Art of Photography: Project 20

This project was about the lines in a photograph. Horizontal and vertical lines and how they are seen by the eye, standing out more with more contrast.

The target was to go out and photograph 4 horizontal and 4 vertical lines, whilst trying the make the content subordinate to the line, i.e. the line is the first thing noticed or stands out the most.

As suggested in the project I found that the most common lines were man made structures, both horizontal and vertical. However I was interested to read in the project about other ideas for lines which I hadn't thought or seen, such as shadows, rows of objects making a line, a string of points making a line, and a mass of objects seen from a low angle. These gave me more idea's for lines and geometry which I would like to try out.

I was also interested to read some of the other idea's about lines, such as horizontal lines being seen as static, stable and having weight as they are naturally seen as a base for something to stand on! Whilst vertical lines have more sense of movement, and that parallel verticals in a horizontal frame can have a greater sense of speed and movement.

The project told us to just take pictures of lines first, without reading on, and then told us about other ideas for lines. Whilst I understand the philosophy for that type of learning I would have preferred to have been given the ideas first and then able to go out and see what I could make of them. I feel this would have not only produced much more interesting pictures but also would have felt to me that I'd really learnt something new and interesting, and furthered my photography. Of course I will make an effort to try and remember these and try them out but to have already tried them as part of the project would have been better.

I really find it fascinating to see how the brain works, how the eye sees, and to find aspects of that knowledge which can help create more interesting and intriguing photographs. For instance, the way some drawings with certain geometry and shapes can trick your mind into seeing different things! That is just one aspect but if you could learn and understand how and why the brain and eye sees those things then you can implement them into photography!

Anyway, here are the lines I found whilst out. Like I said, I would have liked to learn the new ideas before going and been able to find more interesting subjects!

Art of Photography: Project 19

This project was about many 'points' in an image and how their relationship and placement creates the overall image and its composition. I had to create a still life with 6 or more objects, adding one at a time and changing the placement and composition as I went along.

I actually found this quite difficult. Maybe my choice of still life wasn't very good or maybe its because I haven't had any practice with building a composition in this way. I found myself trying to create patterns with the objects to make an interesting image, whilst still trying to place them in a way which would look 'normal', i.e. like they could have been scattered there and not carefully placed in a strange arrangement. Maybe the objects themselves weren't interesting enough.

I'm not sure but I found I didn't have many ideas for how to arrange them to make a good picture. I thought the idea was good enough. I am a smoker who is thinking about quitting and finding it hard, although I know its bad for me. I had an idea about trying to show a kind of contradiction or struggle, which represents my own struggle with smoking and that of many others. I was going to use the objects which create the smoking, i.e. cigarette, lighter, ashtray, but also the fight against it as an inhaler and aid for giving up. Actually the way I imagined the idea would still make a good image as I had pictured the scene to be dramatic with strong lighting and camera angles. The trouble here was that this project called for a top down view which didn't match what I had in mind. I think I got confused between an idea that I thought was good but used for a project which didn't really match the idea. It's all learning I guess.


In the first image I simply placed the object off centre towards the golden section.


The second object was placed in the empty space to the left.


The third object is placed upper left at a similar angle to the first. The intersection of object one and three create a frame for object two.


Because the cigarette and lighter are the 'finished article' they are central in the picture and pointing to the elements that made, which are placed around the edge at the 'back' of the image.


Now the ashtray is added and is almost central, with the tobacco and papers etc pointing towards it.


The tobacco and cigarette papers are on the left, the finished cigarette is on the right, both pointing to the inhaler which is center front in the image, the 'aftermath'.


For the final image I had the ashtray almost centered, with the lighter, tobacco, etc, surrounding it. I placed the inhaler and a stop smoking aid at the bottom of the image. I thought it would be good to place the inhaler at an angle to appear like a 'tick' and the stop smoking aid to appear like a 'cross'. The tick and cross show again the struggle - smoking is good, smoking is bad, keep smoking, give up smoking.


This image shows the lines created by the objects. I actually didn't notice some of these until I saw the image on the computer! I understand that often these lines and shapes in photographs can be created subconsciously, but I also know that one thing the course aims to teach is to be able to see this kind of thing when composing an image, before taking a picture, and not rely on the subconscious to get it right! So I hope this is something I improve at soon. The lines created form a frame around the ashtray which is the subject of all the photos, and also line up diagonally across the image.

Art of Photography: Project 18

Project 18 still focused on points as 16 & 17 had, but where as they focused on single points this is about having two points in the image.

When a single point is in the image with nothing else the composition is created by the relationship between the point and the frame, so placement of the point in the frame is all important.

However when there are two points in the frame the composition is created by the relationship between those two points. I learnt that the mind usually has a stronger focus on one of the points, maybe because it is larger or nearer the centre of the frame. The positioning of the points and their size can either balance or unbalance the composition.

