality for headshots & a definite improvement.
Creativity:
Creativity is something I still very much struggle to assess myself with. My photos conform to classic portrait photography in terms of headshots but the odd more experimental photo adds to hat creativity. I do very much enjoy more classic portraiture, but this may be a slight downfall for me in terms of assessing my creativity.
Context:
My photos definitely match the context of taking headshots, as that was my chosen area for this assignment & they match what I wanted them to look like. They’re vaguely similar to the sorts of photos David Bailey & Yousuf Karsh would have taken, which is exactly what I wanted.
What went well:
I am very happy with my photos. I think the editing came out well, I think the photos looked much better. I am happy with my improvements and I think they’re good quality. I’ve definitely tried to experiment with facial expressions which is something my tutor said about in his initial feedback and I’ve also managed to improve on my research which is something else he wanted me to work on.
What could be improved:
I struggled with finding a subject to help me work upon improving this assignment, so this felt a little rushed for me but I am happy with the outcome. If I could add to this, I would have added another subject (possibly a male) to add a bit more variety and I would have explored more with posing and being more dynamic. Although my photos are better this time, there is definitely less dynamic posing.
This assignment was one that I agreed with my tutor that I should improve on. So I waited on decent weather and headed out to town to retake these photos and I am hoping for some improvement. The concept is the same, with a focus upon architecture, as I believe that seeing the architecture of a town can tell a story. I like seeing the mix of new and old buildings and how they’ve melded together within my town. The older buildings tend to be those of churches, pubs and some shops, and new ones also tend to be shops as well as housing.
I wanted to make sure that with my images, I make sure that I can focus on the mix of old and new with the architecture. The story I want to create is one of the transformations between old and new. My points of interest are the buildings so everyone can see the details and in some of the photos, you get a little glimpse of the lives around my town. I like this mixture of mostly architecture with a hint of life within the town within the entire series.
The photos I picked I think best demonstrate the architecture and you can see a difference between old and new.
I took my tutors feedback onboard. I still found it difficult to take photos from varying angles, especially when using my 55-300mm lens. I do regret not also taking my 18-55mm kit lens, but I feel as if I wouldn’t have used it much, but I am happy with the improvements I have made with my images. Even if there is only a small improvement, I fully believe there is a definite improvement. My tutor also stated that I need to define my idea more clearly. I feel like my idea is more clear now, which is explained more above, and although my images may still be a bit randomly composed, they make more sense than before, and I think I have made my points of interest more clear, the architecture, the mix of old and new, they all tell stories of the town, but it can also be up to the viewer to make their own stories and have their own interpretations on why it may be possible that a particular building may have been significant enough (either because its quite old or new, or if it is a particularly important place in town). I like that sort of story created, but also like that I’ve left a bit of ambiguity in there & have allowed the viewers to create their own views and stories.
This was definitely more difficult overall than I expected it to be, but I am happier with the improvements.
After looking at both the older sets of photos and newer sets of photos, I decided to try to pick 5 from each for my final selection of 10.
The Photos:
Why I chose them & reflection:
I chose these 10 photos because I simply enjoyed how they looked the most. I managed to experiment with lighting and create some dramatic looking effects but also artistic looking photos using the contrast between the highlights and shadows, a difference between light and dark. Some of these photos have a spooky effect, but all of them achieve the goal of creating images with dramatic looking lighting, although that lighting can create either darker, spookier looks, or even just more artistic looks. I am really happy with how these photos came out, and I think my second batch of photos definitely achieved more of what I wanted to originally. The older photos are lit with a speedlight, and the newer ones vary between a ringlight, a bedside table lamp & my phone torch. I found varied methods of creating this lighting alongside using any natural lighting that came into my room at the time of taking these photos. I feel like I have definitely made an improvement with my images & love the overall choice, mixing between old and new.
Although looking at a range of light sources online, as suggested by my tutor, I stuck with this idea of experimenting using different kinds of objects, which is something my tutor did suggest. I think using these different lighting sources shows that you can create an ideal form of lighting using most things. Natural lighting was definitely not on my side, and trying to light from both sides was quite difficult, especially when I am holding the light source with one hand & taking the photo with the other. I needed to keep the light source close to the subject to obtain harsher shadows and show off more of that low-key lighting that I wanted for this assignment.
