Evaluation of Final Major Project

The aim of my project was to create a coffee table booked based on the impacts and effects caused by climate change. The images through out the book touch on effects that inevitability are going to happen in the future. To show this in a more impactful way I decided to show each impact and effect on the human body. These images were formed in an artistic manner that does not make the reader feel like climate change is being forced upon them but a series of images they can enjoy, however climate change will be in the forefront of their minds. The final outcome of my book IMPACT is still relevant to my target market who are people interested in the cause and people interest in artistic photography, this book brings climate change issues up and allows the viewer to depict them in their own way. It shows important topics to do with climate change that some people may not even realise will happen such as extreme weather conditions like thunderstorms along with our infrastructure sinking. I decided to shoot these very raw with minimal editing I wanted the images to look as real as possible. My project idea did change from my original proposal which was on unconventional materials. I am glad it did and I was able to develop this further and learn so much more, before my original topic didn’t really have a reason behind it. I just liked working with different materials. With my new topic being on climate change I was able to reach out to different people within the community. I made connections with Green Peace who even ask to see some of my images once they were produced. Along the process I have learnt so much about Climate change myself it has changed the way I think and made me change my own life style because I now know so much on the effects it is having on the earth. Although my book wont change lives I hope it makes people think more about what they are doing and what they can do to help with climate change. Within my self I feel I have developed on a creative scale. Before my project started I had never done photoshoots where I’ve had to think about the whole body and shoot. Most of my photoshoots have been close up beauty shots. Working as creative director, makeup artist, hair stylist and stylist I have realised how much effort goes into making just one image come together. I’ve learnt many skills while working on this project such as seeing the picture as a whole and how the layout of books is so important for visual effect. This has changed the way I now view images. Looking back at my project I realised I faced a lot of challenges however when it was happening I took it all in my stride and did not realise how crucial this could have been to change my overall images and project. This challenges were due to my ideas not working or complications with the models which were not discussed beforehand. For example one model turned up with sharpie on his back that his friend had done the night before, my whole look for that shoot was using his back. Even though I quickly had to change my idea it still turned out amazing and I am so happy with my final results. I was lucky enough to find reliable models who either knew me or the photographer, I kept it this way as they were less likely to let me down. Collaborating in first and second year helped me find connections and build strong relationships with models and photographers. It also gave me an understanding of working in a team and how to contact people when I wanted to work with them. Collaborating with a photographer is what has made my book so successful. I knew I wanted to find someone with a lot of skills and also knew how to work well with photoshop. I wanted one photographer to shoot my whole project so it would flow and I wanted them to fully understand my concept. As I only wish to work with one photographer this did slow down my production schedule as I wanted to find someone who was amazing as my whole book would depend on their abilities. Having a photographer who was also passionate on the cause and had skills in lighting and camera set up helped me focus on the concept and makeup and not have to worry about the lighting and angles. We had constant connection to each other sending over inspiration and back and forth communication on upcoming shoots. Without his help my images would not have turned out as amazing as they have if I was to shoot them myself. My final outcome of my book looked so professional and I am happy with the company I decided to use. The paper was a good quality and you are able to see every detail within the images. If I was to re-do the coffee table book again I would consider making it a little bigger and adding quotes or subtitles before each collection of images. This was something I did not think about as I knew what each image was. I did explain what images were going to be shown through out the book at the beginning but people pointed out this could be annoying to keep referring back to. This is something I would consider for next time to develop my book further. I should have got a range of people who knew nothing about my book to look at it and give feedback on their thoughts on images and the layout. My favourite collection of images I produced were the oil shoot ones, these pictures turned out better than I expected and gave the dramatic effect I wanted, I felt they really portrayed the true horror that happens to the animals when an oil spill occurs. I think what made these images was that I made a true oil mixture and the model didn’t mind it going over her whole body. I also really like one page within my book that shows the contrast between temperature rising as humans being hot and sweaty against the impact this has on the earth drying up the ground. The part that was most challenging for me on my project was putting the book together and working on the layout. I first thought I would use a printing company and have the front cover as wood which would be burnt into, however after many calls and talking to companies they either did not want to produce it or were asking ridiculous prices. With this I decided my best option would be to use an online book company as I knew they would produce it to a professional standard even if it did not have a wood cover. I decided to use Bonus Print they offered a software tool you could download onto your computer. This was brilliant as it allowed me to use tiff images which I wanted so you could see all the details in my images. One problem I did face was the more tiff images I added the slower the programme ran. It became so slow that it took me an hour to open it and load it, and to change any image or add one would take half an hour. Towards the end this made me so frustrated and I wanted to give up with the book altogether. I needed to make sure my book was visually appealing before sending it off so wanted to see my lectures before hand. They had a few changes that they thought I should make that could improve the overall aesthetics of my book. Although this did frustrate me as the program was so slow to use I knew see changes would be crucial to make for the book flow and the reader to understanding what was going on. To further improve this project and develop it more, I could have made a website to run along side the book. This could be a website that was run with other creatives in mind who also have a passion for climate change. In a world where we are constantly on the internet and it being the quickest way we find information this would be the next step of getting these images out there for people to see and get a better understanding on climate change. Moving videos of each shoot would work really well on a website and may portray the mood and the impacts and effects of climate change better than just still images. Developing this project further could mean to great connections and working with international environmental activist networks such as Green Peace. This could be a new platform to introduce climate change to the younger generation though pictures and videos. A website that would be cool to be apart of.