Stage 7 - Research your Decay Project

Now it's down to you... You research a theme/idea and produce a project putting The Process into action.

Your first page will be a research page with an introduction. The introduction is simply an over-view of the assignment with the main objectives. It's also advisable to include the learning aims which are found on the front of your assignment. 

Find random Decay images from the internet and upload them to your design sheet. Try and keep each of the sections to full pages - so, with this part fill 2 pages. Allow space for the reflection at the end.

If you've been doing 'Empirical research' add a few of your own images - but make sure these are in a column of their own and you annotate that section to identify them as your work.

Although I've not done it on this example - make sure you indicate that these images are not your own and that they're researched images off of the internet used to just generate some ideas. Save links and have at the end of this part of the work.

At the start of the project also make a decision as to whether you want to use a 3 column template or a 4 column version. 

Click here for Stage 8

Stage 8 - Artist/Photographer research

Artist/Photographer research

This example here (Above) shows 1 x A3 pages. It features 3 Photographers with a column allocated to each Photographer. Half the column is taken up with images and the remainder of the column features the written explanation/analysis of the decay aspects of the photographers work and the Bibliography. *Note you can compile your bibliography on one page if you wish and this will need to produced as the final page of your work after the final evaluation. The column on the right is the Gibbs reflection.

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Those of you that don't enjoy the research aspect of the work could target 2 really significant photographers who I'll normally list in the assignment or guide you to look at. 

You'll just have to ensure you target your commentary/description of the work, so that you identify and discuss the decay aspects and how the MTP's reinforce the decay narrative in the images. 

Similarly the 3rd column is the Gibbs reflection, reflecting on your research prior to planning your first shoot.

Again this approach isn't compulsory and if you want to use more images or write more, by all means do so. What I will suggest is that you write it and compile it so that it is contained in complete pages that are designated research only. Try not to let the research work continue into pages where the work is practical. You can do this by adding or deleting images or reducing or increasing the size of your text. 

This link here is for Stage 9

Stage 9 - Your first shoot

 So now you're in to the fun bit...

From here onward you start to shoot images. One of the key things in these assignments is that you show development. Development is basically improvement and it can be either...

•  The idea improving and becoming more coherent.
• Your practice improving - getting better at all the Photography elements.

Each practical activity needs to be better in some way than the previous.

Task 1________________________________________________________________

• Write your plan (Blue section below) 
• With your DSLR (Ideally) as it means you're actually learning at this stage how to use the camera, go out and photograph a bunch of ideas for decay, just shoot all sorts. *You could use your previously shot images at this stage, but the main objective is to look at a range of potential ideas.
• Get the images into your design sheet and then reflect on it (Yellow section below) 

The work will generally look like this... 

When you shoot your images, always shoot lots and try different ways of doing it, from above, from the side, close up, with different lenses/focal lengths. Shoot more than you need, as this gives you options and allows you to make decisions about whether each shoot in your design sheet takes up 1, 2 or more pages. (There's not an upper limit). Typically, 2 or 3 pages is fine.

The section that is High-lighted Blue is your plan and the part at the end that is highlighted yellow is the Gibbs Reflection. This same approach should be applied to work done in the dark-room and when you work with Photoshop in conjunction with a project. Here you can see the plan - do - reflect in action.

Each subsequent shoot or activity you do that follows this will be laid out the same - plan at the start, images of your work and activities followed by a reflection. In this example, there's no annotations with the images, but if you want to add annotations you can do, but I would keep them short, generally the commentary and analysis is in the Gibbs reflection. *Note the Gibbs reflection can be longer than this example. 

Below is another way of doing the same thing, but using 4 columns...

This 4 column approach is far more image heavy and looks very busy and if you feel it might work for you there's no reason that you can't adopt it. See the link in the side bar or simply ask me for a copy of the template. There's no reason you can't mix and match using the 4 column design sheets for some of the work and the 3 column for others. The only thing I would advise is that you start a new design sheet each time and bring all the work together at the end at the PDF stage. I wouldn't advise adding a 3 column to a 4 column in the same file. 

Unit 03 Important notice re 'Development'

With Unit 03 this first shoot needs to be a whole range of different subjects, showing that you've explored and visually researched the theme decay in a general way. What you should then do is look at what you've shot and make a decision with regards what you'll now focus on and develop further.

Keep in mind that you'll probably have to go back to your subject several times to develop and improve the images, so, if some of your initial images involved having to go miles to shoot them, you might want to consider shelving those ideas if it's not going to be practical. 

Another thing you might do is work on two or more ideas if you can't make your mind up which one you like the best, so with this set of images seen above, I might look at rusty cans, leaves and drinks cans again in far more detail before deciding which one to go with. This creates a lot more work, which isn't a bad thing as you'll learn lots, but it's not necessarily the best thing to do. 

Stage 10 - Developing your work

You're now into the Plan - Do - Reflect stage.

By repeating this process, you'll improve and develop your idea and technique, the work will be seen to get better and improve. It's also essential to develop the work as this is one of the criteria you're assessed against.  There are a multitude of ways of doing this...

