Assignment 1

Contrasts

The object of this assignment is to create pairs of photographs each depicting a contrast with the other one in the pair.

 

Many

Few

 

 

Liquid

Solid

 

 

Transparent

Opaque

 

 

  High

Low

 

 

 

Dark

Light

 

Curved

Straight

 

Smooth

Rough

 

 

Continuous

Intermittent

 

 

The final part of the assessment was to take an image that contained two of the contrasts in one image.

Black and White

Project 15

Cropping 

Cropping of pictures can be used to remove unwanted or distracting elements of the picture. It can also change the whole view of the picture to give balance or emphasize an element that was maybe lost on the original image.

I took this first shot of a penguin that had been injured and had both its feet bandaged. I didn’t have much time to compose the shot, and ended up with the penguin representing less than a quarter of the shot. The rest of the shot is fairly uninteresting. With all the other distractions in the picture, it is not obvious that the penguin was injured.

By cropping out a lot of the background, I have effectively turned the shot from a landscape to a portrait image, and now, the penguin is the centre of attention, and  without the visual distractions, it is much more obvious that it has two bandaged feet.

 

In this shot of Sydney Harbour Bridge, you will see that there are the tops of some railings in the foreground, and a boat or something just out on the water in the midground. In some shots, this might help the viewer to gauge the distance, but in this shot, they are just ugly distractions.

By Cropping the photograph below, the bridge is now visible without the distractions.

The final example is a shot I took of a small boat. When I took the shot, I though the reflection was quite a nice touch (and I still do!)

 

I cropped this in order to divide the shot into two separate diagonal sections with the boat and mooring line running from the bottom right corner of the shot, and the bow (pointy end) in the top left corner. Not sure this is a particularly good crop as it seems to have a lot of nothing in the top right part of the picture.

 

Project 10

Focal Lengths and different viewpoints 

This project examines the difference made by taking the same shot, but with different focal lengths, and the effect it has on perspective.

I started by finding a suitable subject that I could photograph using the same viewpoint, but where I could move forward to the subject as I altered the focal length of the camera. (Moving forward was necessary to continue to fill the frame with the subject as the focal length changed.)

Notice on this first shot, at focal length 300mm, the relationship between the barn, the wall in front, and in particular, the distance there seems to between each and the barn.

What has happened is that the zoom lens has “squeezed” the distance so that both the tree and the front wall appear quite close to the barn.

As I moved in to the subject and changed the focal length to 210mm, the barn remain the same size, but the tree has got smaller, and the wall slightly bigger. 

Moving in closer still, using a focal length of 85mm, the barn is still the same size, but the tree has got much smaller, and the wall slightly bigger. The reason that the tree and wall are not changing size at the same rate is because the actual distance between them and the barn is not the same amount. The tree is actually further from the barn, and therefore the perspective changes at a different rate.

The final shot, at 40mm, still shows the barn at the same size, but now notice the wall. The front edge of the wall looks much close to the camera than the barn. The tree is now not visible, because as I got closer, the tree gradually receded behind the barn.

Project 11

Balance

To help me with this project, I found the following web site.

http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better_photographic_composition_balance.html

It helped to understand that balance can both be symmetrical and non symmetrical. Symmetrical balance would have equal parts to the left and the right (or top and bottom). If you took a persons portrait with the person central, and folded it in half down the middle, when opened out again, each half would have identical parts. Each would have an eye, an ear, and half a mouth and half a nose.

In the picture below, the couple and the window are a pleasing placement, and a nice touch is the way the leaves at the top left are balanced by the similar leaves in the bottom right.

The next picture is not symmetrical, however, the large head on the left takes up a larger part of the photograph, whereas the small child takes a proportionately smaller part of the photograph.

Now to some of my own pictures. The balance to the right of each picture shows how I think the elements are arranged with each other.

The first is very symmetrical (if you ignore the drainpipe!),and shows precisely that each side is identical to the other.

The next picture is a little less obvious, but I think that the land mass in the lake is balanced by the log and tree in the foreground.

