The Frame; Project – Cropping and Extending; Exercise 14 – Cropping

This exercise (14) in the OCA’s Art of Photography is concerned with cropping and how it might be used in design decisions post image capture.  Three images have been selected for this exercise.  Each pair of images is preceded by a short commentary on why I have selected the particular crop.  The first image is the uncropped image and the second of the pair the cropped version.

The first image is of a set of organ pipe worms.  These creatures are very sensitive to vibrations and disappear at the slightest disturbance.  It can be seen that in the original image the trio of worms is towards the right of the frame.  The crop corrects this and emphasises the triangular composition that I was trying to capture.  The image was shot in an Ikelite housing with a Nikkor 60mm macro lens.

 

The second image is of a Moray eel with its mouth open to allow water flow over its gills – to breathe.  The original image was horizontal and it was only after I captured the image that I realised that a vertical framing would have been more effective.  The crop is the original picture proportion oriented vertically.  The image was made with a Canon s95 in a Canon housing.

 

The third image is of two crabs with a more subtle crop than the previous two to remove part of the image immediately above the carapace and below the claws to emphasise the horizontal dimensions of the two crabs.  The image was originally captured in Raw with a 60mm Nikkor lens.

 

This has been a curious exercise.  As my formative photography years were with 35mm film cameras the idea of cropping into whatever shape seemed to work best was utterly alien. The exercise has forced me to consider afresh my own post image capture processing thought processes.  Much of my photography is underwater where the challenges of being able to frame exactly how you want to are significant – cropping, within reason, provides a composition option that I could usefully use more often.

 

 

The Frame; Project – Frame Shapes and Sizes; Exercise 13 – Vertical and Horizontal

The Glen is a narrow, naturally formed valley on the shoulder of Knocknarea Mountain in Sligo.  It is characterized by its vertical limestone limestone walls, its heavily wooded and vegetated floor and its relatively narrow width; in some places no more than 15 metres wide. Although it is a very enchanting place it is not the easiest place in which to capture images as it is wet, muddy underfoot and, even when the sun is directly overhead, quite dark.  I selected this place for the exercise on vertical and horizontal lines in the OCA’s Art of Photography course (p61 course notes) because I knew from past visits that there would be plenty of opportunities to use the natural elements to frame both vertically and horizontally and compare these choices.

To overcome the dark lighting conditions I increased iso to 400, used a tripod and, in many cases, used shutter speeds of up to 5 seconds with the shutter being released by cable.  I was trying to keep wide apertures to ensure that I had large depth of field to capture the strong horizontal perspective in many of the images. Because, I was concerned to try and ensure a focus on the framing elements (vertical trees and limestone cliffs or fallen down trees or branches, mainly) I converted all the images to black and white through Elements with Silver Efex Pro using the default setting.   None of the images was cropped. Each of the pairs of images is preceded by a short observation as to which of the framing choices I prefer and why.

For Glen 1a and 1b I was attracted to the way in which the trees and their branches vertically and horizontally framed the view.  The long horizontal branch to the top of 1a  ensures that a horizontal frameworks best for me here.

Glen 1a

Glen 1b

For Glen 2a and 2b the strong contrast between the vertical tree trunk to the right and the mass of horizontal branches was the attraction with both formats working equally well.

Glen 2a

Glen 2b

In Glen 3a and 3b I was taken with the mass of vegetation beyond the crooked branch in the top right hand corner.  I used the branch to give some foreground perspective to try and emphasise the depth into the mass of vegetation.  I think the vertical frame format works better as the ground in the foreground helps to emphasise the depth to the image.

Glen 3a

Glen 3b

As you walk further into the Glen larger trees start to dominate the floor of the valley and the relationship between their form and direction and the valley walls becomes interesting.  These images attempt to place the two elements into context. 4a tends to emphasise the vertical dimension of the valley with 4b the horizontal.  Both framing choices work.

Glen 4a

Glen 4b

In 5a and 5b I was attempting specifically  to explore the shape of the trees and how these relate primarily To each other.  The vertical frame works best for this.

Glen 5a

Glen 5b

In the Glen it is all too easy to become attracted to the trees and the vertical walls and ignore the rich ground cover.  The two images explore the shapes created by three different types of vegetation in close up.  I think the horizontal format with its approximate balance of shapes works best.

