Little Evaluation

Little evaluation

At the beginning of the project I was probably the most excited I’ve been for a project so far in my time at the college and it remained that way until I had to start taking short cuts to get the project completed. I think I was a bit ambitious when I proposed what I wanted to do to my tutor. Doing a 160 mile journey in a month and a half while I have other projects and work commitments wasn’t going to work out the way I wanted it to, no matter how much I planned my time. Even though it didn’t entirely go to plan I did come out with some good images that will benefit my portfolio.

As this was my first attempt at a photobook my research was obviously focused on how my images are presented and what methods are available to me to help me achieve my goals, rather than look at photographer images only. I think my research was successful, as I was able to go about this part of the project with ease and was able to create a decent quality product. Is I mentioned earlier the hardest part was getting all the images done before I had to start to pull things together, but at least I know for next time, to do something challenging but achievable.

So now I’m looking back on the project there would be a few drastic things I would change, such as the scope of the project idea. I would do a journey around the well-known places of the Lake District or compared the west coast to the east coast through a journey of landmarks, something along those lines, still based around weather and landscape.  

Actual Book BOSH!!!

The actual book

I was pleased when i found out that Blurb would send me a PDF version of my book, but i then released that i couldn't save a PDF on to my blog, so i had no proof that i had completed the work. 

But Thankfully the Book arrived today, Friday the 14th at 10am ish this morning, so here it is Looking all shiny and new.

second practice book

Practice book 2

So I’ve been on blurb and downloaded their book making software and had a practice. I’ve tried making panoramic images over a couple of pages, and its doable by making a custom page template.

I’ve also done the proper cover which looks much better. The red text sits nicely over the light grey section of the clouds.

The single image double page spreads work well too but I didn’t apply it to this practice book because its ring bound 

I think I’m ready to go ahead and make the book   

First practice book

First practice book

I’ve created a simple paper book firstly to see how the images work to getter as pairs, but also to see how they look when they are laid out in position.

Even on folded A4 paper I think my images look pretty good. It’s helped me to figure out what the double page, single image spreads will look like, which was one of the things I was most concerned about. To improve them I need to crop the tops and bottoms of the images so when it comes to the real thing, more of the page will be filled.

As for the panoramic image, I won’t be able to tell what it will look like because I don’t know what the limitations of the book software are so I will find out on the day I start to create the book. I aim to create a one seamless image that covers around four pages, but if that isn’t possible, there were some panoramic images in the book ‘The Great Wide Open’ that were just a group of images that were side by side with gaps in between and this is just as effective in my opinion.

Placing the images on a white background had the same great effect that it had on the research books I looked at and the images alone are able to portray what I set out to do without the need for text. After I did my book research I was almost certain that I wanted a simple cover page but I decided that I wanted to try something else, just so I’m a hundred percent sure. I think the cover is all right but it doesn’t suit the content of the book. My original plan would suit it better.

         

I think I’m almost ready to go ahead with putting my images into the software, but first I will work out how to use it, and create a better book that looks like what the software can achieve with my images.

Image Editing

Image editing

Image editing is the next stage in the process now the photos have been taken and the book research has been done.

I’ve edited my images down so there is almost an equal amount of images per stage of my journey, so the tones are similar and there is a clear indication of travel (so viewers know I’ve go on a journey), It’s clear that I’ve focused partially on the weather conditions and down to a number where the cost and speed of production isn’t to great.

These are the images I believe to satisfy the points above and also the ones made in my proposal.   

all images will be black ans white. the images aren't in order yet