I think that in the next picture, the large tree on the left balances the mountains on the right. Also, the wall appearing larger on the right helps give weight to that side. Next is an obviously symmetrical view. Not only left to right, but also top to bottom. The Different shaped central point adds to the balance with the other elements radiating out from it. In this next shot, the large tower on the right is a vertical shape and although off to one side, it is balanced by the horizontal section of the rest of the building.

This next shot is a little more difficult to define, but the few heavier arches at the top right are well balanced by the size and quantity of lighter arches bottom left.

Project 8

This project is about recording a sequence of shots leading up to the final composition.

The project suggested a situation involving people out on the street. I tried this, but the situations where I tried gave disappointing results particularly as I had a lot of difficulty understanding exactly what I was trying to achieve.

After the sad examples of about 20 shots of people, I thought I would try something different whilst at the same time examining what I thought to be the purpose of the project.

I decided to take a subject, a disused railway viaduct in my village, and walk around the village composing shots from different viewpoints to attempt to make, what was a pretty uninteresting subject, into an interesting composition.

As I took the shots, I was aware of other factors that were spoiling the composition. Things like trees, buildings, posts, telephone and electric cables, cars, caravans, to say nothing of my own inadequacies!

It would be nice to photograph the viaduct as it perhaps would have been before all the new technological advances were built around it.

As the experiment developed I decided to try to use some of the distractions to enhance, rather than spoil, the shot, and the final image was one I was quite pleased with.

Nice setting, but the farm buildings distract the view from the subject.

Closer in to the viaduct. The buildings, an electricity cable, satellite dish and rear end of a car spoil it.

I just couldn’t get into a position to avoid the buildings, post, cables and the trunk of a tree.

Finally got away from buildings and cables,but ended up with a rather dark shot that just looks like some arches in a wooded area. Doesn’t really do the viaduct justice.

I moved over to the other side of the viaduct and got a better composition, but still had a pole with a cable attached, and some chimney pots in the foreground. Getting better though.

A bit closer in and still on the other side, and now have masses of cables, a post, and now the roof of a caravan. It is beginning to feel like there is no place to take a shot without the distractions.

I almost got an unobstructed view, however I either had the roof of the building, or a cable just above. I could have zoomed in, but then I lost some of the effect of the arches. Of course, I could amend it to crop out the building, but that isn’t the point of the exercise.

Moving further along, I began to get buildings back into the shot

More buildings!!

I could have lost these building, but only by getting an awful lot of sky. Anyway, there isn’t much of the viaduct in evidence, and the shot is quite dark. Must remember to check my exposure.

Luckily, digital SLR’s let you preview, so I could adjust the exposure. Other than having a better exposure, the shot is the same as the one before.

I moved along to remove the buildings from the foreground, only to find that there was now a caravan site and another building spoiling the shot. Still having trouble with the exposure, as the sun keeps appearing and then disappearing again.

So I adjusted and took the shot again

I may be getting somewhere as I managed a fairly good shot of the viaduct which shows the arches diminishing as it recedes into the distance. The caravan site is camouflaged by the trees, but still visible

I quite like this one. There are still some buildings visible and also some cables through one of the arches, but the symmetry of the arches make a pleasing shot.

Having thought about the symmetrical aspect of the viaduct, I shifter along slightly so that I got three complete arches instead of the two and two halves. I think that the previouls shot is better because it seems to indicate that there is more to the viaduct than can be seen. The one of three complete arches doesn’t give any feeling that there is any more to it.

Adding a bit more and making it three plus arches doesn’t help at all, and makes the shoot look unbalanced

Finally, having walked around the entire viaduct, I took this shot which I think really shows it at it’s best. There are enough hidden arches to leave you with the feeling that there is more to it. The wall in the foreground gives depth to the view, and the trees provide more interest and create a nice frame for the view. If you look carefully, there is still one chimney in the right arch, and a hint of a caravan under the left arch, but there is enough else of interest to make these inconsequential.