Feedback from Assignment 4

Tutor's feedback from Assignment 4 Sense of Place was positive. Tutor notes that I have maintained a good pace and nearly finished now. Tutor understands my aim is to go for the Photography degree; this is not necessarily true. I am taking each stage at a time and will see how far I wish to go, which may or may not be the complete degree. I am aiming for assessment for this course.

Tutor likes first image of shoe shining parlour - "a very powerful image". Pleased with this as I thought this was the best image and one that I am considering submitting for competitions. Tutor notes the Abuse of Power headline on the newspaper, something that I had not noticed.

Favourable comments on the election win ("works very well") and the subway, washing line and High Line images are also well received as providing "a more challenging and considered view of New York."

Tutor is less convinced about the diner image - "the message [from the pamphlet] doesn't fit seamlessly with the almost empty diner." The conclusion is perhaps the image is trying too much and therefore "lacks a strong message."

On reflection, I can understand the comment; the image was actually the sixth of 6 to be chosen for the in-depth treatment for the travel publication so was marginal.

I have more difficulty with the comments on the white image ("lacks a strong message"); yellow cab and Flat Iron image ("''gives viewer little in terms of new information") and Chinatown image.I think the Assignment commentary on these images was clear: these are specifically images that were considered and rejected for exactly the reasons set out by Tutor. I thought I had made clear that these were six images that were considered but would not be in my final selection of six. I followed the brief of reviewing twelve, and selecting six.

On a technical point, tutor says some images appear grainy or have noise issues. Reviewing images online again, I agree that three show distinct noise and have applied Topaz DeNoise3 to these as follows (in each case the original image is followed by the noise reduced image). I overdid the sharpening and dynamic range during post processing. Topaz DeNoise mitigates the negative effects of these..

Tutor suggests good quality prints "will give the work a lift for assessment purposes." This is possibly true but I have set out on this course with the express aim of being paperless. We live in a digital age (even BJP gets more digital subscribers than printed copy) and I like to reflect that in my submissions and assessments. I am green in the sense of not printing items unless necessary (this is a mantra that I impress on my team at work and have changed processes to eliminate unnecessary paper). There are those who say digital images are not the same quality as printed images but in my experience this is not true.

In the summary, tutor says this is "an interesting mix...giving a good indication of where your heart lies when it comes to taking images." I appreciate this comment and that throughout the feedbacks tutor has noticed my enthusiasm and determination to present good work that fulfils the brief.