Glen 6a

Glen 6b

Although 7a and 7b show the same fern they are essentially two separate images as it proved impossible to get a satisfactory horizontal framing of 7b and vertical framing of 7a.  I think the horizontal image is more dynamic.

Glen7a

Glen 7b

Macros of the fern leaves are shown in 8a and 8b where the patterns formed by the leaves were the main subject.  The vertical image I think works marginally better as it emphasises the vertical dimension to the leaves.

Glen 8a

Glen 8b

The group of trees with their gently curving trunks in synchronicity long the length of the valley was the subject of 9a and 9b.  I am quite happy that the curves are shown to best effect in the vertical framing in 9a.

Glen 9a

Glen 9b

The vertical walls with their horizontal layers of rock are in places draped with vines and moss and ferns and other plants hanging on tenaciously.  Glen 10a and 10b attempt to consider the relationship between the walls and the ferns growing out from the crevices.  Both framing formats work.

Glen 10a

Glen 10b

Three elements were at play in these two images; the tree trunk to the left, the wall and the plants trailing down the walls. This was the one image where I was not satisfied with my attention to tight framing.  The bottom left hand corner of the vertical frame shows daylight between the tree trunk and the ground behind the tree trunk. If it were not for that framing mistake I think the vertical image would work better as it demonstrates the strong vertical dimension to the valley.

Glen 11a

Glen 11b

This is one of the few spots along the 1km long valley that there is a relatively unobstructed view along the length.  I placed the heavily leaved floor in the foreground of both images to try and get the sense of depth to the image. I prefer the vertical dimension if only because it is one of the few images that captures the sky above the valley.

Glen 12a

Glen 12b

The plants trailing down and the the walls were the main subjects of these images.  In both, the vertical trailing plants contrast with the horizontal beds of rock. Both framing choices work.

Glen 13a

Glen 13b

The very strong contrast between the stone walls and the large tree trunk to the left was considered in these two images.   The vertical frame accentuates the strong vertical dimension to both elements.

Glen 14a

Glen 14b

Having explored the relationship between the walls and the larger vegetation I turned my attention to the smaller scale patterns without going to macro.  The first of these explorations is in 15a and 15b where the relationship between the horizontal fern leaf and vertical plant stem was the subject.  I am not quite sure what works best here  but would probably opt for the vertical in that there is not much to attract my attention to the right of the fern leaf in the horizontal image.

Glen 15a

Glen 15b

Damp and dark conditions encourage the growth of fungi.  16a and 16b are a treatment of fungi growing out from a tree trunk.  They are least satisfactory of the images I made here because, despite the intrinsic interest to me I felt that neither vertical or horizontal formats captured what I wanted.  Perhaps it was because the fungi itself was not strongly horizontal or vertical?

Glen 16a

Glen 16b

17a and 17b, as with 6a and 6b, consider patterns in close up.  the strong shape of the ivy leaf in the horizontal frame anchors the image without dominating it and it is this that leads to my preferring the horizontal frame.  It was not possible to include the ivy leaf in a vertical frame at this point.

Glen 17a

Glen 17b

In 18a and 18b I was concerned with absence (the dark spaces) as much I was with the mixture of patterns and shapes formed by the leaves, roots and the rock.  The horizontal framing captures this best, together with the tree roots as they wind across the image.  The vertical frame has too much fossiliferous rock and detracts from the other shapes.

Glen 18a

Glen 18b

In many places moss covers the walls and is mixed with lime that precipitates from the lime laden water that makes its way out of the cracks.  In many places there is a constant drip of water from the sides of the valley, even in dry weather.  Images 19a and 19b attempt to capture this feature.  the small leaves to the right of both images have been included to give a point of interest without detracting from the main point of subject.  The overhanging moss in the vertical frame provides marginally more interest.

Glen 19a

Glen 19b

And, having spent quite a few hours in wellingtons setting up and taking down the tripod and being certain that I had 40 images as per the exercise I realised, once I started processing them, that I was one short!  So, my final two images are a horizontal view across the roof of the Popes’ Palace in Avignon and a vertical from the same location.  The first reminds me of  Niepce, View from the Window at Graz  while the second could not have been captured horizontally without losing the very strong vertical dimensions of the slit opening and window in the distance.

The exercise has demonstrated that whilst in many cases the choice between vertical and horizontal framing is quite clear there also many cases where both can be made to work or the choice is not so clear.

