Stage 5: Our creative process Post activity Reflections
*Note this very similar to the post research reflection - but far more detailed.
Read through 'Stage 5' and explain this stage in your own writing - do not copy and paste.
Stage 5 is one of the most important sections within your work when you're producing your own self-directed work. After half-term your activities will be divided up into...
(a). In-class activities, where I'll teaching you directly the basics of shooting images using available light on location with DSLR cameras. These activities will be uploaded and saved in your S&K design sheet as they are technical exercises.
(b). Will be a self-directed project which will probably be shot outside of college featuring people you choose for your subject matter.
This work will be structured using the creative process. You'll (1). Research 2 Photographers. (2) You'll produce a Post research reflection. (3). You'll write a plan for your first shoot. (4). You'll execute the shoot e.g. take the pictures and upload them to your power-point. Then you'll reach Stage 5...
The Post activity Reflection
This is where you follow these prompts here...
(1). What happened? - This only needs to be a very basic explanation made up of about 2 sentences.
(2). How do I feel it went? Similarly this only needs to be a couple of sentences and is usually an emotive response... I was unsure/confused/apprehensive/confident/optimistic/nervous out of my comfort zone etc.
(3). What was good/bad? Again a few sentences, highlighting in basic terms 2 good things and 1 negative aspect to the activity/work.
(4). Analysis; This is the important bit. The Key here is not to describe the obvious and things that we can see in your images and annotations.
This is where you have to critically un-pick what you have done and explain the value of doing the work. Every-time you do this, you should consider you're on this course with the intention of becoming a professional photographer, therefore any new learning, any advancement in knowledge or skills has value and this needs to be explained in your analysis. Other things you should do each time you do this - is look at your work and compare it with the work of professionals - how does it compare? Is it anything like as good as the work of professional photographers? Make a case one way of the other. Another thing to look at and explain is the purpose of the images... how could they be used, what sort of images are they? Are they stock images, editorial, art photography, where might these types of images be seen, who might the client be, what demographic group does the client belong to? What are the images trying to convey in terms of meaning, message or narrative? Does one single image tell the story on its own, or do you need to see the whole set of images to understand what the story is? With all these considerations - are your images fit for purpose?
Draw some conclusions based on your analysis using these prompts - how can you improve your images, what will you do next to improve your work - are the issues - technical issues relating to poor lighting and poor camera work, or is that the images are simply not fit for purpose?
The idea is you're ruthlessly self-critical and come up with solutions to improve your work through this process or self-reflection.
The Task - Explain the above in your own words - show that you understand what reflective practice is and its purpose and where it sits in the creative process.
_________________________________________________________Stage 4: Our creative process Execution (The doing part).
So, you researched a Photographer or two, reflected on your research and made sense of it and how it informs your work and you've written a plan; Now you Execute your plan, you shoot your first set of images.
In photography when we're learning or producing big projects we do so over a series of 'Shoots' sometimes referred to as test shoots or developmental shoots. Later in the course, you'll be given projects to undertake over several weeks where you'll have to shoot and re-shoot, each time planning each stage and reflecting on the results. Using this process you'll improve and refine your techniques, ideas, making more informed decisions about your images, developing your skills and ideas.
This first shoot is usually an opportunity to do something basic and quick, trying and testing things out to see how easy or hard it's going to be to get the results and quality you're striving for. In many situations and you can do these initial shoots using your phone just to explore your ideas, location, whether your model is going to be any good, or looks right for your pictures. It just needs to be basic in order to start your project and should be done ASAP, potentially as soon as you've figured out an idea - mid research possibly?
You should shoot plenty of images and experiment with ideas, angles, poses, models, focal lengths, viewpoints and subjects. For each of these shoots you should look to shoot a minimum of around 50-60 images.
You should also do wide shots of where you're shooting - showing the environment and the light source. If you're working with others - models, assistants, make-up artists etc, these should be photographed too. Also identify the equipment and camera you're using along with what you've done in terms of H&S for yourself and others you're working with, this is evidenced in your work through a combination of images and explanations.
The image here above shows a decay project using dead plants as the theme for 'Decay' and shows the development over 3 stages from an initial idea shot on a phone on white paper in a very basic way developed over 3 stages. This approximates a very basic approach where each stage results in 2 pages of work. This would be a minimum requirement and isn't an exhaustive example.
Stage 3: Our creative process Planning
Re-cap; We always start with stage 1 - Research. This should be done within a few days. This is followed by a reflection where you reflect on the usefulness of your research. We follow that with Stage 3... a Plan also referred to as a proposal.
You need to explain in your work that a key part of most of the creative or design processes is a plan whereby you explain what you're going to do and how you'll do it, where it's going to happen, when you'll do it by, where you'll do it and what resources you'll need. In Photography this is quite detailed and specific see this link here...
Level 3 Photography resources: Writing plans for Photo-Shoots
Stage 2: Our creative process. Reflection
Start this part of this work by researching "What is reflective practice"? Look at the definition and write up your own definition of it.
Once you've written the definition and have some sense what the purpose of reflective practice is reflect on the first deadpan shoot...
Each time you produce a significant body of work such as a photo-shoot, this has to be reflected on and made sense of. Use these prompts here...
(1). What happened? - This only needs to be a very basic explanation made up of about 2 sentences.
(2). How do I feel it went? Similarly this only needs to be a couple of sentences and is usually an emotive response... I was unsure/confused/apprehensive/confident/optimistic/nervous out of my comfort zone etc.
(3). What was good/bad? Again a few sentences, highlighting in basic terms 2 good things and 1 negative aspect to the activity/work.
Then in (4) Analysis (The detailed section) You have to discuss and identify what you actually learned and identify things that went wrong and explain why this may have happened and what you'll do to get it right next time. For instance everyone was given the instructions to compose the images in a specific way, see the image below...
Discuss the 'Objectivity' aspect of your images- did you get this right (All of you did). Explain what makes the images objective, what design element decisions were made to ensure the images are objective? How do these images you've shot, differ from the approach you would have adopted if left to your own devices?
What do you make of the lighting used? Maybe reflect on the
quality of the light and it’s impact on the image in terms of being objective. Is
the lighting dramatic or neutral – how does this work in terms of making the
images more ‘Objective’?
It’s in your reflections where you analyse what you’ve done
and demonstrate your understanding of how and why things come together in the
way that you would have planned.
____________________________________________________________________
Stage 1 For this task you have to produce a body of work that demonstrates that you are wholly aware of the idea that when producing Photographic work you do so within a structured framework. This is known widely as The Creative Process and has a number of components or stages that you have to show you're aware of. Furthermore, your work needs to be produced within a creative process and through this project you will be introduced to the creative process that we recommend you use on this course.
Create a new Powerpoint and name it... Your Name - The Creative Process.
- Create a title page "The Creative Process" have your name on the title page too.
- The 2nd page - Using Google images search 'The Creative Process' and use a range of these images of the different types of Creative Process fill the page.
- Look at some of the websites read the explanations of the creative process and write your own explanation in your own words.
- Identify 4 components of these processes that are consistently seen and describe them. *Create a bibliography of the links you use for this work.
- Books
- Journals
- Interviews with practitioners
- Galleries
- Exhibitions
- Youtube videos
- Websites