As I am going along and improving on some of my work, I chose to create additional photos for this assignment, as I am able to experiment more with lighting. The process for these photos involved having a different A Girl for All Time doll standing against my door, while I took photos using a small ring-light, a USB bedside table lamp & my iPhone torch. I have picked my 10 favourites from this batch of photos and in a separate post, I will have my overall 10 best photos from the old and new batches.
The aim for this assignment is to use a variety of lighting to create a dramatic looking effect, meaning I focus on harsher shadows and ‘spooky’ looking lighting to some extent, and I believe photos from both sets achieve this aim, but the purpose of showing 10 from this batch too is to show what I am picking from as a whole, and what my favourites were from this group.
I like these photos in particular because I’ve managed to get a variety of lighting on the face. A lot of photos seem quite similar, but with all of them I like the contrast between highlights and shadows, and some of the photos (photos 4, 9 and 10 in particular) give off a sort of spooky vibe to them.
Now I must make the final decision about what I want my final 10 photos to be for this assignment, using a combination of new and old photos
As I want to pursue photography as a career either after this degree is finished or even while completing the degree, I decided I wanted to try my hand at print selling online. I have my own shop on my website (a print on demand service), but as not much traffic tends to go there at the moment and I have only made one sale, I thought it may be interesting to create my own prints and sell them on a platform like eBay.
I ended up purchasing my chosen 5 photos as 6×4 size prints and putting them into 6×8 mounts, which gave each photo a nice border. I actually very much like the appearance of these photos in mounts, as I feel like they look more professional, but you also know that love & care has gone into making sure each photo sits perfectly within the mount. At first, it was very fiddly to do, but the more I did, the quicker it became. I ended up producing 10 prints, so 2 of each of my chosen photos.
Then came the product photography. For this, I laid my prints on the table one by one, natural lighting to the left and a cheap ring-light to the right. This produced some vaguely even lighting and there is little glare on the prints (which are each in a cellophane bag for protection). I took the photos on manual but cannot remember my settings, but the camera was being held by me instead of placed onto a tripod. The product photography taught me how to produce this even light when working with both natural and artificial lighting. It may not be perfect, but editing has helped and the more product photos I take, the better the outcome will be as I progress.
The more difficult part of this journey is actually selling the photos. It is easy to create the prints and put them up for sale, but drawing in customers is more difficult. Social media is a great platform for this, so after my prints were placed for sale on eBay, I posted on all my photography and personal social media platforms. Selling these prints may become a slow journey, as so far only family have made a purchase, but I am learning more about social media and the business side of photography while doing this.
As this is my final assignment before assessment, a lot more needs to be discussed with my tutor and done to prepare me and to make sure my learning log is the highest quality it can be. This feedback, however, is specifically just for the assignment.
Feedback on assignment:
My photos are noted to be all taken from eye-level and wide angle which ‘offers a consistent format and there is a sense of a journey’ yet the photos lack real points of interest and compositions lack structure. I am questioned about where are we going from and to. My response to this is that we are sort of going in a circle around town, from the main streets to the area where the market goes. I feel like with this I could have probably done with not only having an accompanying map possibly but also I could do with replacing some images and taking new ones to fit the journey better.
I need to think more about the composition of the images to engage the viewer. As mentioned, the majority of my photos are wide-angle shots, and I think that I need to change this and maybe get some variation in angle, particularly with the architecture. I also agree with my tutor that my photos seem randomly composed. I think what I need to do is retake some images with different angles and compositions and think about which ones go together a lot better. I want to provide clear new information, detail of architecture and possibly more life in the town itself (possibly waiting until a weekend so I can take images of the market stalls).