The Frame; Project – Dividing the Frame; Exercise 12 – Positioning the Horizon

Where to place the horizon?  Painters have traditionally pushed the placement of the horizon to extremes to achieve artistic effect as this image from Anne Marie McInerney, a cork based painter shows –

(http://www.2020artgallery.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Anne-Marie-McInerney-Stormy-Day76103551_large.5584153_large.jpg)

To my untutored eye it appears to be less so in the case of photographers although Ansel Adams frequently used a very high placement of the horizon to give impact to the landscape of his images.  A good example is Canyon de Chelly National Monument from 1942 in which the sky above the horizon barely accounts for 10% of the vertical in the image  –

http://www-tc.pbs.org/nationalparks/media/photos/09000/S9847-lg.jpg.

Exercise 12, which is part of the ‘Dividing the Frame’ project in the OCA Art of Photography course, is concerned with horizon placement.  Five images were captured to work through this exercise and these are below.  Each is preceded by a short commentary on what was going through my mind as the images were arranged and I conclude with a short reflection on the exercise.

Both the first and last images are examples of extreme placement of the horizon.  The rationale for choosing the first horizon placement was that the dark foreboding sky had enough interest to justify giving it prominence over the beach beneath.  If the image were to have been converted to black and white and worked in processing package the interest in the sky could have been deepened further.

The second image has a more conventional placement with the beach making up about one quarter of the vertical dimension thus showing just enough of the beach to generate some interest in the lower portion of the image.

The third image has roughly equal proportions of land a sky with the horizon placed half way along the vertical.  In this image neither sky nor beach dominates attention and the image, in my opinion lacks tension.

The fourth image, with its placement of the horizon roughly three quarters of the way up the vertical now starts to allow the brown and black patterns in the beach in the foreground to generate depth to the image as well as much greater interest in the foreground.  The image starts to become interesting.

The final image, with the horizon placed towards the extreme top of the image allows the greater foreground detail to come into play and gives a much greater sense of depth to the image.

Michael Freeman in The Photographer’s Eye (Ilex, 2007) suggest that there is no ideal position for the horizon (p26) and that there are good reasons for experimenting with different positions.   In the case of the foregoing images an extreme low positioning would work to focus on the dark, cloud filled sky, provided that the effect could be deepened through some manipulation.  In the absence of that possibility, the high placement of the horizon to bring out the patterned beach provides the most interest.

Jacques-Henri Lartgue was well known for his images of the French seasides.  As a little exercise I trawled through a selection of his seaside images on Google images to find was there a common thread to the placement of the horizon.  While most seemed to have the horizon placed mid way along the vertical, the dynamism in the images was invariably heightened by significant action in the foreground thus rendering the placement of the horizon less relevant.  See

for an example.

The Frame; Project – Dividing the Frame; Exercise 11 – Balance

Bruce Barnabaum in The Art of Photography ( rockynook, 1994, updated and reprinted 2012) defines balance as ‘…equality between the left and right halves of a photograph.  This can translate into tonal balance or subject/interest balance’.  This exercise (11) is the second of two exercises in the project – Dividing the Frame which is part of the OCA’s art of Photography course.  The second exercise on placing the horizon is at

http://wp.me/p3PbRS-X,

Six of my images captured over the last few years, both under and over water and with both SLR and compact, have been selected for the exercise which involves an analysis of balance within each image using the technique described in the course notes for the exercise on pages 52, 53, 54 and 55.  The original, high resolution jpeg (or raw file converted to jpeg)  is reproduced here and each image has been marked up, scanned and uploaded as a pdf file that can be viewed by clicking on the title link below each of the jpegs.  A minor distraction is the orientation of the pdf – I cannot rotate the pdf to allow viewing of the image in landscape format – technical advice on this from a reader would be gratefully received. Each image and balance analysis has a preceding commentary and reflection.

The first image is from the Roman amphitheatre in Arles in France.  It is taken with a 10-17mm Tokina lens and converted to black and white using the Silver Efex Pro plugin for Elements. The balance in this image is provided by three elements, the opening onto the amphitheatre which straddles the centre and the stone walls on either side.  The danger with such a composition is that it might end up being statically balanced.  However, the extreme perspective caused by the distortion effect of the lens, for me, removes that danger.

Bullfights and Gladiators

Bullfights and Gladiators

The second image is a macro (60mm Nikkor)  image of a seashell close to the waters edge.  I was attracted by the strong contrast in colours between the black and the orange and tried to position the shell offcentre so as to balance its colour (and spiral form) with the dark tones of the rock.  Although I think the image is balanced (as the analysis in the accompanying PDF shows) there is a doubt in my mind and I think that the size and the colour perhaps overweighs the image to the right.

