LO2 coherently present a body of work, making creative presentation decisions that complement your subject and/or your artistic strategies.

Process of revising images & creating complimentary presentation for final SYP output – Photobook

I had a clear concept in mind- A woodland community as a model for inclusive harmonious behaviour. Through my various stages of editing my Body of Work images for each photograph, I asked ‘how does this relate to my concept?

Part 1: Transforming BOW images into a coherent series of images

(See final Pdfs book proofs sent to printer at bottom of post)

I began by editing my BOW images for SYP. I asked my peers for their input as well. Peer critique session 24.2.24

Brief for peers and their comments:

Editing board shared with peers:

Outcomes: They suggested I exchange 2 images for those with extra dimensions of woodland for context. I asked their thoughts about the ‘signposting’ in the work & consensus was that it was the right level. They thought my reworked ‘footnote’ images didn’t need any changes. They are now more consistent than before (lighting/perspective). I fed their review ideas into my next editing decisions:

Bow images chosen after editing for SYP:

I revisited the ‘footnote images to try the definitions off of the borders of the footnotes:

Part 2: Presenting the body of work images with complimentary text and book design

Following this and photobook research I revised the sequencing for the book layout. I wanted a rhythm and a tempo, with quieter images punctuating the ‘louder’ images; a sequence for my narrative.

A mock up of book sizes drove my choice of book size: 260mm x 210mm to echo my 5:4 images, and to accommodate the size of the ‘footnote’ images (2 a page).

From here I created and revised book dummies (using Blurb self publisher only to produce PDF review purposes).

Book dummy version 1:

Resulting changes:

• Moved poem to the back of the book.
• Changed black text on green background to off white
• Lined couplet start points up
• Took borders off of images and put text in wrapped text beside them to place vertically
• Changed ‘footnote’ label to constituents.
• Changed section break background colour to green

Book Dummy version 2

Changes for Book Dummy 3:

• Title in bold
• Changed font
• Changed position of text on cover

Book Dummy version 3

I shared this version with my tutor, and asked:

• Should I have an image on the front cover? A. Can leave without
• Are font sizes correct? Advised to keep font as small as readable, will look professional. Great tip & enabled me to reduce the font size of some of the text- done
• Can I mix fonts headings/subheadings/text? -Took advice to use the same throughout

Also discussed & made some of these revisions in my final book CRS Padlet output 1:

• make cover margin at bottom larger than top & move text in a little- Done
• Realign text and try Futura font. I realigned but decided against futura font, I don’t like the’?’ & have alot of them.
• Chose Calibri light as (similar to futura), Tutor recommended light
• Do I need the Introduction heading? Check other’s books – Done I changed the heading from ‘introduction’ to ‘Preface’
• Use thirds to place on page, imagine a 3×3 grid on a page and position elements in the centre box then move a bit upwards eg. p11 -done
• Make page margins smaller- and text wider -done
• Page 11 couplets move text lower to 1/3s -done
• Is subheading, ‘constituents’ too political/formal? – I changed to ‘residents’
• Footnotes: consider realigning – done
• Think about how the book will look when pages turn, ensure that all text has the same bottom margin -done
• Justify to the left, not ‘blocking – done
• leave more space at bottom of page than top, like a polaroid photo -done
• Make text 85% black only. This doesn’t conflict with the black in the images and makes the images ‘pop’. I adjusted to 88% black as advised by the printer – done

I revised the previous 3rd draft as above using affinity software with my chosen publisher Exwhyzed.

Final book PDFs:

The revisions I made with creative/artistic choices using feedback and personal reflection took many hours but resulted in a book which complemented the images, set off the narrative of the project and enabled my final outcomes.