After half term your 'Reflections' on your practical work need to follow these guidelines...
The basics are - Once you have executed any practical activity - usually photoshoots you then have to reflect on your activities and learning.
Plan - execute - reflect
When you do this you should write up your response to these prompts... (Use the bold headings in your work to demonstrate you're using a process to work through the reflections.
(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.
- What have you done that was new - how will this help going forwards?
- What new equipment have you used - how might this impact on your development as a practitioner?
- UAL are obsessed with "Problems" and "Problem Solving" (See diagram) so use these as sub-headings in a part of your Analysis and identify and discuss problems you faced or encountered and explain what you did to resolve the problems and if the problem is likely to be encountered again - what will you do to negate it?
- 4.4 is to identify at least two or more solutions and assess which is best.
- What have you learned that relates to the technical aspects. This can be about any of the following.
- Using the camera
- Light
- Exposure
- Composition
- In the reflection critique your work in terms of its 'Operational context' suitability. Compare your work/images with the work of others (Your research) does your work look anything near as good in terms of quality, lighting, composition, design and structure e.g. do your images look professional?
- Looking at the basics - what did you get wrong - composition, focus, exposure, consistency of approach?
- Be clear about the operational context (Intent) of your own images - how could they be used (Purpose), where might they be seen, who might commission or buy such images (Client). Who would look at and use such images what are their demographic details and at this stage - are your images fit for purpose? (Unit 1 - 4.3)
- Is there meaning behind your images, is there a story, does one image tell that story or do you need to present the images as a 'set' of images to get the meaning across to the viewer (Audience)? How have you used visual language in your own images, is there more you could do to help convey meaning or narrative in your images?
- Look at your images and consider a 'Lay persons' perspective - would they understand the images, there purpose and use? Does this even matter?
- Make sure you use the word value and write about the value of the learning and knowledge gained.
- What do you think you could do to improve them further or develop the idea further?
- Discuss the effectiveness of your research, explain why it was useful in terms of starting your project, maybe reiterate what it was that you were influenced by and how that was integrated into your initial shoot and perhaps later developmental shoot. (Unit 1 - 3.4)
- Discuss in general terms referring to your plans as proposals why these were important in the development of the project.
- Discuss/Analyse your use of Visual Language in your final images. Has it worked, could it be improved - if so how? (Unit 1 - 5.3)
- Explain/Analyse the value of using reflective practice throughout your work - what impact did it have on your learning and the development of your project? (Unit 1 - 6.3)