Macro 1

Macro 1

The third image is a portrait of a Leopard Goby.  As I was working the image the phrase ‘the eyes are the windows to the soul’ came to mind.  There are possibly four elements to this equally balanced image.  First the fish itself centred over the mid point, second the two translucent fins and open spaces either side of the fish and, most importantly from my perspective, the eyes.  Like the image ‘Bullfights and Gladiators’ which could be static given its mirror imaging left to right, this too could be static.  However, the eyes are significant attractions and I am satisfied that the balance of the image works.

Windows to the Soul

Windows to the Soul

The fourth image was captured at an underwater hockey event.  The image was shot in raw using a standard 18-55mm lens and cropped.  The image was one of about 100 captured over a two hour period at an invitation event in the National aquatic Centre in Dublin.  The image has been published and I have reproduced the published image here.  The cropping was designed to emphasise the dynamic nature of the sport.  While I have shown the image as balanced, because the apparent centre of activity is the mass of bodies on either side of the centre line, the more I reflect on the image the less I am satisfied that the cropping was right.  My feeling about this derives from the role that the hockey puck plays in the activity – it is what the players get so excited about.  The puck can be seen to the bottom left hand corner.  I have put in a second version to show the subtle change of balance and feel that in hindsight this crop would have worked better.

Underwater Hockey

Underwater Hockey – Crop

Underwater Hockey

The fifth image is a macro of mussels and barnacles taken below high water mark using a Nikkoor 60mm macro lens and converted into black and white using the Silver Efex Pro plug in for Elements.  I have shown this as balanced because the smaller group of black mussels to the left of centre balances the larger group of grey barnacles to the right of centre – at least that was my intention.  However, just as with the macro of the orange shell and black rock previously discussed, I am not sure that the balance is quite right.  I think, in hindsight that the mass of mussels should have been slightly smaller as they, in the current image, may slightly dominate the left hand side.

Mussels and Barnacles

Mussels and Barnacles

The final image is of a Christmas Tree Worm on coral from the Great Barrier Reef.  This image was taken with a compact camera, using available light, and then colour adjusted in Elements by opening the image as a raw file and adjusting the white balance.  I was attracted to the image because of the shape and colour of the worm and its contrast with the shape and colour of the surrounding coral.  Unlike the images of the mussels and the  orange shell previously discussed I think the balance between the two elements – the worm and the coral either side of the centre line – is right.

Christmas Tree Worm

Christmas Tree Worm

A more detailed reflection on this exercise and Exercise 12 will follow as a separate blog.  However, there are two immediate points that stand out for me.  My struggle with off centre elements and balancing them and greater attention to the use of cropping to achieve balance.

The Frame; Project – Focal Lengths; Exercise 9 – Focal Lengths

A well known legacy of the rapid decline in Ireland’s economic fortunes is the so-called ‘ghost’ estates.  Unfinished housing estates on the periphery of many Irish towns and villages.  Less well known, apart from some high profile cases (e.g. Anglo Irish bank’s to-be flagship headquarters in the Dublin docklands area – http://thehelpfulengineer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Anglo-Irish-Bank-HQ-1.jpg ) are the incomplete and abandoned industrial and commercial building sites.  Although less obvious than the ‘ghost’ housing estates they are, nonetheless, a legacy that will blight the Irish landscape for generations.  Not alone do these sites blight the landscape but the insult is further compounded when both the resources that were wasted on them are taken into account and when the more productive uses to which those resources could have been put are also considered.

The sequence of images below were captured for Exercise 9 within the Project  on Focal lengths as part of the OCA Art of Photography course.   The site is a disused/abandoned building site in a location earmarked for motor car and white goods premises on the outskirts of my home town of Sligo in NW Ireland.  All the images were captured from the same point on a tripod with some recomposition during the course of the sequence to ensure a clear subject.

The first three images were at 10, 17 and 24mm focal length (EFL 15, 26 and 36mm), respectively.  These images are extreme wide angle and do no more than provide a context for the site.

10mm, EFL 15mm

17mm, EFL26mm

24mm, EFL36mm

The next three images at 35, 55 and 60mm (53, 83 and 90mm EFL), respectively, much more clearly place the abandoned underground storage container as the main subject in the images and establish a balance between the container and the surrounding site.