• You should continue to look at photography and videos associated with your theme (On-going research) and if you see something that you can realistically add or incorporate to your project and so improve it, do so, but identify it. This may be another set of images that inspire you. You can do this by adding a minimal reference to it in the planning stage - a single image with an explanation of what it is that you've been inspired by or copying in terms of MTP's or equipment. 

• Change your light, consider where the shadow falls and whether the contrast needs to be reduced on increased. 
• Use reflectors to reflect light back into the subject and fill-in the shadows to control the contrast.
• Change your view-point and field of view.
• Change the background - use something that works in terms of the colour or texture or somehow reinforces the narrative.
• Use a different camera and approach.
• Shoot in the studio
• Use a tripod

To be continued...

So, let's say that you've been decisive and you've made your mind up that you're going to go with the shiny aluminium drinks cans

The final Evaluation

Allow a good few hours to write up the final evaluation as it constitutes 1/4 of the whole grade.

 

Key words and phrases to use when you produce this work include...

Value: Explain and demonstrate that you understand the value of adopting the creative process that you've explored in this unit. How does it differ from how you may have put a project together previously? You could possibly mention your previous Unit 09 and Unit 04.

What if: Use the what if prompt to discuss (Write about) how you may have worked on a future project differently with the knowledge of adopting our creative process. 

Interrelate: No.2 below is important, use the word interrelate in your explanation and discuss how each part of the process relates to the previous and the following section in a coherent manner. Use examples referring to your work. 

Use these headings below and write a detailed response to each of them...

(1). How the stages and activities in the creative process were used to develop and refine ideas to realise creative intentions.

​(2). How the stages can interrelate to develop and refine ideas and develop skills and own working practice.

​(3). How the stages and activities within the creative process helped develop ideas and produce outcomes

​(4). To what extent do the stages and activities within the creative process help improve future art and design practice.

Write your responses to these prompts underneath each one. With each prompt ask the question what if and discuss the outcome if you hadn't applied the creative process or some of the components (Stages) of it. How would that have affected the work? 

Finally make an overall judgement on the use of the creative process or any of the components of it, has it added value to what you do, do you think that you're work process will be more efficient in the future and do you think it will make a difference to your grades - how, why?

Mistakes student make re development

 This assignment, once you get into the practical part of the work requires that you go out and do some really basic shoots simply to establish what it is you're going to choose as your subject or idea. 

In an ideal scenario this should be done quickly maybe over 2 shoots at most. Ideally you'll have done some visual research using the internet or books and will have some idea of what it is you might go looking for during these initial shoots. But, don't restrict yourself to one idea you may have seen, be ready to photograph anything else that represents decay, so when you look at the first shoot or two you do where you're just exploring ideas you'll have a range of ideas and themes to consider as the theme/subject/idea you're going to develop.

From your first shoot or two where you're simply trying to come up with an idea you should ideally be able to pick one of the subjects you've shot and say "That's it - that's my subject/theme" and then go with that.

So this might be an example of some of the ideas you've shot yourself over  2 or 3 shoots just looking for your theme/subject/idea.

The important thing is to get this stage done quick. What you now need to do is pick one of the subjects/themes to go with and develop further. So that means scrap all the other ideas and just go with one. 

So if this was examples of the things you've shot you might look at these and think "Leaves, there's loads of em, all over the place, they're easy to get access to, there's a massive variety of them, that's my subject/theme". 

*(Note these first exploratory shoots can be bunched together with the same plan and Gibbs reflection) 

Then, you're on your way - because now you've got to start shooting and developing your idea on the theme of leaves - nothing else, just leaves. What might do is plan to collect a load of leaves and shoot them in a really basic way using a specific camera and shoot them in a specific kind of light outside where you find them. You then get that work into your design sheets and reflect on the work and analyse it in terms of how good it is at this stage and what next could you do/try in order to develop the work as both an idea and a practical task. 

Once you've finished the reflection on that shoot - you plan your next developmental stage and simply repeat the process of plan - do - reflect over a series of stages where you improve the idea, your approach, gradually refining and developing the project.

Do not at the end use a selection of images from any of the earlier shoots, the idea is the final shoot must end up being the best set of images and for it to be innovative, ideally you'll have combined a post production technique to enhance the sense of decay, so not only would you have shot something that is simply decaying, but the way you treat and present the images should combine and enhance the decay narrative. 

*If you think your other shoots are good there's no reason why they can't be used in the design sheets as A3 images, but they can't be designated as finals. 

Alternative ways.

 B.M2 Show how the stages of development interrelate and can be applied in alternative ways to develop own working practice.

The key to this is to discuss the use of parts of the creative process in terms of how they're used to...

(1). Develop the work in terms of quality of the Photography

(2). Develop the idea and concept

(3). Develop your skills in the use of equipment

(4). Develop your skills in the use of material, techniques and processes

Interrelate - Look the definition up on the web and explain the interrelation aspect of the stages. Make sure you use the word Interrelate in your work - ideally in the heading.