Unit 13: Post-Production

For the final product feedback for this project, I got back in contact with the photographers I had spoken with at the start of this project, asking them to simply answer five questions. Three of them replied to me giving me answers which I am very happy with. Photographer1 is Rafe Abrook Photography, Photographer2 is PGWimaging. Photographer3 is Ian Scott Photography, Photographer4 is Dan Freeman.

 

1) Do you think the detail level is enough for an amateur?

Photographer1: I think the detail level is good

Photographer2: I think beginner photography enthusiasts may struggle and need to look up a lot of meanings to words

Photographer3: I feel as though more detail is needed as sometimes big processes can be brushed over quickly.

Photographer4: yes, I think it documents your journey from the perspective and position that you are currently in. You seem to have learned a lot in a relatively short amount of time, and this is reflected in the book. 

2) Do you like the design choices? What would you change?

Photographer1: I would adapt the design to make the process more obvious and clear to the audience.

Photographer2: Yes, I like the simplistic layout of the book. Maybe a layout of pictures with text below the pictures may work better for the step by step layout.

Photographer3: I would change the font as sometimes punctuation is difficult to read

Photographer4: it would be handy to have the text accompanying the imagery directly, perhaps wrapped around it. this would make the content more relatable to the viewers of the book. this, in turn, will keep their interest better than a block of text. I would have also liked to have seen examples of your failed attempts. if you were to publish a book like this, as a guide, people would want to see failed attempts alongside the successful ones in order to see how/if the images they take might be fails also.  

3) Do you think any of the content is too confusing?

Photographer1: I think sometimes it can be

Photographer2: Yes, in some cases, I would try to either outline the process or record your feelings, I think doing both makes it more difficult to see the steps.

Photographer3: Not really, but to someone with less knowledge it may be confusing

Photographer4: no, but then my background is film photography, so naturally I understood the text. again examples to accompany the text or diagrams might help the viewers. 

4) Do you think the book has a market?

Photographer1: I think it would appeal to someone with a little bit of photography knowledge

Photographer2: Yes and no, I think it would to an audience with basic knowledge, not someone wanting to get into this professionally.

Photographer3: Yes I think there is an audience that would like to read something like this. 

Photographer4: as it currently stands, I see this as more of an informal blog. the informal writing style is what would appeal to a lot of people. you come across as friendly and enthusiastic, and people like that in how-to guides. guide books tend to consist of much much more content. this is in no way an insult because you have only just started at the film side of things. again, as your book takes more of the format of a diary, I think a blog or web-based how-to for beginners would be a more suited home than a printed book. 

5) Any other improvements?

Photographer1: Add more pictures that you took

Photographer2: We never see a picture of the Pentax, so add one of these

Photographer3: More detail about the development process

Photographer4: just keep working at processing more film. the more you shoot and process, the more you practice a variety of techniques in the darkroom, the stronger your library of images will become. when people look to a how-to guide, they will look at the photographic outcomes, so a substantial amount and a good variety are key. 

 

From the above feedback I have highlighted in bold the comments which I feel are the most important, I will now discuss why I agree/disagree with their comments. 

 

In response to the first question I asked "Do you think the detail level is enough for an amateur," the general consensus to this was that if you had some knowledge of photography it would be helpful and beginners would need to look up meanings to words. I definitely agree with this and it was suggested to me at the design stage to add text boxes with "tips" in them but I stayed away from this idea as I felt it would ruin the clean and simplistic look that I was aiming for. It was also suggested here that sometimes big processes were brushed over too quickly and more time should have been spent on these, I did already reduce the font size from 14pt to 12pt which gave me an extra 75 words per page but maybe if I had made a 40 page book it would have allowed me to focus on more detail. Another option would be to have focused on one part of the journey if I had made a 20 page book on purely just developing the negatives I could have gone into more information about the chemical reaction that takes place with the chemicals. 

 

Secondly, I asked "Do you like the design choices? What would you change?" It was suggested that I make the process more obvious and clear to the audience, maybe I could have done this by having a grid view with text below each of the images or more of a step by step guide. One of the photographers suggested a block of text may not keep a viewers interest as well as smaller amounts of text maybe in paragraphs. It was also suggested that I include some of the failed prints so the audience would understand more clearly what went wrong, again this would be good however I think it could ruin the clean look.

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I then asked do you think any of the content is too confusing, One of the responses to this was to either outline my feelings or the steps and that doing both makes it more difficult, I sort of agree with this I feel like I would have been able to add more detail if I wasn't recording my problems and thoughts. Although this does defeat the whole object of it being diary style. Another suggestion was that to someone else with less knowledge it could be confusing, to combat this maybe I could have included a glossary at the back. Again mentioned was examples to accompany the text or adding diagrams, this would have been good but more pages would have been necessary for this. 

 

Next, I asked do you think the book has a market. The answers to this were very mixed with some saying yes and no, it would market for a group of people with some basic knowledge but not those wanting to get into this profession. Another said it may work better as an informal blog and that the informal writing style would appeal to a lot of people. I disagree with this because I think that people would buy it as an e-book, but I can see what he means about something like this being available for free on a blog.

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Finally, I asked them if they had any other improvements that they could suggest. The first person suggested adding more pictures that I had taken, this had been suggested by the draft feedback I received too, I would do this if I had more pages. The second person said that we never see a picture of the camera I used so that would have been good, I definitely agree with this and not sure how it was missed. The third person suggested adding more detail about the development process, again I would do this if I had more room or was able to change the style to a complete guide.