35mm, EFL53mm

55mm, EFL 83mm

60mm, EFL 90mm

The final four images at 85, 122, 165 and 200mm (128, 183, 248 and 300mm EFL) respectively, place the abandoned storage container as the clear subject of the images.  In moving this close to the container the context within which the container is found is lost  but the detail of the container becomes much more obvious.

85mm, EFL 128mm

122mm, EFL 183mm

165mm, EFL 248mm

200mm, EFL 300mm

In considering the three groups of images I am not clear under what circumstances extreme wide angle might be used in this situation.  However, the creative choice between the second and third groups of images is clear.  Use mid range (35-60mm, 53-90mm EFL) and the the storage container is a main subject but seen within the context of the overall site.  In the case of the longer focal lengths the container itself becomes the subject and its context is lost.

From a technical perspective all that has changed is the focal length and not the distance between the camera and the subject.  As the course notes note (p47), within each image the the relationship between different objects in the scene is the same.  The following exercise (Exercise 10 – http://wp.me/p3PbRS-S) will demonstrate how changing both focal length and the distance between the camera and the subject changes the relationships and perspective significantly.

The Frame; Project – Focal Lengths; Exercise 10 – Focal Lengths and Different Viewpoints

Michael Freeman in The Photographer’s Eye Ilex, 2007, identifies linear perspective (the convergence of lines) as the most prominent type of perspective effect.  He notes that invariably lines are parallel but if they recede from the camera they appear to converge toward one another at vanishing points.  In a previous exercise in the OCA’s Art of Photography Project – Focal lengths section – Exercise 9 – http://wp.me/p3PbRS-Q ) it was demonstrated that changing focal length and keeping the distance between the subject and the camera the same changed the relationship between the viewer and the image but did not change the relationships between elements within the image.  In this exercise, the effect of changing both focal length and distance between the camera and the subject is explored.

In the first image below captured close up to the boat with a focal length of 10mm (EFL 15mm) the extreme wide angle, combined with the physically large aperture of the lens close to the boat gives a large depth of field and foreground to background distance and a strong sense of lines converging towards the back of the image (note the handrail, black paint line and the boundary line between the red and the pale blue).  The depth of field and convergence of lines give a strong sense of 3D to the image. Freeman notes (p 52) of The Photographer’s Eye that, perspective can be further strengthened by placing warm hued subjects against cool hued backgrounds – here the red hull helps this effect.

10mm, EFL15mm

In contrast to the strong sense of 3D in the image captured close up with a 10mm lens is the effect of standing back and using a 200mm (EFL 300mm) lens.  Here the strong linear perspective of converging lines is diminished as the image appears compressed and lacking depth; this despite the fact in taking the images I ensured that the name of the boat was centred within each image so the viewing position did not change.

200mm, EFL 300mm

The effect of linear perspective is clearly seen in an underwater image captured using a Tokina 10-17mm lens and picks up on Freeman’s observations (p52) in The Photographer’s Eye that perspective can be strengthened by placing bright tones in the foreground (the fish) and dark tones in the background (the wall) and, also, if the wide angle lens is kept close to the nearest part of the scene (the fish). 

The Frame; Project – Viewfinder; Exercise 6 – Fitting Frame to Subject

The South Bull Wall in Dublin is one of the landmarks of the Dublin port area.  It runs for nearly 2km from Irishtown eastwards into the Irish Sea and ends at the vivid red South Bull lighthouse that stands sentinel-like at the entrance to Dublin Port.  To the south, as you walk along the rough granite slabs, stretches Sandymount strand with DunLaoghaire harbour in the distance.  To the north is the entrance to the Port, marked by green and red navigation buoys, with Howth Head as a backdrop.

This was the location for capturing images to be used in Exercises 6 and 7 (http://wp.me/p3PbRS-M) of the AoP course concerned with using the viewfinder.  Exercise 6, the subject of this blog, deals with both fitting the subject to the viewfinder and with the use of cropping to rework the image.

Michael Freeman in The Photographer’s Eye,  (Ilex, 2007) a core text for this programme and, given that he has written the course notes, a book of direct relevance to the exercises, deals with the aspect of composition covered by these exercises on pp 20-23.  Freeman notes that while the most basic photographic situation is one single image directly in front of the camera three considerations enter the equation when choosing to compose the image.   First, if the image is large or unusual we may be most interested in seeing it in its entirety. Second, what is the relationship between the subject and its surroundings? Are the surroundings important and thus to be included in the image?  Third, what is the subjective relationship the photographer wants to capture between the image and the viewer?  Is the subject of such impact that filing the frame will give a force to the image that might be lost by placing it more remotely within the image?

