Pop Art - Evaluation

Pop-art evaluation

Your photographic evaluation (400 words) must include the following points:

·         Introduction  – demonstrate a clear understanding of the purpose of this assignment

Our assignment was to photograph a product in a pop-up studio using a seemless background and produce it in the form of pop-art. We began our assignment by doing research, we looked at pop-art in general, we then focused on example images, and research into seemless backgrounds and pop-up studios. I was inspired by a few images, these can be found below.



I chose these images as they resemble the typical pop-art however the use of colours and the range that they use are not found in my work. I used the invert tool on photoshop as well as the colour tools avaliable. I researched a selection of artists, these were Kieth Haring who was responsible for creating the 'Lucky Strike' cigarette based pop-art. I also researched Claes Olenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, who were responsible for putting a large pop-art ice-cream ontop of a building. I also researched Richard Hamilton who made a "Just what is it that make's today's homes so different, so appealing?" advertising. I looked at more such as Andy Warhol and many others.

·         Your research – what images inspired you? Why did pop-art come about? Which artists did you research?

My ideas were to create a piece of work that is typical to the old school pop-art, 4 colour squares with the work in it that is of a different base colour to the background's base colour. I changed the "different base colour to the background's base colour" to have lots of different colours inside the product, this was done by using lots of tools on photoshop (explained later on)

·         What were your ideas? Refer to your proposal – outline what it was you intended to produce.

I unfortunately, did not manage my time effectively because I left a few things to the last minute however for the time I was in college during the assignement I would say I managed my time fairly well, enabling me to edit all of the images and take the photo's to create my final piece in the matter of 3 hours. I made considerations to catch up on work I missed outside of college time, however I did not know what I was missing or what resources was avaliable on Moodle.

•       Planning - How did you manage your time effectively? What considerations did you have to account for?

My photography did 95% fit my proposal however as mentioned above, I did change the product to have lots of colours inside of it instead of just one base colour like I specified in my proposal.

·         Did your photography match the ideas in your proposal?

For my photography, I had to take into account several things, the main one was timing. It was only a four week assignment so timings are vital and managing time is vital. Next I had to take into account lighting because the camera's settings would be dependant on the lighting avaliable. We had a studio light (softbox) avaliable for the photoshoot, this made me need a fast shutter speed and a narrow appature because all of the product needs to be in focus. I needed to control the ISO, this is because of the level of detail captured because the light could remove some of the detail that could be captured, I used 200ISO.

• Photography. What did you have to take into account, ie, lighting, location, ISO and apature?

·         Editing techniques - What Photoshop skills/techniques did you employ? How were they used to enhance the shots you produced?

·         Photography analysis - Photo analysis as an argument from the photographer’s perspective.

Did your photography effectively meet the requirements of your proposal and the brief? Are they fit for purpose?

·         What would you do differently next time and what did you learn from this assignment?

Pop Art - Memory Check

Q1 – Detail two reasons why we change the ISO

 1) To allow the detail to be high focus or blurred, dependant on shutter speed.

 2) To change the sensitivity of the camera, dependant on light levels

Q2 – Explain the difference in depth of field between a wide and a narrow apature

Depth of field in a narrow appature will mean a deeper depth of field, allowing the whole object to be in focus.

Depth of field in a wide appature will mean a shorter depth of field, allowing part of the object to be in focus, the remainder blurred.

Q3 – List four consideration you had to take into account when producing your pop-art photography. For example, depth of field, shadows etc)

You had to take into consideration shadows, because they may be difficult to remove so try keep them to a minimum. You can control your shadows through the position of the light to the product or add an overhead light to your side lights.

You had to take into consideration depth of field, because you want the whole object in focus. You can control this by having a narrow appature, dependant on your level of lights.

You had to take into consideration shutter speed, because you want your object to be crisp and not be blurred. You can control the blurriness by keeping your shutter speed open for a small amount of time so it doesn't fill with light.

You had to take into consideration the background, because you want a seemless background with no creases or any extra marks that may be difficult to remove when it comes to editing. You can control this by having a newly placed, clean, fresh sheet.

Pop Art - Pop-up Studio Research

What is a pop-up studio?
A pop-up studio is a non-professional studio which is "hand-made" so to say.

We use large studio lights rather than redhead lights as they are simply just an arm with the light attached. The redheads are harder to use for this type of photography as they come on a tripod that isnt as manouvable as the studio lights.

The seemless background is used because we will cut it out in photoshop and we want to be able to remove it all in one go, and then the shadow. This is easiest when there is a seemless white background behind it. In editing we will put it on a coloured background, as well as colour the item which would mean the shadow would be coloured as well. This is why we use a seemless background.

In the photoshoot of the product, we will use certain camera settings, these are a high ISO and a low appature. The reason behind these are because of the lighting it enables us to get a high ISO which means we can get lots of detail. The appature needs to be low because of the amount of light that there is so a small hole would mean a deep depth of field keeping all the product in focus.