Tutor report (1) on Assignment 5 - my initial response

Here's my tutor's feedback with my initial response in red...

 
Feedback on assignment 5

Most of what I want to say in general is in the annotations/notes that I have added to the documents you sent in and these are good, they really do help to understand what you were setting out to do, how you went about it and what you think of the result.

You have done some very thorough research which is evidenced by the good reading list you have included for this assignment.  You seem to have all the key texts and it is good to see a student engaging well with the theoretical side of the subject.  This practice should stand you in good stead for the rest of your degree.

I mentioned that I am not a fan of gloss for books (in fact I am not a great fan of high gloss at all!); in general I like to see some sheen on images, perhaps semi gloss, lustre or semi matt, as I think it tends to give the tonal range the best chance.  Gloss has a tendency to have reflections and I find matt rather lacking in tonal range but sometimes it is important to give the images a textural feel (and look of course)  I also think that glossy books just look cheap!

I'm not surprised here as my own view after getting the photo book back from the printer was that I should have opted for a more matt finish ( see my reflective account posted on 29 April).

I think that you need to think about a constant ‘look’ for the images in the book.  If you are trying to create an old photos look then you need to think about what old colour photos look like and whether you want your images to look as though they have been on a frame on the piano for years (faded some of the colours disappearing and so on) or whether you are trying to make them look as though they have just been taken but at some time in the past.  The other approach is to clearly separate the old (and ‘old) images from the new ones that are portraying a memory.

Fair comment...my initial attempts to try one kind of 'look' for every subject suggested that this would not work across all subjects but hindsight is a marvellous  thing..and I need to revisit this again
.

For me some of the treatment you have applied post production, colour rendering, grain and so on, detract from the quality of the image (both technically and emotionally) both in the book and the separate image that you have included.

Definitely worth revisiting my approach here ..

Also you should look at the different ways of cutting out a subject from its background.  In my experience different subjects work better using different techniques, but which ever you use try to make the edges as un-obvious as possible by feathering or whatever.

Interesting  as I did try some feathering but  a new technique for me and I need to go back and try this approach again.

You might want to think about making a new set of prints or at least preparing a new set of digital images (depending on how you are planning on submitting you work for assessment) that address these points.

I have decided to revisit my approach here and produce a new set of digital images. I did not like the glossy photo book and think my concept worth a second attempt using a semi matt finish.

You have Camera Lucida in you reading so you should think about what Barth says about punctum vs stadium in the image and how this relates to your images. I think; if only because of the way Barthes has written about it, his context for the explanation; the sort of subject that you project is dealing with makes these things particularly pertinent.  For example how do these concepts show in the Nearing Retirement image?

Hmmm...I need to go back to Barthes'  'Camera Lucida' ..

For me, and I get the feeling for you too, the final book is not a successful as the research and preparation work might deserve.  I think you could fix this by thinking about the overall ‘look’ of the images as I discuss above and perhaps by including either a foreword or afterword that give at least some of the background to the project.  I don’t think that a viewer coming cold to the images would realise what is going on but given a bit of a clue the images could give rise to all sorts of ideas and emotions in them.  You should at least discuss all this in your log/blog as trying to fix things that don’t quite go as right as you thought they would is the way we learn and is central to the purpose of these modules.  Credit is given for critical assessment, proposed remedies, and suggested ways forward.

Learning Logs/Critical essays

I mentioned Harvard referencing.  It is not vital that you use it for informal log/blog entries but you must use it for formal essays and critical reviews.  I have given links to help you in this for the future.

I have now researched this referencing system and from now on will use it in my blog and also for any written work if providing references or a bibliography. As a trial run, I have revised my Reflective Account as best I could given that my approach to recording detail such as the chapter / page number was not as consistent as it should have been. Won't happen again!

I think that the content of your blog is fine and makes an interesting read.  You might want to give it the final once over to check that it is as easy as possible for the assessors to find what they will want to see.  The index should be clear and there should be the minimum of clicks to find anything.