Project 30

Colour control

This project shows the effect that the exposure will have on colour.

For this, I used a piece of blue coloured card as I found it was easier to see the effect if no other colours were present.

I set the camera on manual and set the aperture to f 8. Having found that the shutter speed should be at 1/25 s, I then changed the aperture to f 5.6, keeping the shutter speed at 1/25 s.

 I then took another four shots, changing the aperture for each shot and keeping the shutter speed the same.

Although I have always known that changing the exposure would make an image darker or lighter, however, by using a single colour, it has become obvious just how much the colour changes.

Just to look a little further, I opened the darker and lighter ones in my image editing software and noticed that the amount of red, green and blue changed quite a lot.

The lightest image below (at f 5.6) has 130 red, 190 green and 220 blue, whereas the darkest (at f 16) has 22 red, 55 green and 70 blue.

Looking at RGB values (256 colours), Black has 0 for each of R, G, and B, whereas White has 255 of each. A pure blue would be 255 blue, 0 green and 0 red, showing that the light blue is not pure blue. The bottom image is one that I have artificially created, and is pure blue.

 

Project 29

Applying the elements of design

The elements of design section has been very difficult to comprehend, which has been discussed during the previous projects.

I think the whole concept of implied shapes depends very much on the person viewing them, and the fact that I have drawn lines on the first picture shows that I am certain that if I didn’t draw the viewers eye to the implied diagonals, they wouldn’t be seen!

I have given some brief descriptions to the pictures to help anybody viewing them to see what I see…………….!

Diagonals

 

Horizontal and vertical. Upright tree contrasts with the horizontal hedging.

Distinct shape

 

Curves

Two points. The two flowers dominate the otherwise uninteresting background.

Single point. The single purple centre stands out from the array of white flowers

Pattern

Rhythm. The repeating rhythm of the leaves and flowers but horizontally and vertically

Implied triangle formed by the converging angles of the tree taken from below

Several points in a deliberate shape

 

Implied triangle formed by the three yellow flowers

Project 28

Rhythms and patterns

Rhythm is effectively a sequence of recurring elements in a predictable sequence. This first shot shows a rhythm in the arches, the buttresses and the small windows at the top.

Pattern is a sequence of recurring elements, not necessarily the same, in a more random sequence.

The difference between these two design feature is that with rhythm, the viewers eye will travel along the sequence of elements, whereas with a pattern, the eye tends to move about the picture more haphazardly, picking out each element as it goes.

Project 27

Real and implied circles

Here we have to include 4 photographs with at least 2 from “the textbook” having implied circles.

The first two pictures are organised around circles, but when examining rectangles it was realised that if the camera was not straight on to the subject, the rectangles were not completely square. The same applies to circles, and the first two shots are actually ellipses rather than circles. I’m not sure whether this matters in respect of this project

 

This third shot was taken directly up a large chimney in an iron smelting kiln. The brickwork is in a perfect circle as is the grill at the top of the chimney. Not a very imaginative shot, but demonstrates a circle.

The fourth shot is of a sculpture called “The Sphere”, which was a perfect sphere in the World Trade Centre intended to symbolise World Peace until it sustained damage during the 911 attack.

For those that haven’t read project 25.5, I have included my two chosen ones at the bottom.

 

Project 26

Real and implied triangles

Before reading this project, make sure you have looked at project 25.5 first!!!!!!!!!!!

Real

I can do real.

Here the brief was to produce three photographs one of a subject that is triangular, one of a triangle produced by perspective with the apex at the top, and one of a triangle produced by perspective with the apex at the bottom.

The first is of a church spire, which is, in itself triangular. This is helped by the walls forming a triangular shape by perspective due to the camera being pointed upwards.

 

The second is a tower block that would be normally square, but as the shot is taken from very low down looking almost vertically upright, the square tower appears to be triangular.

 

To get a perspective shot with the apex at the bottom could be achieved by taking a shot from high up looking down a building (the reverse of the previous shot) I decide to keep my feet firmly on the ground, and took this show of roof rafters receding into the distance creating a triangle with the apex at the bottom.

 

Implied

If you have read Project 25.5, You’ll know I have some difficulty in believing implied shapes are anything other than an individuals imagination, but the first two parts of this project simply require me to place six objects in a still life arrangement to produce a triangle with the apex at the top. Well, even I can manage that. Everyone knows that six items form a triangle if arranged 3, 2  and 1.

The next part is to produce another still life, with 6 objects and the apex at the bottom. I resisted the urge to move to the other side of the table and take the same shot upside down! I also resisted the far stronger urge to simply print the picture upside down, and instead opted for re-arranging all the fruit so that it formed an inverse triangle.

 

The final part of the implied shapes is to arrange three people in a group picture in such a way that their faces or lines of their bodies form an implied triangle. You can take this one as far as you like, but my implied triangle is in the fact that the centre head is taller than the two outer heads.

 

Pre Project 26 and 27

Implied shapes

I have read and re-read these items, and have also researched the subject, and have come to two conclusions.

1) I have either no imagination, or too much imagination.

2) Implied shapes in any picture are not real. They only exist in the imagination of the person viewing the picture, and in that respect, the idea that one person can take a picture with a particular implied shape in mind and expect another person to see the same shape is, I believe, flawed. It all depends upon the individuals imagination.

As examples, I have taken two pictures of my own choice from “the textbook” as advised in project 27. The task is to select implied circles.

The first is of a group of singers taken by Russell Lee in 1940.

I first chose this as I could see an implied circle in the shot as outlined in red below. It was the curve of the tallest singers arms that led me to this.

However, looking again at the picture, I could see, instead of a circle, an implied triangle prompted by a line from the same singers elbow to her finger and the songbook, so I marked this in red also

Having thought this was confusing, I removed the red triangle, looked again, only to be confronted by an implied rectangle! In fact, there are at least two implied rectangles, because the taller singer could represent an upright rectangle herself.

  

So…, only slightly confused at this point, I decided to look at another picture. This time it was one taken by Peter H. Emerson taken in 1888, only 121 years ago.

The whole group and the scythe created, I thought, a good implied circle, so I drew it.

 

Unfortunately, I thought more about this and thought that the two people on the left created a nice implied rectangle, so I drew that one!

Sometimes you just can’t leave things alone can you? Doesn’t the centre man make an implied triangle in his own right?

But hold on a minute…, that scythe has a line in the handle that leads to the top of the centre man’s head, and then his arm (and his implied line of sight) leads down to the right man’s hand, and guess what…, if I now connect these up I have yet another implied triangle!!!!

I really believe that I could analyse almost every picture and find lots of implied shapes, and if I can, then so can anybody else, so if I try to adopt these implied thingy's into my compositions, there is a great risk that only I will see the intended implication, and that other people will see implications that were not intended.

This all leaves me with confusion, or is it an implication of confusion???