I mention in my reflection about wanting the town to be busier and my tutor responds how I’d need to be patient and confident when working on the street, and to possibly even talk to people, as many moved out of the way or just looked irritated. I think if I went on the weekend (which I wasn’t able to do previously) I have more of a chance of capturing life in the town without having to necessarily talk to people. Having someone with me as opposed to being on my own may also help with a confidence issue, as possibly going around a busy town on your own with a camera and big lens (as I used my 55-300mm) may not be the best idea. I definitely want to try this assignment again, but keeping the same idea.
Coursework:
Exercises and research completed. Tutor notes I have detailed notes and a clear understanding of Barret’s ‘photographs and context’
Research:
Tutor has noticed that my research has developed, and I’m glad that I have improved and this is something that has been noticed. However, I do need to explain more about how I am drawn to the work, and how the narratives may be developed over a sequence or what are the connections between images. Also, need to edit my research to include the photos by local photographers, and even talk to them more about their photos. This is something I will make note to include when improving my work.
Learning log:
Mentioned how I took up his suggestion to find free samples of photographic paper types. I will discuss this with my tutor further to find more companies who provide these samples as I could only find SimLab, who was actually recommended to be by course support.
The aim now is to discuss what I need to do to improve my learning log and prepare for assessment. A to-do list will be made soon after a discussion with my tutor and improvements will be made. I am very proud of my progress throughout this unit, and look forward to improving further and getting ready for assessment, This is both a very exciting and nervewracking time.
I used auto-mode for this assignment, as for some reason everything felt off in manual mode and I could not think of how to sort it. I truly do believe the weather and camera were working against me that day. The focus came out how I wanted it to, with the buildings being the focal point, and any people were kind of an after-thought, and they didn’t need to necessarily be in focus. Editing very much helped me in terms of this assignment, as I needed to be able to warm up the photos & crop them a tiny bit. The cropping was completely an afterthought, as when I was reviewing the images, I noticed things in the corner of the frame that I really did not want in any of the photos.
Quality:
In technical terms, the photos are high quality due to the camera & the WordPress versions are the standard 1,500 pixels at the longest side as requested by OCA. The sharpness is how I wanted them to be, yet in my own eyes the quality does not seem as high (in terms of the outcome of the assignment, nothing technical) as I would have liked. I had these ideas in my head but both a combination of the weather and the shyness or reluctance of the public I felt affected the outcome. My own confidence with street photography may have caused an affect as well, as this was the first time, I’d gone out entirely on my own to take these photos in public. That is something I definitely need to work on, but I feel already is improving the further along with the course I go.
Creativity:
This assignment truly does require you to show off your creative side. You have to come up with an idea that fits the brief. It’s a very open assignment and you need to think about how you can write your ideas of what it is about into 300 words, which I did manage to do exactly! I’ve never been great with turning my ideas into words, but this is something I’m slowly improving on. I liked my idea of referencing an earlier assignment and kind of doing it in a different light, for me it was a creative idea that could be done in a more simple way. I just hope all of that comes across properly in the actual photos and that it all links well.
Context:
I think context is a difficult thing to judge because of how open the assignment was. But I did manage to write the 300 words on what it is about, and to me it feels like the assignment photos provide new information which was a big thing for the assignment brief, so I would say it fits the context.
What went well:
Overall, I think the photos came out decently well. I will say it is not my best work. But I do like the editing of the photos, done in Lightroom CC, I enjoy the warm tones and I feel as if it helped make the photos a bit nicer on such a dreary day and it gives them a happier tone when everyone looked a bit cold and miserable.
What could be improved:
This is a difficult one for me because I took the photos exactly how I wanted to, yet they just seemed a bit off at first. Editing definitely helped me feel more positively towards them and I do believe that it helped with the quality and the overall outcome. Yet I feel as if what could be improved was somewhat out of my control. The day I went out was basically the only day I was able to go take photos, and weather was a huge factor in it. If I could have controlled the weather, I would have made it warmer and sunnier, as this would have helped the photos naturally be a bit brighter with warmer tones, but also would have made people be in a better mood. I did get a few odd looks for taking photos of town and a few people did on purposely avoid the camera, which is understandable. But again, if I was able to control all of these things, I would have made town a bit busier, with people more confident with being in front of the camera, as having those people in the photos made town look more alive.
