Sunday 24 March 2013

Assignment 2

Elements of Design 


This second assignment of the Art of Photography incorporates the insights I have learned so far on the course into a set of 11 photographs directed towards one subject, street scenes, which between them will show the following effects. 
  • Single point dominating the composition 
  • Two points
  • Several points in a deliberate shape 
  • A combination of vertical and horizontal lines
  • Diagonals 
  • Curves
  • Distinct, even if irregular, shapes
  • At least two kinds of implied triangle
  • Rhythm
  • Pattern

My personal brief for this assignment was a set of photographs, incorporating the above requirements, all taken in and around Exeter, Devon. The photographs were taken over a period of two weeks, I was hoping to taken them all in one day, but weather, being either snow, hail or rain all conspired to make it a little longer than I expected.All photographs were taken with a Nikon D300 fitted with either a 18-50mm or 70-300mm lens. 

Single point

This scene of a university student ascending the ramp to Exeter library is an example of a single point dominating the composition. I positioned the student to the left of the frame so that she would be walking into the frame, and the eye is immediately drawn to her. The eye then moves up the diagonal of the ramp and out the shot. Depth of field was not a consideration for this shot, hence the aperture and shutter speed used. Another element to this scene is the diagonals present in the ramp, this is an example of a real diagonal and not a diagonal via perspective as you will see later in this assignment. 

Two points

I was walking past a building site on the outskirts of Exeter when I saw this warning sign placed next to the broken down open door. As soon as I saw it I thought of looking at the warning sign and the open door, thinking whats in there?I framed the photograph so that the warning sign was towards the bottom left of the image. The eye is immediately drawn to the yellow sign and then to the second point of the open door and back again. It poses the same question to the viewer as the one I had ‘What’s inside the door?’I had to walk on to the site to get this photograph, with permission of the foreman, I returned to the same site a few days later only to find all of the buildings had been flattened. Grab the shot while you can! 



Several points in a deliberate shape


Topsham quay is to the south west of the centre of Exeter, as I was walking around there I saw this young boy playing with his bucket, I liked the way the mooring hoops in the wall and the ropes create a shape, albeit a straight line from the bottom of the photograph up towards the boy playing. I framed the shot so that the boy was to the top, so that the eye would be drawn along the wall and hoops towards the top of the frame. I used a small aperture in order to maintain the necessary depth of field throughout the frame.
This again was another overcast day and the colours seem a bit flat due to the grey over cast conditions 


Vertical and horizontals


The old parts of Exeter are a good source of photographs. These steps were just off the street. I decided that a good angle would be taking a photograph, looking up from the steps to the street. 

This was to be a handheld shot as I wanted the photograph to incorporate someone walking past the end of the lane and not be blurred from motion blur as you can see in this photograph it was raining, again. The lane was very dark, and coupled with the white painted shops at the top of the steps, the dynamic range from light to dark made for a tricky exposure. I therefore set the exposure from the lighter areas of the frame, coupled with the ISO of 400 gave me a shutter speed of 1/250, so that the person walking past would be sharp. The area of the steps were underexposed, but this was rectified and lightened in post production, where I also changed it to black and white to the concentrate the attention on the horizontal of the steps, the verticals of the door frame and man with the umbrella.


Diagonals 

In this photograph, the seagulls are lined up on the edge of the quay in centre of Exeter. The angle that the photograph was taken creates the diagonal. Not only has the edge of the quay created a diagonal, but the line of seagulls creates another. 

Diagonals are much easier to create within a photograph, as they depend mostly on viewpoint. As you will remember in the photograph of the of the student ascending the ramp, which was a real diagonal.


Curves

Exeter St Davids railway station, viewed from the Station Road level crossing. 

I took this photograph using a 70-300mm zoom lens looking up the platform, the curves of the platform and railway lines sweep away out of the frame, giving the viewer a sense of movement out of the frame. 
In post production I changed it to black and white in order to take away any distraction of the yellow roof canopy, so that the viewer concentrates on the curves only. 


Distint, even irregular shapes

On the quay I found these rusting old chains and rope tied around a concrete mooring post create good distinct irregular shapes. The different types of metal links present and knots in the rope create interesting shapes for the viewer to look at as they scan around the frame. I used a small depth of field in order to maintain a good depth of field. 

On retrospect I should have used a fill in flash to help lift the colours and fill in the shadows.



Implied triangle 

This photograph of a train departing Exeter St Davids railway station and crossing the River Exe, is an example of an implied triangle.  The bridge and train create the base of the triangle and the spire of St Martins church in the background creates the top. 

I had to boost the ISO as I didn’t have my tripod with me and I wanted to maintain a shutter speed I could hand hold satisfactorily as well maintaining a small enough aperture to give the best depth of field. 


Inverted implied triangle


Whenever I visit Exeter, I always see this AA salesman somewhere in the centre. On this occasion he was outside a well know department store in the High Street. He was leaning up against the glass and looking up and down the street for potential customers. I waited until he was looking to his left and took this photograph. His eye line creates an imaginary line towards the advertisement in the window, this being the base of the triangle and his seat next to him with his jacket draped over, the inverted peak of the triangle. 

I particularly like the fact that the advertisement is for an anti aging product and the AA man may well be looking at the sign! 

Again this was an overcast day and the salesman was stood under and awning outside the shop. I boosted the ISO to 400 in order to take this photograph hand held. 


Rhythm

This old building overlooking the Cathedral green in Exeter is an example of rhythm, on post production I changed it to black & white as it was red brick building and I wanted to keep the scene as plain as I could so that the viewer would concentrate on the rhythm of the windows. 

In rhythm there needs to be a sequence in the picture, so that the eye will follow a direction and experience an optical beat. The repetition of the windows and small trees on the ground floor convey the necessary sequence. 


Pattern
The difference between rhythm and pattern is that rhythm has a movement of the eye across a picture, whereby pattern is essentially static. 

In this photograph of a stone wall to a house, it works strongly as a example of pattern as the bricks fill the frame and suggest to the viewer that they continue will beyond it. The eye is drawn to different parts of the stone wall and scan across it in no particular order. 


Conclusion

I have really enjoyed this part of the course and feel that I’m feeling more comfortable with what is required and the I hope the you can see an improvement in the quality of the images, I can certainly see there is a slight improvement over some the images I submitted for assignment 1.

I am tending to use my camera on manual more often than not and a lot more confident in taking full control of the exposure.

Following the feedback from assignment 1, I have researched more photographers and this has helped me in the preparation of this assignment. This is something I will be doing more of, as I've have really enjoyed looking into the background and works of other photographers. 

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