Unit Twelve : Exploration
Combining techniques, self-critique, display, and prep for the final project.
Introduction to the last few weeks
The techniques and guidelines covered in this course are not meant to be used in isolation; it is important to combing everything when planning your photos!The year is almost over, and we’ve covered quite a lot in that time. But as we approach December it’s time to reflect on that knowledge and work toward combining it into the final project. As such, this will be the last “lesson” in a traditional sense. Everything from this point forward will be building on your final project and helping you achieve your goals.
Building the foundation
You’ve hopefully become familiar by now with the manual controls of your camera, and when you’re best suited to using a priority mode and how to make adjustments within those modes. You’ve been over color theory, composition, lighting, and planning a scene. You have all the pieces. Now, it’s time to put them all together.
You will likely find that you lean toward focusing on one of those guidelines over the others, but it’s important to remember that none of these happen in a vacuum. The lighting and color can add elements into your composition, color will affect perceived lighting, and your composition needs to take all the elements into account. Building a scene is more than just choosing your subject. It’s planning all the elements before you press the shutter.
Even in more candid scenes, there is still room for planning. Where do you need to move to frame the shot? How is the lighting there, and will it affect how the colors look? Are there any distracting colors, or does everything line up with the color scheme you want to use? Do the colors look great, but maybe they don’t match the rest of the shots you’re taking? Are there any changes you can make, whether position, time, focal length, settings, or in post that will make the shot fit your vision?
For your final project you will want to consider all of these factors when shooting. In time it will become more intuitive, but in any area you’re looking to improve it’s important to consciously focus on it as you shoot. Which leads to the next area-
Self Critique
Reaching out for feedback from a trusted peer or mentor is a very important step in improvement. But what’s often overlooked is the ability to judge your own works. There isn’t always someone else convenient to give feedback. Not all sources of feedback will be helpful. And most importantly, no one else will have the same level of understanding your goals as you.
The first step to self-critique is the initial culling of photos. Which shots can you discard immediately, and which ones are worth keeping? Sometimes this is easy, such as a shot being out of focus, under or over exposed, and sometimes it’s a much more difficult choice with little variation between a few shots.
The more important steps begin after that though. Once you’ve picked your top photos, done your editing, and then moved on to another day of shooting is when the real critique can begin. Bring up a photo from a few days to a few weeks ago and you can more easily see what worked (or didn’t) in context to how you tend to shoot.
And that begins self-critique. What do you like about the shot? What elements don’t quite fit? If you could re-do the photo, what changes would you make? Why would you make those changes? Do the colors work well together, or do they clash? Is the light complementing the photo or would it look better at a different position? Are there any compositional elements that distract from your subject? These are all things to look at, but also easier to identify once the photo has been left alone for a while.
The second portion of this is writing down the critique. The act of documenting it forces clarity on both the good and the bad, which makes it much more actionable. It’s all too easy to skip over areas of improvement if you don’t take the time to clarify not only why it could be improved but steps you could take to improve it.
This written critique can be as simple as writing out any issues, but one of the most effective methods is to print your photo and make the marks on the print. Not only does this promote more critical thinking about the shot, since the details will be marked on the print itself, it also is a much more prominent reminder than a word document than can be hidden on your computer and never looked at again. Still, the important part is the writing it down. Without that, it’s too easy to gloss over critiques without coming up with fully formed and actionable ideas.
And just like with any feedback, it’s important to point out the good. Give yourself a pat on the back, praise what went well, and then dive into what could have been done better. Then at the end, hit on those highlights again. It’s hard to improve when you aren’t motivated to get out and shoot more!
Display
Now that we’ve covered the lesson portion, it’s time to dive into presentation. How you intend to display a photo can change everything from planning to editing, and is also likely to influence what works well in a photo and what doesn’t. Before we get too far into that though, let’s go over the common types of display-
Online
The most common, widely used, and most often seen form of display is social media. And between ease of use, cost, and visibility it’s no surprise that the majority of photos taken will end up on Facebook, Instagram, or whatever the trending social media app is at the time you post your shots. But as simple as those sites make it to post a photo, there are still some tips you can follow to get the best quality for this display.
Consistency of Style
One thing that often gets overlooked is that photos posted online aren’t viewed individually. As good as a photo might be, it will also be judged based on how well it fits with the style shown in other photos by the same photographer. If you have the perfect shot but it doesn’t fit thematically with other posts you’ve made, it will look out of place.
Trending Themes
Chasing trends on social media can be a pain at the best of times, but it’s worth keeping up to date on them if this is your primary method of display. If a particular style is popular, any photos that have clashing elements may look out of place. On the other hand, anything that fits the style too well may look generic and be overlooked. Finding a happy medium against the ever-changing trends is a constant struggle, but if you are looking to have your photos appreciated by the majority of viewers then it’s worth making the adjustments.
Resolution
This gets into the technical aspects, and is one of the most important parts of displaying photos online. Social media sites will compress your photos. All of them. The key to quality is exporting your photos so that they are compressed as little as possible by the site while keeping the highest resolution. If you are only posting on one site it is absolutely worth the time and effort to dial in your photos to the specs for that individual site.
Overall though, there is some variance between social media sites (and other web displays) that make it impossible to have one export resolution that is perfect for everything. The solution is pretty simple though- Export at the highest resolution that will get compressed the least across the board while still holding resolution for uncompressed websites. Generally, this is 2048px on the long edge of the photo. If you go smaller, you’re losing resolution on some sites. If you go larger, all of the sites will compress the photo. While a 2048px long edge isn’t the absolute best for any single site, it works well enough across all of them to keep minimal compression and allows you to only export once to use across all platforms.