With these thoughts in mind consider the sequence of images of the lighthouse below.  The first titled ‘General Context’ shows the subject located within the general harbour area with the Bull Wall leading the eye to the lighthouse, the entrance to the harbour on the left and Howth Head in the background.  The image does no more than place the lighthouse in its maritime context, doing no justice to either the lighthouse or its surrounds.

General Context

In the image below, titled ‘Positioned’, I have moved in closer and moved to portrait framing to emphasise the strong vertical dimensions of the lighthouse and to use the line of the wall to draw the eye to the lighthouse.  The focus is on the lighthouse and, to a somewhat lesser extent with its relationship with the surrounding area, excepting the wall itself.  The lighthouse has been placed high in the image to avoid a lot of sky distracting from the lighthouse and wall.

Positioned

There is no doubting the physical impact and presence of the lighthouse with its red livery. To try and capture this physicality and make the lighthouse itself forcefully the subject, I have moved up close to fill the viewfinder with the image (‘Fill the Frame’ below).   The image does not work, not because of the lighthouse, but because the  ugly concrete compound around the base is a distraction.  It was not possible to obtain a similar perspective from another angle because on all other sides the lighthouse is surrounded by the sea.

Fill the Frame

In the final image, I have moved up closer still and tried to give a sense of the lighthouse, relying on the brain of the viewer to fill out the details.   In this image all extraneous clutter has been removed and the image is solely concerned with the structural details (balustrade, cornice and window) rather than the whole lighthouse.   The image has become a semi-abstract construct of a lighthouse

Shooting ‘Small’

The first image in the sequence of four above is solely concerned with placing the lighthouse in its context.  If the purpose of the image was to show the harbour and surrounding areas with all the elements in the place the image would suffice.  In the remaining three images I have attempted to position the image so as to give the viewer three very different perspectives.  Each of the three fulfills a different purpose.  The portrait perspective places the lighthouse clearly as the subject of the attention using the wall to draw the eye to the subject.  The second image would work if the concrete compound at the base was not there as the physical presence of the subject is clear.  The third and final image becomes semi-abstract by focusing on structural details which, while it is still clearly a lighthouse, become the focus of the attention.

The second part of this exercise is to consider the use of cropping as an aid in reworking the image.  Freeman, referenced above, notes that cropping was a frequently used tool in the days of black and white photography and lapsed in the era of colour slide film.  Because cropping loses image it requires a higher resolution to begin with if the image is to remain usabe.   Freeman cautions that cropping should not be seen as a panacea for poor design to begin with.  For this part of the exercise the image titled ‘General Context’ was cropped in three different ways as show below.

The first crop is a tight portrait crop which is designed to very clearly lead the eye of the viewer to the lighthouse and to accentuate its vertical dimensions.  This crop does also bring the Bull Wall more clearly into the image which is potentially a distraction.  The image is not unlike the portrait framed image, which possibly works better as the wall is less of a distraction.

Portrait

The second crop below (Landscape) places the lighthouse more clearly as an important part of the scene with a landscape crop than the original ‘General Context’ image without losing the role that the other elements play (the Wall, the entrance to the Harbour and Howth Head in the background).  The crop also attempts to balance the lighthouse against the other elements.  The lighthouse with its strong structural presence and vivid red colour is ‘weighter’ than the other elements so needs to be offset to balance the other elements if they are to be seen as an important component of the image which is the purpose of the composition.

Landscape

The simplest composition is to place the subject right at the centre of the image as the crop below does (‘Square’).   The problem with this composition is that it is too  obvious leaving the viewer’s eye only one option – to go straight to the subject of the image, rather than taking time to peruse the image or be led to the subject.  Whilst the wall is still a component of the image it is not as obviously so as in the portrait images above.

Square

In conclusion, the role of the frame in composition, Freeman argues, has diminished somewhat in importance as people have become more concerned with the technology surrounding it.  This exercise with its two components shows clearly that framing and cropping (which is post image capture framing) is critical in determining what is regarded as important in the image, how the main subject of the image relates to its surrounds and how th erelationship between the viewer and the image can be changed by changing the framing.

