OCA The Art of Photography Course Discussion Including Assignments and Submissions

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Change of subject medium and all is good. No idea why it didn't work before.

Now an evening of write ups...woop woop :|
 
Byker28i said:
AlfyB - injecting colours into water - what a great idea.
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Thanks Byker. Its fun and I'd recommend giving it a try. I need to get my self something that is flat and made of glass and then try and work on the lighting.

FrattonFreak said:
Thanks for the feedback. Did you manage to have a look at that IR image yet?
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I did. I was sure I'd sent a few edited examples back to you actually but seeing this message, I checked my sent items and nothing there. I'll try and get them sent this week.

I've just finished checking over yesterdays marathon write-up - spent about 6 hours getting everything written up for assignment 3. I'm quite pleased with how it's finished though and I'm looking forward to hearing my tutors comments - http://bushtography.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/assignment-3-colour/
 
Reidy36 said:
Alfy, like the assignment. How did you get the images to take on the blurred/pastel type effect, not done that before and looks like i will have to.
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I just used a Gaussian blur in photoshop.

I've seen a few blogs doing the same sort thing, Warren uses a different approach you might want to check.
 
AlfyB said:
I just used a Gaussian blur in photoshop.

I've seen a few blogs doing the same sort thing, Warren uses a different approach you might want to check.
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Will try and see what i can find in Lightroom, photoshop a little confusing for my simpleton mind :)
 
Reidy36 said:
Will try and see what i can find in Lightroom, photoshop a little confusing for my simpleton mind :)
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Thing you might struggle in Lightroom. I'm only just learning photoshop and applying the Gaussian blur is really simple. Think it's under Filter > Blur > Gaussian.

There is one setting, pixels, that I'm not totally sure what it does but a value of 20 looked good to me.
 
Thanks Alfy,

On top of doing this, i now have to learn something else, this learning lark is never ending :LOL:

Easier than i thought, thanks for that one Alfy
 
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AlfyB said:
Thanks Byker. Its fun and I'd recommend giving it a try. I need to get my self something that is flat and made of glass and then try and work on the lighting.
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Small fishtank? There's often ones in the free adds. I picked one up for a fiver
 
Byker28i said:
LucyB - loving the layout of your blog. I really like the images and introductory piece. That theme works really well and some great images as well. CarolS is using the same one, really nice choice.
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Thanks :)

I selected one if the more popular themes, deliberately going for something simple with a light background. I prefer white for reading and displaying images most of the time. The new OCA template has gone for a similar light theme I believe.

I'm really liking peoples' colour assignments. I have to admit I'm a bit stuck on colour and falling a bit behind. I've printed out the images I've taken so far, hoping to sort through them and see how they fit together, but I'm at the point now of wanting to throw them out and starting again. I need to write up my thoughts for my blog as some point I think.
 
Lucy, it appears we are all finding the colour one hard, so welcome to the club.

Now time to think about the assignment, will have a few days thinking about what to do as the standard I have seen is really good.
 
Reidy36 said:
Will try and see what i can find in Lightroom, photoshop a little confusing for my simpleton mind :)
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I think I found a digital DLSR rather confusing for MY simpleton mind when i first bought one 3 years ago ;)

Don't be scared of Photoshop but rather that you can develop skills and knowledge of PS much in the same way we are with our DSLR's. I bought CS6 with the student discount (OCA card) that gives 2 licences. Loads of tutorials available on youtube and its amazing how much you learn. That said I doubt I'm in anyway using it to its potential, likely 5-10% currently:)

Ian mentioned my technique (thanks) - again it was very simple using filters to just select one, applying it and saving it. As students its normal to learn from each other - we just have to do it from a distance on forums like this rather than in the classroom. I always get inspired looking at others learning logs...always something to learn and often wish i had thought of that! Colour did seem hard but looking back I think I enjoyed the challenge and the learning element

It will be interesting to see what feedback our tutors give - but again any critique is all part of our learning(y)
 
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Don't ignore adobe tv for tutorials. Adobe put lots of free training on line.
 
All this talk of Photoshop has gotten me thinking.. I don't use Windows, so have stuck with using the badly named, The GIMP, instead. Does anyone have any experience of using this for the DPP module or know whether it's possible?

I need to improve my pp skills at some point, but I don't know what I'm missing out on by not using Photoshop.
 
lucyb said:
All this talk of Photoshop has gotten me thinking.. I don't use Windows, so have stuck with using the badly named, The GIMP, instead. Does anyone have any experience of using this for the DPP module or know whether it's possible?