Single Prints
As a stark contrast to photos displayed online, an individual print doesn’t need to fit within the themes or styles of any other photos. It can be completely different from the rest of your work, have no connection to the work of others, and will stand on it’s own.
Until you put it in a frame and in a room at least, because you will want to match the print to the style of it’s surroundings.
The frame is the first step- Will the photo be framed? There are various backings to a print that allow it to be mounted without a frame, but even then you will need to consider the environment it will be displayed in and how that mounting will affect the way the picture is viewed. A modern street scene with deep blacks and vivid lights may not need a frame, but would look out of place in a room with mahogany furniture and nautical decorations. And in the same manner, a print of horses in a field mounted in a wooden frame would look out of place in a room with more sleek and modern furniture.
One upside to prints is that often you don’t have to worry too much about the room it will be placed in- That’s entirely up to who is getting the print. But for personal use it can still play a factor in how you view your own work. You may capture a fantastic landscape, but it would look out of place if the other photos in your house are all family pictures. You may get a fantastic shot of family, but it will look odd if placed on a wall where you have a painting hanging. Planning for the environment is just as important as having a good shot to begin with.
Diptychs, Triptychs, and Sets
Sometimes, one photo just isn’t enough. Maybe you have a few good shots from a day, or a handful from the year that work well together but aren’t a “hero shot” that would stand out individually. The good news is that there are ways to display sets of prints that will improve the look of them all.
A diptych is a set of two photos displayed together, often in the same frame. And in the same vein, a triptych is a set of three photos. These can be shots of the same style, the same subject, the same place, or any other theme that ties them together. The important part is that when displayed together these photos show a broader perspective of a single element or theme that any of the shots individually couldn’t accomplish. And of course a set in general is any series of photos displayed to complement each other rather than as standalone shots.
Not every photo needs to be the “perfect” shot that can stand out on its own. You can have supporting shots to provide context that allow the “hero shot” to have an even greater prominence, or have the set fit together to show a greater perspective than any individual shot ever could.
Books, Zines, and Calendars
Not all displays need to be sprawled across a room. For larger sets, sometimes the best option is a smaller display size with a greater diversity of shots. You may be able to have four or five photos framed on a wall, but you can easily fit forty or fifty in a book that will sit on a desk or table.
Compiled collections don’t need to have a matching theme to all the room’s furniture or decorations, but should hold a theme throughout the publication. Making a book is great for long-term projects as a way to showcase the topic just as much as any individual photo. Zines are similar, but the (usually) smaller layout lets you produce more at the expense of longevity. A soft-cover magazine isn’t going to hold up as well as a dedicated photo book, but the cheaper price for publication can also mean you can publish more of them, or use them as marketing material for a business more easily.
I put calendars in the same category as it’s a single item that will showcase multiple shots, even though it can be far more personal. Calendars are fantastic as a tool to help you pick out your top photos from the year and are also an easy way to display your photos without spending tons of money on something that may not fit the theme of other decorations in your house.
Fridge, corkboard, or other “clutter” display
This may not fit everyone’s style, but having a “clutter” display is one of my favorite ways to showcase prints that are outside of the usual décor styles. Small, cheap prints can easily fill a display board and be rotated out easily with minimal cost while also allowing for a current display of photos. For less than a quarter per print (at 4x6) you can fill a board completely for only a few dollars. The face of your fridge is only limited to how much you can physically put there and how many magnets you have. And it’s a chaotic display of small prints that can be constantly rotated with new photos to keep a current display of your recent or favorite shots. The photos don’t need to match styles, they don’t need to have a common theme, and it’s cheap enough that the limit is how much space is available. Having a clutter board is a great way to showcase photos that are out of your usual style, don’t fit with another theme, or shots that you like but don’t fit well enough with other décor to make a larger print.
Final Project
Now that we’ve covered displays, it’s time to dive back into the final project. While the initial project was decided at the semester break, are there any changes you’ve wanted to make? How far have you come in developing your concept?
Another question is how many photos will your project take? It’s close to the end of the year, is it still possible to finish before the year is over? Will you be able to submit a final photo, or will you need to start a more long-term project to accomplish your goals?
As much as any lesson or learning, this week’s theme is to further develop your goals for your final project. It’s more than just creating a good picture. How do you intend to display it? Do you only need the one shot, or a set of photos to convey your topic? How much have you developed the concept? Do you have a plan for getting the shot, or is that something you’re still working on? And are there any areas you’re struggling with? If so, what help do you need to complete your project?
Reaching out for help is a good thing. While assignments aren’t graded, we still want you to succeed. If there are any concepts that you don’t understand, reach out for help. If there are factors that the current timeline for the project are incompatible with, that’s fine too. While we encourage having the project completed by the end of the year, long term goals and concepts aren’t always compatible with the stricter timelines of a semester. Reach out to the mentors to help develop your goals and see your project become a reality!
The Rest of the Year
With this as the final lesson, everything from here on out will be focused on completing your final project. If any further guidance is needed, reach out to one of the mentors and we will work with you individually on completing the assignment. For those of you with long-term projects that are not capable of being completed by the end of the year, we would still love to help and see the project to completion!
There will be a final lesson post after this to submit your projects. Other communication will be to see if you need any extra help in completing your goals, but we are at just over a month to the new year and it’s now time to show off what you’ve learned!