Applying Trigonometry to Composition!

 

The weather was sunny and balmy here in North Carolina earlier this week, so I decided to go out and try to illustrate some basic lessons in composition.  Although there are no hard and fast “rules” in photography, and although it is completely possible to be self taught, there are some universal esthetic principles that date back to the Greeks (look at pictures of the Parthenon, for example) and which were first put to extensive print analysis in Luca Pacioli's Divina Proportione in 1509.

Usually known as the Golden Rectangle, a mathematical theory was developed by the Greeks and explored more scientifically by Pacioli which has been followed by artists ever since. Distilling this theory to esthetic principles is known as the Rule of Three or Thirds in photography. Essentially the goal is to divide your frame into third, not halves or fourths. The thought here is that thirds give a picture some dynamic tension, whereas halves or fourths are so centered they tend to make the picture feel “at rest.”

In any even the goal of thinking about this “rule” as you take pictures is as much about getting you to actually “think” about your composition as it is to get you to follow any “rule.” In other words, position your primary objects carefully ,and above all, avoid clutter! Think about “three” – no more than three major objects or groups of objects in a picture (often including sky and other blank space). And above all, don’t center your central object – have it slightly off center to create the feeling of dynamic tension I talked about above.

With that in mind, I explored an old country store and related outbuilding – carefully setting up each shot, always knowing exactly what was in my frame and where each object was. How do you think I did?oHow do you think I did?

Revisiting Depth of Field

I can never say enough of Depth of Field and how important understanding and manipulating it is for your pictures. As stated in other places, the key is to create a “shallow” depth of field, with just that area of the picture you want in focus and the rest out of focus. This creates a dramatic impact on your central image in the photograph.

To accomplish this, you need a “long” (telephoto) lens – zoom your digital camera out (T) to the max. You also need a fast as possible shutter speed, because this forces the lens aperture to open (see lectures on Aperture). Finally it helps to get as close as possible to your central subject.

All of the photos above were taken this past summer with a Nikon D80, using a 135mm lens. In the top picture, of our grandkids, notice that the dark background is completely out of focus, thus providing no distraction from the central subject. The next two pictures, from a local rodeo, were a little trickier – there wasa lot of motion going on and it was late evening. But the effect I was looking for, of motion, worked out pretty well, with the background completely out of focus  and a bit of blur to the central objects to show they are moving.

The two flower pictures are from our neighbors garden – notice the sparkly effect, called bokeh, to the background, as well as the early morning lighting.

If you have a point and shoot without all the bells and whistles, most still have a close-up function – use it and get close, to create the out of focus background.

Photo Editing - Black and White

Besides cropping, enhancing the blacks and increasing the vibrance or saturation, another photo editing skill is to know when to turn a color image into a black and white one. Those of you who did Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Minor White or Robert Mapplethorpe for your PPTs already understand the power of black and white photography.

Having grown up in the days of "Pan-X" slow speed, fine grain back and white film, I have often missed, since I went digital, the pure joy of loading up my old Nikon FM2 and heading out for a day of intense shooting with an eye towards shadows and lines.

So, take a look at the above two pictures I took last week along North Carolina's Blue Ridge Parkway. Which do you think has the most "power"? Please consider this as you edit your own photostory pictures. My own thought is that when color does not dominate the picture, either in a direct way or a subtle way, then the image may often be more striking in black and white.

In Photoshop you can change the "mode" in the "Image"menu. In Microsoft Office Picture Manager go to Edit>Col0r>Saturation. Click here, http://www.photohowto.info/how-create-black-and-white-image-using-picasa, for the instructions in Picasa,

More Rainy Day Photography

I love rainy day photography. As I explained earlier, the lack of shadows and the fine mist help mute the contrasts while at the same time making each individual color stand out. Harsh sun does just the opposite, washing all the colors together into one nearly white glare. These pictures were taken this afternoon just down the road from where we live. They are shot as Raw files and opened in Adobe Bridge, where I could increase the blacks, play with the fill light and increase the vibrance. In Photoshop I played with the curves a bit in the tree trunk picture.

Framing

A composition tip that complements the rule of threes or thirds is to “frame” your picture. This can force the viewer’s eye to the dominant part of the image. In these images I tried two approaches – the top picture has a sharp background, to illustrate the dominance of the mountains over this little valley, and in the bottom image I let the frame be the sharpest point, to highlight the autumn leaves of the tree I was using to create the frame. I’m not sure which I like best.

Shooting in “Raw” files

For those of you with high end digital cameras, if you can go into the menu and change your settings so that the digital file your camera records is a “raw” file (.NEF) instead of a jpg file, you will be greatly pleased. Although these files take up more space on your SDI card, shooting this way is well worth it. I’ll get to the reasons in a second.

On my Nikon D80, I went to the “Shooting Menu,” and for “Image quality” I scrolled over to “RAW.”

The next thing you need to do is run over to Follett and get your $30 set of discs of the complete Adobe Design Suite – this contains Photoshop, but more importantly it contains Adobe Bridge.

Once you have all this installed (you better have plenty of disc space and a big processor with lots of RAM), open Bridge and find the folder with your files. Bridge is like a “light table,” in which you can see large thumbnail views of all your images. Select an image you want to manipulate, then right click on it and tell it to open in “Camera Raw.” When you do this you see some neat tools, including “Fill Light,” “Blacks,” and “Vibrance.” Once you manipulate your picture to where you want it, tell it to “Open Image” (bottom of the Camera Raw screen), and the image will open in Photoshop, where you can resize it, save it, etc.

Above you see before and after pictures, in which I increased the Blacks, adjusted the fill light, and ramped up the vibrance. The final version is what I had in my “mind’s eye” as I took the original picture.

Returning to the Scene

Much like a burglar, I love to return to this scene, where I have taken many pictures over the years. I’m always looking for new light, and today I found a new view. The first view is the traditional telephonto shot showing the house and the fall color behind. I like it. The color, composition and “texture” are all pleasing. Frankly, though, this is a hard scene to mess up.

The second view, however, is my favorite, at least for now. I crouched low in the weeds this afternoon and used the house as background and texture – notice how out of focus it is. You can still see it, and it is still effective as a central subject, but the soft focus with the sharp weeds in front provide a unique look. In other words, a fresh look at an old scene can be very worthwhile.