Editorial Evaluation

Editorial Evaluation.

Theme Extraordinary.

Nicola Callaghan (794 words)

I completed the assignment by first researching editorial and also the theme given which was extraordinary. I began looking at magazines like ‘Hot and Cool’ and photographers in general. After the initial research of these I began to think of ideas that I could do and one that came up which I liked was ‘Bipolar’. I have a friend who is Bipolar and she liked the idea as it brings awareness and she was willing to be photographed for the series which we had thought out and planned of how and what to do. A technique I used in some of the photos is one of my favourites which is Rembrandt lighting but which can also be tricky to get right. The method I chose was to shoot the series all in the studio as this would help me achieve them all looking like a body of work. I’m not too sure if anything or anyone in particular has inspired me to do the idea of Bipolar but I liked the fact it could help bring awareness and therefore people/ photographers who have done projects like this where they have made a series showing or portraying something to help bring awareness has inspired me. A problem I had at the beginning was trying to come up with an idea for this brief. I could think of things for editorial that I could possibly try and go in to but the word ‘extraordinary’ through me a bit and I was unsure what to do. I struggled coming up with something for about three weeks that I thought would fit both editorial and extraordinary. I had thought of maybe doing about Bipolar earlier on but only fully decided and committed to it within the third week. As it had been a few month since our last project I had forgotten how to do the sizing on the imaging for the CD, I had a vague idea but was uncertain so I looked up videos to try and help which they did somewhat but I have always had a little struggle with sizing, as even when I think it is right something always seems to be off or wrong. It takes a while for my head to get around things so I'm sure over time and practice I will be able to overcome this. The assignment challenged me because, like before in previous briefs, there is always something that I have not done formerly. In this case I had never done editorial or anything to do with the theme extraordinary, so I had to think of how to achieve what the brief asked of me. New skills I learned and have acquired because of this brief are editing skills, having to know what shots you want and choosing them all to fit together and work with each other to look like a body of work. Being able to go through a set of pictures and picking ones that fit the idea/ theme which all have a similar look and style to them but have their own individuality in regards to something in the image. I responded well from tutors and peers in regards to their feedback and advice as well as guidance. I really appreciated their comments and suggestions of how I could do certain things and also what I could do with the theme. I think that I have tried to meet the requirements of the brief as best I could and hopefully I have considering it was my first time doing anything editorial. As for the other requirements to the brief, i.e. the research (blog), prints, portfolio etc. I do think I have done what has been asked and is required though not all may be right or perfect. I would say that my work has been quite successful as I have done what is asked to the best of my ability. I could improve the work by trying even harder in the shoots I did in the studio to produce better work. I would also give myself more time to do the shoots and try to think of what I can do for the brief a lot sooner and this will help me have more time to take pictures where I know what I want to get out of the shoot and what my goals are to get out of studio time. What I would of done differently is similar to the above but also when sending my pictures of even the I set the resolution to 96 it came up low resolution, I think about 46, and I’m not sure why so had I more time I would have tried to correct this before sending them off. Hopefully they won’t be too bad!