Photoshop Session

From the images that you have shortlisted for this session we will be looking at how to post produce these and complete a digital workflow. This means looking at the software and its tools that you will come across more often than others.

Appropriate tools to suit each method mean that you will be able to select the most suitable one for your images. The cropping methods for your final images will allow you to work quicker will alot of images.

The photographs you have taken have to be shortlisted into 10 best images, I dont want to see anyone putting images through photoshop without first having their top ten approved. By definition as I said last week, if you haven't got enough then prepare to do more photography in that section.

All work in photoshop has to be screen grabbed to display what you have done stage by stage, this has to happen all the time for all images and methods used. Then these are uploaded to your blog work, and it will make your work easier to explain and evidence.

Plus don't forget all units need to be done before the end of the course, ie if you are doing unit 211 or others that they are started now and kept tracked and labelled as per all other units. You must time manage the weeks left on this course very well in order to complete and achieve high grades.

Ofsted Exhibition

In light of a visit by Osfted to the college on the 5th December I wanted to make sure that our area is well represented.To do this I would like everyone to gather all their best images together (anything between 25 and 50) so I can put all of them together on a gallery showreel. Some images I may well have but since this course is fairly new I expect there will be images shot fairly recently that I haven't seen.

Can you provide these as jpegs only please as this will allow me to put this together quicker and can you put these all on a DVD on or before the 3rd of December. We need to do this as Ofsted will come in the day time and miss all of our sessions which would be a real shame as there is some really good work happening.

The format of the exhibition will probably be a website / showreel to show off all the work from a large TV screen at the end of our corridor.

Criteria, Self Tracking and Labels

The sessions that we are doing now need to focus down on the labelling of your blogs and making sure that you have all of your criteria being tracked. In this way you can appropriate your time management to ensure that you are on track to achieve a high grade within your particular units.

You also should have both of your themes now well underway with supporting photography and research happening alongside. Critical analysis of this research and compare and contrasting of these images against your own will allow you to evaluate how well you have done.

Or in some cases how well you haven't done, this again informs and directs you how you could improve and in what areas, what you could do differently next time, what you enjoyed and didn't. Did you use the right kit for the right photo shoot, etc..etc...This all goes towards a good evaluation.

Photoshop will be happening soon once you have got together a blog about your top 10 images for each theme. We do not want to be spending too much time in photoshop as you could have a better image or have chance to provide better images by shooting again.

Let me know if you are ready and we can begin to look at photoshop techniques that would suit your work. Also dont forget many of you are doing additional units such as 211 which require you to study the areas of digital workflow, output devices (printers) print surfaces, design of layouts, use of colour within framing and a variety of ways you can display and exhibit your work.

Courses announcement

Can I just say how very pleased I am with all work being produced, everyone appears to understand the ownership and responsibility of their own units that they have chosen to study.Please remember that you have two themes and in some cases more, manage your time well between work produced at college and away from class.

The volume of research has to be really gathering pace now alongside exploratory photography creating your own photography inspired from a variety of influences.

Also don't forget that you have to compare and contrast your images to that of your research, this has to be done with help from critical vocabulary to describe accurately what values from research can be added as value to your own photography.

Photo Lounge

A new online discussion forum is just starting called 'Photo Lounge', it is to allow the interchange of interesting themes, events and discussions between all of the City and Guilds photography students.
Follow the link on this site and start the ball rolling. You will need an up to date college log in and password in order to access this, which as a student at BSDC you should already have.

Moodle 2

Moodle 2 is a hub where you as a student can have access to information which vital to your course. Please use the link to the side of this website to explore all that it has to offer. This is 'work in progress' and will expand week by week throughout the program of the course.

Studio session & work production

Tonight we will be looking at a session in the photography studio which will provide useful practice in ISO, F stops and shutter speeds for those that require it. It is usual to cover these at level 1, but for some that didn't do a level 1 this will prove useful.

After this session, can you research what ISO, F stop, and shutter speeds are (with accompanying images) and do a blog for each. Also what you learn from the session you will need to experiment within your own photography.

For the rest of the group I want to see more research of other photographers work, and for this to appear on each of your blogs with lots of images for us to look at and discuss. This is a vital part of informing, inspiring and planning for a photography shoot either on location or in the studio.

I went through labels of your work last week, and these need to be done throughout every session. Also in general you need to look at the volume of work that you are producing in relation to the requirements of the course. You have to be producing research and photography based on inspiration of ideas and then compare and contrast you work against your original research. And at all times typing about thoughts, ideas about how you work is progressing, etc..

As we looked at before, clear advice about 'what to blog' and 'how to blog' can be found in the blog archive if you need to recap on this at any time.

It is required and expected that to get the best out of the course this extended opportunity to produce work over the internet is grasped with both hands. Ask yourself the question am I producing as much work at home as I am at college.

As I have said before you need to take total full control and responsibility and ownership of all your units, criteria and work production / photography. Don't wait for me to tell you the next step, you need to initiate it and I will respond to it with advice and guidance.