Interview/Portfolio - help!

EMA747

EMA747

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2,070
Name
Andy
Edit My Images
Yes
I am thinking strongly about applying for this Press and Editorial photography course at Falmouth University http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/201/cours...ess-and-editorial-photography-bahons-263.html through clearning but the course leader need a link, CD whaterver to 20+ images. I am having a hard time selecting which images to show him. I don't know if I should select my best work or the work that fits best with the course in question. :thinking:

If you fancy a look around my flickr it's here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysolaini/ I do have some old and crappy pics on there too though. Any advice on which are ok pics would be appreciated. :thumbs:
I don't have all my images on there and those with the nasty borders (used to like them for some reason) I have clean copies of.

PS - I don't want this to turn into another uni course value debate. ;)
 
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it's a good course for that kind of thing. If you get on it, pursuade your coursemate (starting this september) Lucy to model for you, she's a natural :)
Make what you can of it, the time that you can take over those three years to take photos without always needing income, the forced portfolio development and professional input and critique will make any degree worth it of you are a keeno. Sit around, only shoot what's required for the course, and it won't. simple.

some vague waffly thoughts...
- 'abstract'-y stuff. press and editorial photos, if you were presenting 20, would all be obvious what the thing in the photo was. The caption should add context to it, rather than explain wtf it is imo.
- avoid too much of the fake hdr/lomo/tiltshift stuff.
- think carefully about the opening and closing few images. These will make the biggest difference, first and last impressions always count. Whatever you do, open with something that really stands out as a commercial quality photo that really grabs you.
- go out right now and take some photos of people. I've just been through the first... 30odd pages on your flickr, and could count on one hand the number of pictures of people. You've got some good stock, travel and landscape-y stuff, but at least imo, people are both the biggest challenge, and greatest thing to have in photos. Get one photo as an editorial photo of each of your friends demonstrating a hobby or their work (also very relevant to the degree... bonus if you call it a project of 5-7 images and there's a similar style/look to them all). Get some models off MM or purestorm, whatever, but go shoot some people. Most professional photography is people, and if you are doing this course, presumably you want to be a professional photographer. Go figure. Even if the photos suck, and you wouldn't want to put them in your portfolio, nothing lost. But stands a hell of a lot to gain. NO photos of people in the whole portfolio would be especially conspicuous.
- I know you like planes, but a portfolio of sideon shots of ryanair planes at east midlands isn't going to do it for the course leader. Probably don't put any in. Processed well, the front on one of the whole wheel assembly could work, if you were desperate to put in something aviation related.

couple of random ones that caught my (tired) eye/I kinda like....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysolaini/4156048376/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysolaini/4248656850/ bit too dark, re-edit, but printed it'll look dead nice.
some nice norway ones too :)

it'll cost more (but not much, dscolourlabs are cheap...), but consider sending prints rather than a CD, I far prefer viewing a set of 12x8"s than something on a computer screen :)
 
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Thanks for the detailed reply. Some very useful points you make there.

I agree with you about the lack of people shots. There was/is a local Nottingham flickr group that meet and take portrait shots in a studio that I really wanted to go to but I have been away each time they have met so far. I did take some 35mm B&W people shots back when I did A-level that I still have in my workbooks from then. They are not perfect as it was much harder to get a perfect shot when self printing that it is now with digital.

I agree that I am lacking the type of shots that the course is all about but that is kind of why I want to do the course so that I can get experience of that type of photography. It's hard to get access to places, events etc to get that type of shot when you are just doing it as a hobby.
Another main reason for that course is it sounds like it gives a lot of real world experience. I mean I know how to take photos but it's the getting from that point to selling them that I would like to learn about. Real world projects etc are surely very good experience.

Also agree about the fake hdr/lomo/tiltshift stuff. The problem with flickr is it's all on there. I wish I had a website where I could put just the best photographs.
 
EMA747 said:
It's hard to get access to places, events etc to get that type of shot when you are just doing it as a hobby.
Another main reason for that course is it sounds like it gives a lot of real world experience. I mean I know how to take photos but it's the getting from that point to selling them that I would like to learn about. Real world projects etc are surely very good experience.
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Yup, and the lecturers will understand that, don't worry, and the course will help with it, though you do make your own luck - get involved with the student magazine, newspaper, whatever, rather than just taking a passive approach. Organise your own shoots, make friends with the fashion/textiles/art/design students and shoot cool things... photo degrees really are what you make of them.
 
The course admission guys wants me to just send him a link to my flickr rather than sending printed images. I'm a bit worried as my flickr contains stuff from years ago and I have come a long way since then. It also contains experimental stuff. Hmmm. Well he did say this "Well, if it includes your best work I would say, the more they’ve got to look at the better they can assess what you can produce and your potential for the course (we certainly advise applicants who are invited to interview to bring as much as they can carry in their portfolio, even things that have gone wrong, in order for the team to see the development of ideas etc)"


itsdavedotnet said:
make friends with the fashion/textiles/art/design students and shoot cool things...
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I will make friend with them. :naughty:
 
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I'm following this thread with interest, as I'm going to submit for the clearing for this course tommorrow :lol:

I think I'm having the same problem as you, my portfolio doesn't really contain any editorial press images bar one or two (hence me wanting to do the course). Therefore I've just chose shots which cover a range of subjects with a small amount of technical competency.

