Reflection of last Assignment - Its been a while

I have not been able to pursue the course much lately. This is mainly down to working away, work and having to study for work related exams..... work, work work!

With only one more exam to go at work, I have found time to study the course material and take images for the exercises, so hopefully I will post this soon. In the meanwhile here are my reflective notes from the feedback received for the monochrome assignment.....

All in all it was a very pleasing and constructive response. It was commented early on that the changes and enhancements I have made to the images were subtle and perhaps not as strong as could have been made. This I found interesting as I have been trying hard to make sure the the images I take need as little processing as possible, previously I relied too much on Photoshop. Using the correct white balance and checking exposures with the histogram have helped enormously to capture better images. To try and retain this unaltered look I have probably been a bit economical with some of the sliders and I can see how and why I could make some improvements. As the course unfolds we are now being encouraged to question what is acceptable in modifying images, and my view today is that as an art form we must make the best possible image from the tools we have available, however it should not make the image unbelievable or obviously modified to too great an extent. So in the future I will push the processing a little further.

My tutor has also kindly given examples on processing a couple of my images. In these he has made one more dramatic and in the other drawn out more detail. On reflection I should have spent more time processing the images and not trying to have them looking too natural. The one image I did increase contrast significantly and dodged and burned (Lobster Pots) received good feedback in respect to the tonal range.

I was also pleased that the BMX and Abandoned images were well received as these were my favourites. Notes to self, pay attention to detail and show more in the Blog and Assignments on experimenting with different techniques. I do this all the time but do not record it.

Here are the images for anyone interested! The theme was the coastline of Eastbourne, or just outside.