Postscript.

For the exercise I also took a sequence of images of an old manual crane located near the lighthouse that was used for unloading small vessels.  For the purposes of the exercise, it was easier to work the lighthouse and its surrounds. However, the detailing of the crane was particularly attractive and the images are included here for completeness.

 

The Frame; Project – Viewfinder; Exercise 7 – Object in Different Positions in the Frame

A stroll along a harbour wall in a port area will invariably result in spying red and green buoys of various shapes and sizes.  These navigation buoys play a vital role in the safe entry and exit of marine vessels to and from the harbour.  While the shapes may vary the colours are constant; red and green.  The convention in Europe is that a ship entering a harbour must keep red  buoys on the port (left hand) side and green ones on the starboard (right hand) side.  As ships exit the harbour the opposite holds.  These navigation buoys, apart from being attractively and brightly coloured, also play a vital role in marine safety.  The buoys will frequently have flashing red and green lights on top of them for entry and exit at night time.

This exercise, (7) in the Art of Photography is concerned with placement of an object within a frame.  The course notes for the course and the Michael Freeman course text The Photographer’s Eye consider placement in a variety of ways but uppermost should be placement that makes sense or has a reason otherwise the placement simply becomes perverse (e.g. right in a corner).  Within the boundary of common sense other matters come into play including setting up the desired relationship with the background or surrounding area, the size of the object (becomes more important as it becomes smaller).  If a small secondary object exists then this may influence the placement but otherwise the most obvious position is right in the centre as is the case in the first image of a red navigation buoy below.

As a picture of a navigation buoy the image is adequate, the markings, colour and shape are clearly visible and this might be suitable for a document identifying navigation buoys. However, the image lacks dynamism and the placement says nothing about the relationship between the buoy and the surrounding water, which is intrinsic to the meaning and purpose of the buoy.

In the second image below I have placed the buoy to the top of the frame using a portrait format.

This placement is visually more pleasing as it emphasises the vertical structure of the buoy and draws the eye upwards towards the buoy.  I suspect that placing the buoy at the bottom of a portrait format would also have worked. However this was not possible without including the horizon and this would have distracted from the main subject.

The other possible placements were to the right and left hand sides, respectively, of the frame and these are the images below.

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A key decision point for me in the placement of the buoy is a rule of thumb posited by Freeman on p 24 of  The Photographer’s Eye  that ‘…when the setting is significant – that is, when it can actually contribute to the idea behind the picture then it is worth considering this kind of composition.’  Freeman is referring to an image of a stilted house community which, by pulling back, shows the clear relationship between the stilted houses and the sea in which they are located.  For this exercise, the logical choice is to place the red buoy to either the left or right within the frame of the image as it is this perspective that a ship entering or leaving a harbour will have of a buoy.  Convention normally dictates that in describing the relationship between the buoy and the side of the boat that it is the entry to the harbour that is significant.  So for me, the final image would have the buoy placed on the left hand side of the frame as it is this framing that would best meet Freeman’s rule of thumb.

A previous exercise on fitting the subject to the frame (http://wp.me/p3PbRS-K) was concerned very explicitly with considerations about determining what was important in the frame and then ensuring that the main subject was either consciously linked to its environment or not by moving in very close.  Lewis Hine’s images of workers on the Empire State Building are good examples of how subject placement maintains the centrality of the main subject while ensuring that the subject’s context is clear.  See

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/3199648.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=544D2A87EC7A2E36B9BCE2CF9C14F3D0F06BF04B24B4128C

for a good example in which workers are placed centrally in the image showing clearly their centrality while the New York skyline is in the background thus putting the workers activity in context.

The Frame; Project – Viewfinder; Exercise 8 – Sequence of Composition

The Grand Canal in south Dublin moves quietly between the busy suburban streets of this part of Dublin bounded on both sides by treelined pavements, pedestrian and cycle ways and seating areas.  In recent years two locations in this part of Dublin along the canal have been favourite spots for lunch time food markets where fish and chips, to pizza, to noodles to cup cakes can be bought and enjoyed in the open air.  The biggest of the two markets is near Baggot Street Bridge at the 4th Lock on the Grand Canal and happens every Thursday lunchtime when multitudinous office workers congregate to buy the cooked offerings.  Over the years  I have enjoyed a lunchtime break here, not just for the food, but for the smells and the anticipatory buzz that accompanies people waiting for food.