This assignment for me is about connecting the final one to the first. Within this assignment, I am showing a different side to my town, I am showing the business and homely side of it, instead of the seaside tourist attraction part of where I live. The assignment also wanted new information to be gathered, and with these images, the new information is literal and is provided through the different buildings and the people within the town living their daily lives. All of that can be brought together so the viewer can learn about the town, learn what is popular (such as the butchers or clothing shops perhaps), what kinds of shops are within my town and just come to their own conclusions, have their own opinions or even make their own stories about what goes on. For me, this assignment was both a mixture of showing off a different side of my town (taking the ‘new information’ part of the assignment quite literally) and being a storyteller in some way, as we learn through this section of the course that photographers can be storytellers, but also that the viewers of these images may come to their own conclusions based off of what they see in each image and how all of these images can come together. My chosen photos for this assignment I feel link together as they show my journey through the town. They’re not necessarily in chronological order of taking them, as I didn’t get to take photos of certain areas until after I initially wanted to, but they’re placed in a certain order to be part of a journey, which is an idea that I think is important with this assignment, as this is our final assignment and we are going on a journey with photography.
Process:
The process for taking these photos included me researching street photography once more and figuring out the best places for me to take photos around my own town. All of that was simple, but the actual act of going out and taking the photos and having them be super high quality felt like it was easier said than done. People are still fairly wary of someone walking around with a camera, so they either got out of the way of the photos, or just gave me a strange look. I definitely was not very confident when taking these photos, and that anxiety did make the process a bit harder.
After taking the photos however, I put them onto my laptop and edited them via Lightroom CC. As this Assignment was connected to the first one for me, I wanted to keep it in colour, so my edits focused on staying in colour and I concentrated on making the tones a bit warmer and brighter the counteract the dullness and coldness of the original photos, as it was quite dull, dreary weather outside, as is typical at this time of year.
For this assignment, I decided to look at a variety of photography. I wanted to look at street photography, architectural photography and social media.
Architectural photography – Eugene Atget:
Eugene Atget was a French photographer born in 1857 (and died in 1927). His life is somewhat undocumented, but we know that hr was a sailor during his youth, and aged 40 he quit acting and became a photographer, and that is what he did until his death. His photos are simple, many of buildings, which make him appear as an architectural photographer. Because of the time period in which he was taking photos, his images are monochromatic, which to me make them both simpler but also more elegant in a way. We are not distracted by all these different colours, so we focus on the subject matter, the buildings and surrounding areas. As there are not many if any people in the photos, it makes them look more peaceful. I feel as if architectural photography is somewhat relevant to this assignment for me, as I want to take photos of different streets in my town, so there will be a lot of buildings present, and we can learn new information by looking at the buildings in each photograph, as we learn more about the town, what areas are looked after more than others, what places are more busy. The architecture within a town can tell us a lot about it, and I want to give the viewers of my photos for this assignment information about my town, capture images of the different areas and let them draw their own conclusions about the town itself.
Eugene Atget’s photos are somewhat close to what I could imagine, except within these photos there are no people. I don’t want the people in the photos to be the main focus, but I think showing people in the photos and leaving them in the images (as we now have the technological abilities to remove things like people from photos to perfect them) adds more new information to the photo.
Street photography – David Everly
I discovered David Everly’s street photography during a Google search of city street photography. I searched that specifically as just ‘street photography’ showed me a lot of black and white photography that focused more on the people instead of the actual street itself. David Is a photographer, designer and art director based in New York and shoots a lot of portraiture and street photography. His photos from photogrist.com are interesting as they capture the story of the street, the buildings and the people within it, we see the view of the street and the movement and stories going on within. There are however some photos that appear to focus more upon the people but the variety is nice to see, as a combination of the two inspires me for my assignment. I enjoy these photos as they’re also in colour, which I think is quite rare with street photography, yet some of the colouring seems vibrant yet desaturated in a way. The colours are there but they’re not overpowering or distracting, and we still see the full image without our eyes being immediately drawn to something because of the colouring. I love the looks of these photos as the colouration is what I think we would typically see on Instagram, as a lot of Instagram photographers go with this desaturated colouration, with tints of certain colours more prominent. It is a nice style, but not something I’d personally do. Viewing these photos makes me more drawn to making my own assignment photos to be coloured instead of black and white (the more common choice of street photography, but also something that I tend to draw to myself with my own photographs), but I will most likely spend more time than usual editing, to play around with styles, while also keeping the photos consistent within the project, as although we want to gather new information in each photo, they need to work together as a series and consistent style within editing helps maintain that ability for the photos to work as a series.