On the day I took the images it was very cold and there wasn't much opportunity to capture two points in an image, so the pictures are not great but I still learnt the idea's behind the project.


Here I believe the composition is fairly hard to resolve as both points are in a similar position in the frame and the eye moves between the two, however as the dog is slightly nearer the centre and motion is implied, attention is drawn there a little more.


This is a good example of how the relationship between points can balance the composition. One duck is nearer to the centre of the frame, larger in the frame, and more in focus, so although the viewer sees both ducks attention is drawn to the male.

We were also asked to take an image of a pair of eyes at equal distance from the centre of the frame, and equal size, to see how this can make an uncomfortable position as the viewer cannot resolve the composition.

The mind cannot decide between the two eyes and is not drawn to either. Here I believe the bridge of the nose is also 'dividing' the image.

I also captured a similar image of ducks, where they were both the same size and distance from the centre of the frame. I decided to include it as another example as I believe it shows the same idea as the eye picture.

Art of Photography: Project 17

For project 17 I had to capture three images with a 'Point', having a reason for it's placement in the frame.



Here I chose to place the point small and bottom left in the frame to show the expansiveness of the sky and movement of the plane into it.



Placement here is not so good with hindsight, but it is placed near to the golden section, and I still like the image for a slight feeling of serenity it gives.



This is placed on the golden section as well. After taking this image I realised something that made me laugh. That this is the kind of area I usually place bows when I wrap presents, and that the lines showing the divide would be the same position as ribbon. This made me think of how the golden section is meant to be appealing visually, even sub-consciously, that I did this before I even started photography, and that many other people place it like this too.

Art of Photography: Project 16

Project 16 & 17 focus on 'Points', how they are positioned in the frame and how they divide the frame.

I have learnt that a 'point' is a focal point in the frame which drawers the viewers attention. The smaller an object or subject is in the frame, the more it can be considered a point. Points can also divide the frame so their placement and focus can have a big impact on composition.

For project 16 I had to choose 6 pictures I have already taken with 'points' and look at their placement and how they divide the frame. Also, a point can have a sense of movement depending on its position and relation to the edge of the frame.



The positioning of the gull here gives a very slight sense of movement into the frame, which I think aids the view that the gull is 'gliding'.



Similar to the gull, their is a larger divide on the right of the image which helps to show the heron heading into the picture and movement to the right. The higher and further right placement makes the heron appear higher in the sky and perhaps moving faster.



I like this picture simply because I remember how fast the ducking was shooting across the water to reach his mum. It was almost like he was gliding on top of the water. Here the duckling in centered horizontally in the frame which I felt helped show the direct route 'through' the water to his goal.



Being an early picture (before I started the course) this one didn't have too much thought for composition and the subject could have been placed better.



This earlier image of a Poppy shows how when a subject gets larger it is less of a point. Also the point is very near to the centre of the frame and doesn't add much to the composition of the photograph.



The placement of the point to the right and higher in the frame, together with the trails, show the subject heading off out of the frame and downstream. The large and uninteresting divide to the left, however, I feel is probably too big and ruins the photograph.

Art of Photography: Assignment 1 - Final Categories for Submission

The final categories I have chosen for submission are as follows:-

Heavy/Light
Large/Small
Black/White
Hard/soft
Diagonal/Rounded
Liquid/Solid
Many/Few
Still/Moving
Strong/Weak

Art of Photography: Assignment 1 - Diagonal/Rounded

I quite enjoyed this category. I decided to base it on football, focusing on the goal for the diagonal image and the ball for the rounded image.

For the 'Diagonal' image my idea was to show the diagonal of the goal structure prominent in the frame, with blurred action in the background. I wanted the blurred action to show it was a football match but with the main focus on the frame of the goal. This I felt I achieved quite well, using a wide aperture to blur the players and capturing a suitable 'action' shot. However I was unsure how well the goal frame shows the 'diagonal' theme.

For the 'Rounded' image I simply wanted to capture an interesting action shot with the football featuring very prominently in the frame. Ideally I hoped this would be very dynamic with the football heading towards or close to the camera, so it was very large in the frame, and players again in the background. This proved quite difficult as the very limited lighting limited me to slower shutter speeds. Even with the aperture at its widest and ISO at its highest I could only get 1/60 or 1/80th of a second. This meant any time I tried to get the image I wanted the photograph was too blurred as the ball was invariably moving very fast. The high ISO also meant the images had a fair amount of noise. In the end the images which I felt I could select from were not quite as dynamic and still a little blurred.

However I did really enjoy photographing a sport which I love and would like to try this again on another day, perhaps with better lighting so I could capture much sharper images.

Diagonal

Image taken at f/2.8, 1/80 sec, ISO-1600 and 100mm.

Rounded

Image taken at f/2.8, 1/80 sec, ISO-1600 and 100mm.