Friday, October 3, 2008
Week 5 Assignment #1 other types of composition
After reading quite a few interviews and looking at a variety of sites along with some of my books at home, I decided that this site has information that is helpful in regard to composition, but does not 'talk over your head' so to speak. http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/ One section is about the use of lines, horizontal, vertical and diagonal. I chose to paste the diagonal since I thought it was the most interesting and to me has an artistic flare to it in relation to the type of photo one is doing. The second article is about children. I noticed that a few of us have pictures of children and one of my favorite photographers is Anne Geddes. Hence the composition tips on children (which I found some information I did not think about). The final tip has to do with landscape. Again a common theme that I have noticed in our postings is that of landscape and thought that the tips would be helpful in stepping our work up a notch. Within it you will notice mentioned framing and rule of three. The links should work to go to the site. Click on the heading and it should bring you to the page, where you can see examples of photos regarding the types of composition! (The articles below are from that site, they are not written by me).
(Due to the size of the articles and proportion of assignments on the blog, I took the copied articles off and instead left the links to bring you to the article and the photo examples - thus saving some room under the Week 5 blog).
Using Diagonal Lines in Photography
Diagonal lines generally work well to draw the eye of an image’s viewer through the photograph. They create points of interest as they intersect with other lines and often give images depth by suggesting perspective....(see rest of article at link provided above).
Photographing Children - Composition
...probably the most important tip I’ve learned in photographing them is to get on their level. So many of my friends show me photos of their kids which are taken from 4 or so feet above the child which does nothing but dwarf them and make them look almost toy-like.
Getting on your hands and knees or crouching down before you take a shot of a child takes you into their world and helps you to engage with them through the images you take.... (click on lick above for rest of article).
4 Rules of Composition for Landscape Photography
Photography Monthly Magazine (UK) had a useful feature on landscape photography in their April 2007 edition. As part of it they had a page outlining four basic compositional rules that can be used when framing landscape images.
1. Diagonal Lines
2. Geometric Shapes
3. The Rule of Thirds
4. Framing Images
Rules are Made to Be Broken?
Of course while knowing the rules can be important - knowing when to use them and when to break them is a talent that great photographers generally have.
Let me finish with a quote about Rules of Photography from Photographer Edward Weston to help give us a little balance on the topic:
“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection.”
(Due to the size of the articles and proportion of assignments on the blog, I took the copied articles off and instead left the links to bring you to the article and the photo examples - thus saving some room under the Week 5 blog).
Using Diagonal Lines in Photography
Diagonal lines generally work well to draw the eye of an image’s viewer through the photograph. They create points of interest as they intersect with other lines and often give images depth by suggesting perspective....(see rest of article at link provided above).
Photographing Children - Composition
...probably the most important tip I’ve learned in photographing them is to get on their level. So many of my friends show me photos of their kids which are taken from 4 or so feet above the child which does nothing but dwarf them and make them look almost toy-like.
Getting on your hands and knees or crouching down before you take a shot of a child takes you into their world and helps you to engage with them through the images you take.... (click on lick above for rest of article).
4 Rules of Composition for Landscape Photography
Photography Monthly Magazine (UK) had a useful feature on landscape photography in their April 2007 edition. As part of it they had a page outlining four basic compositional rules that can be used when framing landscape images.
1. Diagonal Lines
2. Geometric Shapes
3. The Rule of Thirds
4. Framing Images
Rules are Made to Be Broken?
Of course while knowing the rules can be important - knowing when to use them and when to break them is a talent that great photographers generally have.
Let me finish with a quote about Rules of Photography from Photographer Edward Weston to help give us a little balance on the topic:
“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection.”
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Week 5 Assignment #2 Rule of Three
Due to the weather and tight schedule this week, my photos were limited to indoor still life shots, with that said - here goes: In regard to the Teapot and the Chef shot I found that when centering an object that the eye immediately focuses on the object at certain point and does not go outside of that area to take notice of anything outside of that object, what is within the background is within the background and of particular note I thought 'hey that is wasted space' not only on an artistic level, but on a basic level that made the photo not have much impact - in other words BORING. When the object was moved from the center point (using the rule of three/third) the teapot and chef were still the 'highlight' of the photo, however a visual path was created toward it which gave significance to the background and objects in it - it gave it POP. The photos became visually stimulating since the brain has to work a little more in seeing where the focal point is located - as opposed to the instant gratification of the object being center point and not having to work (following visual path) for the gratifying moment of realization which makes it bland and not memorable. Make sense? Kind of like the first few bites of food taste the best, but then after the flavor is no longer interesting - as a chef would say it's all about the presentation ~ :0) (and hey look at that there's that visual punch again)!
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