Social Media – Captureyield & Gadgetgaz_photo
Social media is huge for photography now. Instagram, in particular, is where it thrives, but it also brings along the debate of who really is a photographer. There are some out there with genuine talent, who put so much into their photos and deserve the recognition on social media, and some who simply take photos with their phones, edit via Instagram and post and receive way more recognition. Of course, this is a debate not relevant here, but my choice to research into local street photography through social media I thought would be interesting, as it means I am definitely able to see what is done locally by photographers I actually talk to myself, and their work may be seen as more inspiring. There are two local photographers who stood out to me the most, and with their permission, I’ve been looking at their street photography to gain ideas about what I would want to do for my own assignment. Gadgetgaz_photo is a photographer based in Whitstable who does a variety of photos, focusing more on wildlife, yet he sent me links to some of his street photography that I found to be very useful.
Instagram – @Gadgetgaz_photo, 14th January 2017
The first photo being of Kent Barbers 3. It’s a closeup architectural shot, and selective colour is used to show off the stripes (which are associated with barbers) & two men, one I assume being the barber. This use of selective editing is unique as it brings our eyes to certain parts of the photos first, and then our eyes flicker to see the surrounding monochromatic areas.
Instagram – @gadgetgaz_photo, 22nd January 2017
The second photo is taken in Canterbury, which is a short bus journey away from my own town. It is a completely black and white photograph which is of the street but focuses more on people, the young lady and older woman being the most prominent, alongside a statue. This photo helps give me ideas for the assignment, as it reminds me that with street photography the people are important as they give each image a unique story, and that’s something we want to tell within our photographs. After a discussion with Gaz, I received more insight into his photos. Gaz has been into photography for around 30 years and mainly shoots wildlife photography and is inspired by the photos of others, and mainly shoots wildlife to portray the message of looking around at the nature surrounding you. With his street photography, he wanted to focus more upon the candid captures of people in their daily life which involves their surroundings, rather than focus specifically on the buildings, as to him, street photography is more about the people & humanity.
Captureyield is another Kent photographer who specialises in incredible landscape photography but also ventures into other forms too such as portraiture. Two of his photos in particular of Canterbury really capture the sort of thing I want to do with my own photographs for this assignment, and I find them truly inspiring.
Instagram – @captureyield, 24th December 2018
The first photo is of the city centre around Christmas time. This is a time of year where the city is bursting with energy and there’s so much going on and it is particularly busy. The photo captures the buildings and how festive they are, but we also see people walking around town, presumably to get their shopping done. The mixture of the architecture and the capturing of movement and life within the people is the perfect mix that I’d like to achieve with my images.
Instagram – @captureyield, 4th June 2018
The second photo is similar but of a different area of Canterbury and not at Christmas, so it isn’t as busy but it captures the same essence. The perfect mix of the streets and buildings, and of people going about their daily lives. I also had a discussion with Ian to get more insight into his work too. Ian has been into photographer ever since he was young, and can’t even remember a time where he didn’t have a camera. He loves landscape photography due to the calmness and quiet of capturing those images, and the tranquillity of the day gets him motivated to take his camera out with him. He likes to focus on taking aesthetically pleasing images, focusing on a good composition but has a preference for long exposures to capture calming images, so he has more of a natural environment theme for his photographs. With his street photography, he states that he is still experimenting with it. he likes to capture the hustle and bustle of the city, or the variety of people who inhabit the town itself or even just take photos of the architecture.