I need to improve my pp skills at some point, but I don't know what I'm missing out on by not using Photoshop.
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Hi Lucy,

I think Byker has completed DPP so perhaps he may offer some advice.
Alternatively ask your current tutor or try the OCA as they are always really helpful. Have you started this / running in parallel with TAOP or just planning in advance? I will start DPP after TAOP.

I don't know anything about GIMP. Using your OCA card you can get CS6 at student prices (but likely still around £175), I would think you can also get Elements at student prices (perhaps £60-80), or Lightroom (no idea).

If you have a look at ebay / amazon you may see secondhand versions of older versions of Elements. Alternatively I can have a look as I may have an older version of Elements that I no longer use. I will find out what version it is, then you can google it to see if it covers what you want, I would think it would be OK but Mr Byker may be able to offer his view of what pp tool would be OK for DPP

I guess all tools can seem over powering at first but google is great for video tutorials and you will soon get up to speed. In fact you probably know what you want to do, its just learning how to do it using the tool

Hope this helps

Warren

Oh nuts - just realised you dont use Windows, what O/S do you use, is it Apple ?
 
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Have a read through my blog on dpp. Assignment 4 asks for image manipulation but you should be able to do that in elements, although I think my image had about 15 layers.

The majority of my work uses just Lightroom and slight adjustments in that. I try to get most right in camera.

Having said all that, I like photoshop. There's times I've used it in image manipulation that couldn't be done any other way.
 
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I am just going through some of the basic tutorials on CS3 now. Think i know what i will be doing this weekend....lol
 
Hi Warren

I'm just looking ahead for options for the future. I'm never going to have time to overlap modules unfortunately.

I'm afraid I don't use Windows or Mac OS. I use Linux, specifically Ubuntu. I don't want to have to buy another OS or go to the trouble of installing it, moving all my photos to another partition, and not being able to do any other work when editing photos, etc. Not insurmountable by any means, just more hassle, and I'd rather avoid having to use Windows at home.

However, if the editing is reasonably minor then a combination of Aftershot Pro and The GIMP will be fine. Both of them can do layers.

Thanks all.
 
No time to take photos really at the moment so I'm conceptualizing around an exercise, thinking of the considerations.

I've just linked in Swiss Tony with - David Bailey once said, "I'm very quick. Ten minutes, that's about enough time for a portrait."

Perhaps I shouldn't have had that second glass of wine :D
 
Byker28i said:
No time to take photos really at the moment so I'm conceptualizing around an exercise, thinking of the considerations.

I've just linked in Swiss Tony with - David Bailey once said, "I'm very quick. Ten minutes, that's about enough time for a portrait."

Perhaps I shouldn't have had that second glass of wine :D
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LOL - I'm still waiting for my Assignment 3 feeback - I've chased

I completed the first exercise for Light - wow 40 plus images and the write up on the log.

I had a quick flick through the rest of the light module - I don't know how I can spend a day from dawn to dusk taking an image every hour. Should have scheduled this for the shortest day (in terms of light) of the year :D

I'll worry about that when I get to it(y)
 
FrattonFreak said:
LOL - I'm still waiting for my Assignment 3 feeback - I've chased

I completed the first exercise for Light - wow 40 plus images and the write up on the log.

I had a quick flick through the rest of the light module - I don't know how I can spend a day from dawn to dusk taking an image every hour. Should have scheduled this for the shortest day (in terms of light) of the year :D

I'll worry about that when I get to it(y)
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I've received my feedback for assignment 3, quite happy on the whole. Need to re-shoot a couple of the photos, as my tutor felt they did not fit the assignment.

I have also taken loads of images for the first exercise of Light, but not had chance to look through them yet.

Reading The Photograph by Graham Clarke at the moment, struggling though because it is not holding my attention.
 
robsea said:
I've received my feedback for assignment 3, quite happy on the whole. Need to re-shoot a couple of the photos, as my tutor felt they did not fit the assignment.

I have also taken loads of images for the first exercise of Light, but not had chance to look through them yet.

Reading The Photograph by Graham Clarke at the moment, struggling though because it is not holding my attention.
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I've just posted my tutor feedback here - http://bushtography.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/assignment-3-colour-tutor-feedback/. I'm quite please with it but need to get working on the blog side of the course.

Things have been a bit busy so I feel like I'm already getting behind on the next module because I've not done anything on it yet.

