Exercise: A sequence of composition

The purpose behind this exercise is to make you think about the practical purposes of composing an image whilst keeping your eye to the viewfinder. I decided to shoot a scene outside one of my local cafes - I had to be quite mindful though of the actual people sitting outside, so I tried my best with about 10 shots.

Photograph 1  Wide angel view of cafe

Here I wanted to capture the people sitting outside on the pavement.  I was not thinking too much about the composition but just viewing the scene through the viewfinder to see what caught my eye. 

Photograph 2

I moved in slightly and shot the mid scene.  It was at this point, when I realised I should have probably had my settings on aperture priority or on automatic. I was still wondering what to focus in on. A group of women in the far right hand corner caught my eye.

Photograph 3

I thought I could compose a shot out of the group of women in the background -  I later cropped this shot - unfortunately I could not get closer in without attracting too much attention to myself.

Photographs 4 - 7

I then moved to the centre of the pavement and decided that I would focus on the woman in the foreground with the tan jacket.  I took about 5 shots, and after printing these, I decided that they produced the most interesting focus - the final photo of the hands and mobile being the tighest framing.

I decided to have another go at this exercise and took some shots at a busy Sunday market.  It was slightly easier this time, I was a little bit more inconsipcuous.

In the series of photographs here, the stall owner is having a dialouge with a customer. I took a wide angel view of the scene and then a few mid shots and finally zoomed in on the father and son who had been at the stall.   I quite like my final shot, eventhough it is a bit blurred.

In conculsion, this exercise highlighted the importance of actually "moving" around your potential subject to explore the best composition.  I had to force myself to keep the viewfinder up to my eye.  I may try this exercise with a landscape - just ro reinforce the principles here. 

Exhibitions

Today, I had the opportunity to visit the Auckland Musuem which was hosting the National Geographic Wildlife Photography Exhibition.  It was amazing to see some of the incredible shots, the photographers must dedicate a large part of their lives to waiting for the exact moment to capture life through the lens.

The centre photograph of the pelicans covered in oil from an oil spill was the overall winner. It was very moving and certainly highlights this sort of tradegy which happens all too often.

Exercise: Object in different positions in the frame

The idea is to think about the "purpose" behind the placement of the subject in the frame. As Freeman states (1)..."placing the subject anywhere but in the natural position (ie the centre of the frame for most people) needs a reason".

The exercise required 4 photographs to be taken of a subject within a large, even background. I had an idea of a statue @ the Auckland Museum - the only drawback was I also had a tree in the viewfinder. However, I thought the challenge here was to learn about placement and how to frame a subject - I want to be able to do this in any situation, so I perservered with my chosen subject.

Photograph 1 -

I took this shot without thinking too much about placement. When I considered the series of shots, I felt that this shot did  not work because of the position of the large tree on the right hand side.  I could have shot this from the otherside, but I was presented with the same problem, buildings and trees in the background. This is my least favourite.

Photograph 2 centre

I stepped back a bit, and framed the statue slightly better in the viewfinder, albeit, in the centre. I am reasonably happy with this shot because  the top of the statue represents the top of a triangle and the tree which was bothering me in the earlier image, does not usurp the view as much. Freeman, points out that generally a placement in the centre is too stable, it does not have any dynamic tension and some off centeredness is required to set up a relationship between the subject and its background (2)

Photograph 3 to the right

I wanted to see if I could create a feeling that the bird was flying into the frame. The statue was on a hill, so I have a bit of a diagonal from the left, and I placed the statue to the right to set this off.  I think I have too much foreground in this shot though.

Photograph 4 to the left

I placed the statue to the left.   Again, I think the large tree ruins the shot.  There is possibly movement from the left to the right - a diagonal from the tail of the statue crossing to the lower right hand corner. I do feel as if the bird is flying in from the left and is on a journey through the frame.

I took some vertical shots of the statue - on reflection, I think the horizontal frame works best because the statue needs some of its surroundings to make sense of the movement through the frame.

I have been reflecting on the differences between the placement of a subject in the viewfinder and what "composition" means.  Hopefully, I will touch on this more - from some of the photograhpic journals I have read so far, "framing" has almost nothing to do with "compositon".  I hope to explore this further, as I progess to achieving my "photographer's eye".

(1) (2) Freem, Michael, (2007). The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos, The Ilex Press

Exercise: Fitting the frame to the subject

Looking through the viewfinder:

The object of the first exercise, is to highlight one's  awareness of looking through the viewfinder. The viewfinder or the frame in the camera is the equivalent of a blank canvas.  In the preface "Looking through the viewfinder"   we are asked to raise the camera and look around the room with it - keeping the images in focus.  Once the shutter is squeezed that image transcends to a photograph. The discussion in the materials  interestingly points out that many people, when asked to do this, find nothing special to view/photograph.  In the early stages of photography it is quite a skill to be immediately able to use the viewfinder as an extension of the eye.   This is correct for me, I still find that composing an image is a cognative struggle.  One of my goals in this course is to change this approach and to train one's eye to see and evaluate potential pictures anywhere. 

Exercise 1: Fitting the frame to the subject

The first exercise challenges our perception of the "frame", as Freeman states(1)  the frame plays a dynmaic role in the composition of a photograph and the process of photography is one of selection from real scenes and the influence of the viewfinder should not be underestimated.

We were asked to take photographs of something compact in shape with a view to experimenting  and  placing the image in the frame.   I decided on a local fountain at Mission Bay and was interested to see how I could present or fit the image into the frame. 

Photograph 1  conventional view

My aim was to approach the subject and compose an image without too much thought. I took the standard shot of the fountain in the centre of the frame. It is quite an unremarkable shot, the best thing about this image, is the peep of sunlight in the upper left corner. I quite like the diagonal too which starts in the bottom left hand corner.

