Self portrait - Evaluations

Self Portrait evaluation

When making our self portrait pictures we used a few different cameras’ the first camera which we uses was the SLR 35mm. In out pairs we took it in turns to take pictures of each other. Once we had done these, we then took photos on the medium and large format cameras. I had my portrait image done on a large format camera, which cam our really well and when being developed had a good effect round the outside of the image. Some of my pictures on the SLR camera didn’t come out very clear, this is as we forgot to check the aperture and that the focus was right.
In my large format portrait photo, I had to stand still for a long while, as Ellis had to sort out the focus. Once all the images had been shot, they were then turned into negatives; they were then ready to start being developed.

We used 8x10 size paper to develop the images on to. To develop them, we had to do them in the Dark room. I placed the large format negative in the middle of the paper and did a test sheet on it. This is where I placed I piece of paper under the negative and I left it exposed in the light for 5 seconds then another part for 10 seconds then another for 15 second. From this I learnt that it need about 10 seconds but if I left it for another second, it could make a difference in clearness. So from this I left the full image exposed for 11seconds. I developed my test sheet and my final picture by firstly placing the images in 3 chemicals, the developer, washer and the fixer. I placed them in the developer for 2 minutes, then in the washer for 30 seconds and finally in the fixer for 5 minutes, this keeps the image to the paper.
I did the same process with my image from the SLR camera apart from I didn’t place it in the middle of the paper. I placed it in the holder on the enlarger. Once the focus was set up I did a test strip and chose to go with 15 seconds as I felt this made the image look the best. Once both of my images were done I checked them in the light and dried them off and I was happy with the way they turned out.

After this process, we had to scan them on to the computer so that we could Photoshop them to make them into a double page spread and we had to add word to them. I started my Photoshop edit by selecting my A3 size so that my image could be across to pages. Once had done this I added the image as another layer and cropped it to the size I wanted and to get rid of the parts I didn’t want. When I got rid of this, I then had to re size it so that it fitted one side of the paper. As one side was my picture, I didn’t want to leave the other side plain white and I felt that this didn’t look right with the picture as it was black and grey. At first I changed it to Black but this look right as the change in colour as the image wasn’t completely black. To change this I took the copy ink tool and used the colour of the photo’s background and made it the background of the other side. This stopped it looking like the colour had changed so suddenly, I also made it look like the colour was fading. I felt that this still could have been improved a lot.
Once I had changed all the background and image we then had to add text to image to explain what we were feeling. This could either have been Lyric’s or sayings. I chose to have lyrics from an Ellie Goulding. I chose these as there my favourite lyrics and I felt that this could relate with the image as this is what I could be thinking. I had these lyrics in White. I thought this would be a good idea as it would stand out from the black background.

Overall I feel that this piece of work had been successful but there are some things I would change if I could to my final piece. I think I would add another image to the piece as I felt this looked a bit care with just one. I did print two images out that I was going to use on my final double page but I felt that this image didn’t look right with the other one, as I was doing two completely different things.

My Large format image that i didnt use.

The developed image that i used.

My final edit for my double page spread.