Instagram.com. (2019). GadgetGaz_Photo (@gadgetgaz_photo) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/gadgetgaz_photo/ [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].
Instagram.com. (2019). Ian Clark (@captureyield) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/captureyield/ [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].
Edit: 25/02/2019 – Photos from Ian Clark & GadgetGaz_Photo added, as well as extra information on the two local photographers after having a short conversation via Instagram messages.
Photo paper is something we all as photographers have an opinion on. Some of us prefer glossy, some prefer matte, some prefer something in-between like lustre. I am not one to typically experiment with photo papers, as it is only recently that I have decided to print my own personal photos (to sell in the future), but considering assessment requires photo prints to be sent off, I think it is a good idea for me to look into it.
I believe that for me it’ll be cheaper to have the photos printed by someone else. My printer isn’t particularly fantastic, and ink and experimenting with photo paper types can be expensive, and I simply cannot afford the experimentation. When I discussed this as a concern of mine, I turned to Course Support, who recommended a website called SimLab. SimLab are a company who can print your photos for you, whether it be professional or personal use, or even for university work. Since judging paper-types can be difficult online, they offer a FREE sample pack, where they send photos on 10 different types of paper by different brands. The photos below do not do the types justice, but in real life, I can see a clear difference and definitely have some preferences and some strong dislikes.
I’m not a fan of the last 4 paper types, they feel too thick and cardboard-like for my preferences. I want a photo to be thinner, have some sort of shine to it if I’m going to do a print of it. I also do not like photos to be overly glossy though, as I believe both if a photo is too shiny or too matte, it gives a loss of some detail and can either make the image way too shiny and the highlights and shadows don’t look accurate, or the image ends up looking too flat (in terms of a matte finish). I found the stickytex paper to be interesting though, it has a sort-of ribbed finish to it and works as a sticker! I may find this to be an interesting novelty for my own personal work, but I would not use this paper for professional (selling) use or for my degree prints.
The papers I believe I am more likely to use are the Fujifilm C-type Lustre paper or the Fotospeed Giclee PF Lustre 270gsm paper. Both were shiny but not too much, they had a nice feel to them and the colours seemed nicely done, these would work well I think for both coloured prints and monochromatic prints. And for the price, I think they’d be an affordable alternative to printing them myself, and provide an A4 size straight away! Knowing this information now helps me feel a bit more confident and relaxed about assessment prints, as the idea of the assessment process and doing a lot of printing, organising and then sending it all off does still give me a lot of anxiety.
As I want to pursue photography as a career either after this degree is finished or even while completing the degree, I decided I wanted to try my hand at print selling online. I have my own shop on my 
Then came the product photography. For this, I laid my prints on the table one by one, natural lighting to the left and a cheap ring-light to the right. This produced some vaguely even lighting and there is little glare on the prints (which are each in a cellophane bag for protection). I took the photos on manual but cannot remember my settings, but the camera was being held by me instead of placed onto a tripod. The product photography taught me how to produce this even light when working with both natural and artificial lighting. It may not be perfect, but editing has helped and the more product photos I take, the better the outcome will be as I progress.
The more difficult part of this journey is actually selling the photos. It is easy to create the prints and put them up for sale, but drawing in customers is more difficult. Social media is a great platform for this, so after my prints were placed for sale on eBay, I posted on all my photography and personal social media platforms. Selling these prints may become a slow journey, as so far only family have made a purchase, but I am learning more about social media and the business side of photography while doing this.
The papers I believe I am more likely to use are the Fujifilm C-type Lustre paper or the Fotospeed Giclee PF Lustre 270gsm paper. Both were shiny but not too much, they had a nice feel to them and the colours seemed nicely done, these would work well I think for both coloured prints and monochromatic prints. And for the price, I think they’d be an affordable alternative to printing them myself, and provide an A4 size straight away! Knowing this information now helps me feel a bit more confident and relaxed about assessment prints, as the idea of the assessment process and doing a lot of printing, organising and then sending it all off does still give me a lot of anxiety.
Laura’s Learning Log 