I don't remember finding 'The Photograph' toooo bad but it certainly wasn't the most exciting. I found 'Photography' by Liz Wells incredibly difficult, so much so that I stopped reading less than a third of the way in and I'm currently reading the book on contemporary photography but I'm having to have a break from that as well. These 'art' based books really don't do anything for me and I just can't concentrate on reading them. All I seem to be getting out of the Contemporary photography book is that it's probably not for me as I think most of the images are rubbish.

I keeping telling myself I must keep an open mind but it's not easy :bonk:
 
Well i have hit a massive brick wall prior to assignment 2 called too much work :bang::bang:

Had the council refit the kitchen the other week (took them 15 working days), during which time the place was in turmoil and no space to do anything. On top of that, i have been so busy, i haven't picked the camera up for about 2 weeks, got my tutor to extend my assignment to easter, but not going to get a chance till then to get the camera out.

Doing my head in it is.
 
Reidy36 said:
Well i have hit a massive brick wall prior to assignment 2 called too much work :bang::bang:

Had the council refit the kitchen the other week (took them 15 working days), during which time the place was in turmoil and no space to do anything. On top of that, i have been so busy, i haven't picked the camera up for about 2 weeks, got my tutor to extend my assignment to easter, but not going to get a chance till then to get the camera out.

Doing my head in it is.
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I had the same problem for assignment 2 and things are starting to go that way again. Think I was about 3 months late. Don't worry to much though. The deadlines are trying to get you through the course in 15 months because its an initial module. When I explained to my tutor that work has to come first, she was very understanding.

I can't afford to be 3 months late again though so need to get going. I've not done anything since submitting my last assignment :(
 
Well I'm a member of the 'late club' too - I'm just about to start the last exercise ('cropping') for Part 1 and I'm already three months in. Was hoping to start on assignment 1 this week as have some time off over Easter but have not done any planning yet; will have to knuckle down. Work's got in the way a bit recently; must remember that it pays the bills!
 
I have asked for an extension for a few more weeks.
Thankfully i am not on call over the Easter break, so intend getting my head down and cracking on.
Stupidly, i forgot to order some bits that i was going to use for still life.
Still no idea what i am going to actually do, so should be a fun weekend :LOL:
 
March assessment results are out. I got 55 which is very disappointing but expected as I had very little input from my tutor.

Oh well, Onwards
 
Byker28i said:
March assessment results are out. I got 55 which is very disappointing but expected as I had very little input from my tutor.

Oh well, Onwards
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How do you know a results number? Am I missing something here? I submit my assignments to my tutor & only get feedback not a number result? Thx
 
scuba_suzy said:
How do you know a results number? Am I missing something here? I submit my assignments to my tutor & only get feedback not a number result? Thx
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Formal assessment at the end of your course. It's marked by external assessors and the results posted on the student site.
 
Sent assignment 3 off today. Glad to see the back of it as it has dragged due to me not being able to do as much as I wanted, due to work.
Lighting looks fun and alot more exercises to do.
 
Hi all,

Just previewed my next exercise in wordpress, no idea what i have done, but about where i have put about the exercise, i have the following:

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

I have no idea, what i have done here, i have tried to preview a couple of times, and it stays the same.

Someone help this moron please

Phew, just went to save it again and then the typing above came up, now removed.

Have a nice sunday.
 
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well thats my colour assignment sent off. I think that was the hardest most drawn out soul sapping assignment yet! (although ive just taken a peek at the Light module!)

Anyway i really didnt enjoy this one, trying to find real world examples of the colour combinations was seriously time consuming. I think my last assignment went in January so its taken me far too long for this one.

http://ashleycottle.co.uk/MyBlog/?p=924

Wordpress - does anyone know of a plug in that would generate a gallery from a link to a flickr set? I just like doing a "braindump" page for each assignment where i just dump in every image ive taken for it before showing the finals in the Assignment post. I run my WP page from my own webspace so it would just be nice to host the images on flickr to save my space allowance on the website :)
 
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essexash said:
well thats my colour assignment sent off. I think that was the hardest most drawn out soul sapping assignment yet! (although ive just taken a peek at the Light module!)

Anyway i really didnt enjoy this one, trying to find real world examples of the colour combinations was seriously time consuming. I think my last assignment went in January so its taken me far too long for this one.

http://ashleycottle.co.uk/MyBlog/?p=924

Wordpress - does anyone know of a plug in that would generate a gallery from a link to a flickr set? I just like doing a "braindump" page for each assignment where i just dump in every image ive taken for it before showing the finals in the Assignment post. I run my WP page from my own webspace so it would just be nice to host the images on flickr to save my space allowance on the website :)
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I think there's a bunch of plugins for the Flickr api, I usually do a search on wordpress.org so I can check compatibility & ratings
 
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