As for seperating the images from the rest of the stream (not such a problem for me as I don't have much on flickr), I just created a set and will send them the link for that. Then it's up to them if they want to rummage around the rest of my pics. :lol:

You can take a look at my portfolio set (work inprogress at the moment - captions need changing and I need to choose some more images and re-order them) at my flickr in my sig. (crit would be appreciated as I really have no clue with this :D)

Oh and I'd get your images printed out anyway, that way If you get asked for an interview you'll be able to show off you're pics how they are meant to be viewed (IMO of course) and your portfolio will look thicker :D
 
EMA747 said:
The course admission guys wants me to just send him a link to my flickr rather than sending printed images.
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make them a seperate flickr, don't link them to your normal one with thousands of photos to go through, but put more than 20 photos on it. IMO, anyway.

I think I'm having the same problem as you, my portfolio doesn't really contain any editorial press images bar one or two (hence me wanting to do the course). Therefore I've just chose shots which cover a range of subjects with a small amount of technical competency.
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good plan :)

good luck the both of you, it is meant to be a good course - and I can't urge you enough, sieze the opportunities and get shooting - ALL.THE.TIME - and you will take away so much from your university experience, rather than being a 'stereotypical' photography student.
 
the course work seems to be black to white and not high in technical but high in technique
you will need to show some involvement in human interaction...
just a guess but those shots in the falmouth website all look like reportage to me

and as i mentally noted...avoid colour and chocolate box shots...
 
itsdavedotnet said:
make them a seperate flickr, don't link them to your normal one with thousands of photos to go through, but put more than 20 photos on it. IMO, anyway.
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I can't seem to get it to let me make another flickr account. It says I alread have an account when I try to make another. :|
 
@ sketch145 - I like your portfolio. You seem to have much more editorial type images in there than I have in mine.
 
I've just got an email back saying I have an interview first week of August. Arrrgh interviews! :gag: Any idea what they are going to ask me? I've only ever been for interviews for engineering/technical type jobs so I have no idea what this one will be like. :thinking:
 
I had an email from them today too, and also have to go for an interview next week, I'd guess that they'll ask why you wan't to do the course and what plans you have for the future etc. and probably ask you to talk a bit about some of the images in your portfolio. Aside from that though I've got no idea though.

This is the portfolio I submitted in the end, although I've got a few more for my print portfolio.
 
sketch145 said:
I had an email from them today too, and also have to go for an interview next week, I'd guess that they'll ask why you wan't to do the course and what plans you have for the future etc. and probably ask you to talk a bit about some of the images in your portfolio. Aside from that though I've got no idea though.

This is the portfolio I submitted in the end, although I've got a few more for my print portfolio.
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thats a strong portfolio, I'd take you on because of the range of images in which you've shown excellent technical skills the dandelions and the diggers eg have completely different skill sets but both are really good shots
 
david1701 said:
thats a strong portfolio, I'd take you on because of the range of images in which you've shown excellent technical skills the dandelions and the diggers eg have completely different skill sets but both are really good shots
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Cheers, I'm quite happy with it on the whole. I do wish I had a few more to put in though , but as I've been doing A levels for the past couple of years I haven't had much time to take as many as I would have liked. Not to mention most of my stuff is on slides and I don't think they'd enjoy squinting at them through a loupe in the interview :lol:.
 
Just got off the phone with student finance and they say I am unlikely to get any funding for the course so the fees would be £7900! This is because I have studied before. I'm so p**sed off! :bang::'(:runaway: I've had to cancel the interveiw for now. The guy said I can have it later on if I get the finance things sorted.

Anyway good luck to you sketc145. I really hope it all goes well for you. :thumbs: Let me know what it's like. ;)
 
Sorry to hear that, I haven't really looked at finance in depth yet (:eek:) although I'm hoping it will be ok as I've just come out of A levels, can you not just go for the interview and then try and sort out finance between now and the course start?

On a completely unrelated note, just found out a train from here to falmouth is £240 and the station is 1Hrs drive in the opposite direction, sod that, looks like I'll be driving down :lol:.
 
Your question about when to apply for finance is one I have yet to ask them. If you can apply any time I will just do it and see what happens. If they say no at least I won't have lost anything. You should be fine if you have not studied at hight level (ie HND/C degree etc) before. I did 3 years of a 4 year engineering degree and had to drop out for health reasons + I had 2 terms worth of funding right back in 2002. I think it's kind of unfair that I am being held back on a money issue not something course related. :(

The train from Nottingham would have been £120 at such short notice. :eek:
 
Manxmaid said:
That's a strong and interesting selection. I hope you get the finances sorted out.
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Thanks very much. :thumbs: I will try and use the time between now and when I hear about the funding to get some people shots. That's what's lacking I think.
 
sketch145 said:
Sorry to hear that, I haven't really looked at finance in depth yet (:eek:) although I'm hoping it will be ok as I've just come out of A levels, can you not just go for the interview and then try and sort out finance between now and the course start?

On a completely unrelated note, just found out a train from here to falmouth is £240 and the station is 1Hrs drive in the opposite direction, sod that, looks like I'll be driving down :lol:.
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if you wanna beer on the way back up ;)
 
Cheers for the offer, I don't think I'll be able to this time as I'm going back via london on the way back to help my brother move into a new flat, so the drive will end up being about 7 hrs plus the time to help him move, and the interview/campus tour/etc finishes at midday.

With a little luck though I'll be down that way this september onwards so I'm sure we can find time for a beer or a few :beer: :beer: :beer: :lol:.
 
Well, Just to update this thread, I got my results back last week and the met the entry requirements that they offered me after the interview. Confirmed my place today so now I just have to sort out monies and accomodation :woot:.

Thanks to all who offered advice in this thread, I'm very much looking forward to it :cool:.
 
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