 Photograph 2 placing the subject within the landscape

I sort of struggled to find a different perspective from the first photograph.  I have tried to impart a vision of a fountain in a park, ie, placing the image in the landscape.

 Photograph 3 - shot to fit the frame

I closed in a bit on the image of the fountain to get the subject fitting tightly into the fram. Again, on reflection, there still isn't much difference between the three first shots. They are simply photographs of fountain in a park. This is the lawyer in me.. maybe Iam missing something, and this to me is the most important point of participating in the course.....to gain a "photographer's eye". 

 Photograph 4 cropped so edges visible

I framed a tighter shot with no edges visible and my gaze is drawn to the centre of the fountain - where the serpants and inner fountain are the dominant features.

Photograph 5 Vertical shot of one part of the fountain

This is my favourite image, I prefer the vertical arrangment. The contex is still very clear, i.e, that this is an image of a fountain. 

Photograph 6 fountain occupying a small part of the frame

This image shows the fountain in the distance, as it disappears in the park surroundings. It is not quite clear whether this is an image of the foreground with the seagulls as a focal point or not. For me this image does not work.

When I printed the results, I realised that photograph 1 and photograph 2 are very similar in the frame. I am not sure how else to have photographed the fountain in the landscape.  One possibility would have been to move slightly further away, and try and get more of the park setting in the background but then I would have ended up with an image similar to the final photograph.

In conculsion

This exercise has increased my awareness of the  space surrounding the subject as I have tried to  fit the subject to the frame. My favourite images are Photograph 4, the cropped version showing no edges and Photograph 5 the vertical image of part of the fountain.  I think both of these images are far more interesting because they do not tell the whole story, they draw the viewer into the photographs. There is a tension of dynamics in "4", a triangle or pryamid, caused by the spray of the fountain dissecting the image and from its top point, you can imagine diagonals coming down from each side to form a pryamid. I might be talking a load of rubbish, but this is what I see at this point in time.  I like the compact space of "5" and feel as if there is circular movement in this image.

NB:On further reflection..the fountain may not have been a "compact" enough subject - tomorrow I plan to shoot something more solid at the Auckland Museum.

(1)Freeman,Michael, (2007). The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos, The Ilex Press @ p9,

Exercise: Panning with different shutter speeds

Rather than keep the camera static, this exercise required the photographer to follow the moving subject.  The object was to show how panning can freeze the moving subject whilst achieving a background blur.  I chose the same setting as the previous exercise, but this time I tried to capture  the moving wheels of a bicycle. I have only got the one zoom lens at the moment, I began with an aperture of f4 (the widest aperture) and the fastest shutter speed of 8000.   Throughout the exercise, I adjusted the aperture to compensate for the slower shutter speed, and exposure to more light.

Photographs 1, 2 and 3, show the image as sharply frozen. Arguably, there is the tiniest fraction of blurring or softening of the background in photographs 4 and 5.   I think the image takes on more noticeable motion in photographs 6 and 7.  My favourite however, is photograph 8, at 20 seconds. This captures the speed at which my son was riding his bike and I think there is harmony in this image - the subject is momentarily frozen, and when I look at this, I can feel the breeze through the wheel spokes of the bike.

Photograph 1    f4 1/8000 ISO 400

 Photograph 2  f4 1/3200 ISO 400

Photograph 3 f5 1/1000 ISO 400

Photograph 4 f5 1/640 ISO 400

 Photograph 5 f5 1/400 ISO 400

 Photograph 6 f13 1/100 ISO 400

Photograph 7 f16 1/60 ISO 400

Photograph 8 f16 1/20 ISO 400

 Photograph 9 f16 1/8 ISO 400

 Photograph 10 f 22  1/4 ISO 400

Photograph 11 f22 0.4 ISO 400

I like the artistic appearance of photographs 9 and 10, and photograph 11 at shutter speed of 0.4 looses the subject completely

Exercise: Photographing movement - shutter speeds - manual

The aim of the this exercise was to highlight the differences in shutter speed when capturing movement.  You can freeze an image with a fast shutter speed or use a low speed to achieve a motion blur which may give an added impression of movement. (As demonstrated below, in the latter shots).

The exercise called for 10 - 12 photographs to be taken, ranging from the highest shutter speed to the lowest.  When I did this exercise, I had to manage the failing light outside, so I kept my aperture wide at F4, and had to raise the ISO to 6400.  My images were therefore grainy. My camera's highest shutter speed is 1/8000 but I started at 1/1600 because of the failing light.   I the  found this a useful, exercise, as  it helped to consolidate my knowledge so far about the three elements which affect the digital film (Aperture/Shutter Speed/ISO).

Photograph 1: f4 1/1600 ISO 6400 freezes motion

Photograph 2 f4 1/160 ISO 6400

Photograph 3 f4 1/100 ISO 6400

Photograph 4 f4 1/50 ISO6400

Photograph 5 f4 1/30 ISO 6400

Photograph 6 f4 1/15 ISO 6400

Photograph 7 f4 1/10 ISO 4000

Photograph 8 f4 1/8 ISO 4000

photograph 9 f4 1/6 ISO 4000

photograph 10 f4 1/5 ISO 4000

The first photograph, shows how a fast shutter speed (1/1600) freezes motion.   There was a noticeable difference in the blurring of motion around 1/125.. but more noticeably with the shutter speed at 1/100.   I particularly like the artistic blur of the the last two photographs.. and because I had dropped the shutter speeds considerably, I was able to lower the ISO to 4000.  My son actually looks like he is moving across the screen. I found the fast shutter froze the action but it did not give me the sense of any movement, I much prefer the blur of motion which the lower shutter speeds captures.

I will repeat this exercise, with more available daylight and see if I can achieve more clarity with a lower ISO.