For this particular exercise, ‘Sequence of Composition’ in the Art of Photography course, I drew up a shortlist of possible locations for the exercise including this cooked food market, a fresh food market in Sligo in NW Ireland, where I live, and a number of other small events that I was aware were coming up. Because of the combination of market and location (canal, green spaces, trees) I settled on this venue for the exercise.

The purpose of the exercise was to help the thinking process involved in composing an image.  The sequence of images below is in the order in which they were taken and each one (or small collection) is accompanied by my observation on what I was thinking as I moved around and away from the market trying to capture the essence of the market.  Most of the images were shot at ISO400 and with shutter priority at 1/250.

I would note from the outset that I was trying to capture a range of elements in the sequence; the location, the tents, the people, the food, the bright warm day.  I will return to this objective during and at the end of the blog.

The first image below was intended purely to locate the market and the canal knowing that I was going to move in much closer.  This I did by moving up the bank to the right.

The second and third images below in the sequence start to pick out the marquee tents used by the food vendors to provide a scale reference and to show them located on either side of the canal lock gate.

In the 4th and 5th images below I was starting to try and bring people into the frame but was not satisfied that I had done this effectively as they made up only a small proportion of the frame in these two images so I moved in more closely.

On the east side of the canal the food tents face each other providing a narrow walkway down which people walk as they move from tent to tent before making up their minds about what they were going to eat.  By concentrating on this narrow walkway I hoped to be able to to get closer to people and their interactions with the food tents. The next image in the sequence below attempted to capture this hustle and bustle and I felt that although the perspective was right there was not enough going on (I came back to this possibility a few minutes later)  so I moved even closer to one specific food tent.

Fish and Chips!  Very nice, and the two men were good enough to let me photograph them at their work.  It was at this point that I realised that perhaps i was trying to capture too many elements in one image (canal, trees, food, etc) and decided to concentrate on trying to link people – small groups – or individuals – to the market and its surrounds.

At this point therefore I started to try and identify specific people-place interactions and the two images below were first attempts to do this by getting closer and seeing could I get some interaction between people and the food being served.

The two images below were my first attempts at trying to establish this relationship between people and food and I feel that while they go some way towards that objective they were not quite what I was looking for.

At this point another element came into play – the lock gate over which people moved frequently carrying food in their hands – and I played with this for a few minutes to see what I could make of this relationship.  The first two images I captured suggested to me there was something and I waited to see what else might happen.

By the the third of this sub sequence of  images below I came close to getting something that I thought might work and, if I were to concentrate on this image as an end product, I would crop it slightly to bring out more obviously the man, the food and the lock gate. The purposeful stride, the boxes of food and the red sweater drew my eye. I had hoped that I would be able to get an image(s) with three men in suits carrying bags of food across the lock gate but though I waited for a few minutes more none appeared so I moved off.

At this stage I moved well away from the centre of the market to see what else  was going on of interest and tried to once more pick up individual interactions between people and place at the market.

It was in the final sequence of images that I made two images that I was satisfied with.  The one below captures the place, the activity (eating), the types of people that were present (mainly office types) and the location (a sunny canal bank).  The only element that was not captured in the image below was the market.

Three more images of a general nature followed but I was still not satisfied that I had fully got what I wanted.

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For the last image I moved well away from the market to see what could be got.  As I settled down to watch I noticed two well dressed young men moving away from the market to find a place to sit and eat.  They sat on the bank of the canal, quite close to where I was standing and I realised that if I could get sufficient depth of field I could  get them well focused and the market, canal and lock gates in the background sufficiently in focus that the context of the image would be clear.

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Satisfied that I had captured a small number of images that I felt worked in the sequence I moved off.

A more complete reflection on this exercise and Exercises 6 and 7 will appear in the blog in the next few days but my immediate reflections on this are first, although I was satisfied with the event as a good one for the exercise I was not satisfied that I had undertaken sufficient pre-shoot research to ensure that I  was clear about what I was trying to do.  This manifests itself in a second reflection that during the course of taking the photographs I became unclear as to what I was doing – trying to capture the essence of the whole event, trying to consider the relationship between people and food or trying to capture the relationship between people and place.  So, while I was reasonably satisfied that a small number of images worked (or appeared to work) for me I was not satisfied with the execution of the exercise as a whole and the lesson learnt would be the need for much more careful research prior to shooting so that I am clearer about the purpose of the activity.