7:Using Lines in Composition

Implied lines:

Exercise:
 Evaluate the lines within the illustrated two photographs.
1 The bull fighter.
2 The  man trying to catch his mules .

Find 3 photographs of my own and do the same.

The Bull fight :
Here Although I have drawn the arrows as you see . looking at the curve in the sand flowing up through the fighter. I could go further to say, the swerve relates to the direction of the bull.

I the picture of the Man trying to catch his mule . This is much of a loop. Or an over all connection, bringing the man and his Mule together.


Here any 3 photographs .
This picture I used the white line to lead the eye into the night scene
As you see, it leads the eye into a wave (S)  shape. Connecting with the roads street lights It then flows into the street lights. Towards the back of the frame.

 With out the elements in position, there is in no way I can show lines of either connecting or leading to. Unless accidentally applied or deliberately using such composition by use of what is available. I have unintentionally put the subject in another part of the frame , using images in the frame to cheat the eye to lead directly to the subject. 

So the conclusion to this.: The point of focus may at times be put out of normal composition with other distracting points If there are lines of such, to direct the eye to the main point. Lines can also be used to create the story. 

The Land scape here taken on a OCA work shop in the Cotswolds. 

At the time of taking. My thoughts were to capture the lighting of the trees, and shade. I wanted to show the valley, and the distance too. To do this I positioned my self in a way so that the camera could look up through the valley.  using the pathway to lead the eye to the back ground in the distance. This would then break up the crossing of the trees, stopping the break up of cutting the image in half. 

Interesting that three lines hold the picture round the tree,  then like a funnel, flow to the far back. 

This photograph, taken at the dragon boat festival in Kotakinabalu of the chief minister of Sabah. his wife far right. The two ministers in conversation, takes the main counterpoint. However the space between him and his wife is filled with the glancing man from behind, listening to the conversation. Making a line from the top right through to the two men in conversation. 

 I used the pathway of the stream and the dug earth, leading up to the gardener. 

Eye line 

Showing how a picture can be composed and be a persons viewpoint. Bit like the one above. This photo includes two men. What are they looking at? Immediately you look at them, Then you wonder "is the man on the bench sleeping or what are they looking at"?. HA HA a small black bird. 

The same photo in BW close up does not have the same thought that immediately come to mind. You see the man on the bench is awake. 

Some times times Black & White works better, as  colour can make distraction. 

The above station photos were taken at Bridge North. 7th valley railway . 

6:Curve lines

Exercise: Curves
4 photographs.

 Curves .
Nature loves them. They are the finish off. When lines need to come to and end. Curve them. The human body has them all over. Man has become obsessed by them Sculpturally and sexually. We all like curves. Who ever it was in the EEC who said a cucumber or a banana should be straight, was not from this planet.

Curves are the beauty of this world as we see it.  Some one said to me a straight line is not truly straight.
Ummm . In photography. We like to bend and distort perspective to create Curves.  when I flipped through this course. I was eager to get to this Exercise, Only to be disappointed to find Only 4 Photographs required.

I wanted to fill the entire course with them.   . Arching in a cat. The Human Body. Rail lines. A table. contours of a car. Some you have seen already in the exercise balance and contrast. I collected many.

So here is My 4.

Man made curve in this simplistic picture of a lamp. 

Curves of nature ; As I was departing to go for another dive. I noticed the contour of the beach at Sapi island and the beauty of colour contrasted by light from the storm building up in the back ground. 

 Brisbane again the architect surly likes his curves in this creation. 

 At the Sydney opera house. The curves here leads the eye, and an S snake fashion to the main subject.
Created from Curves of shell shapes.

As for the text in this exercise referring to circles. I feel circles are more then Curves and should come into a category of there own.

5:Diagonal lines.

Exercise producing 4 photos using Diagonals.

Lines that merge away or cross you . Neither horizontal or vertical.

These can be of the same subject. just viewed an another way. By looking at the place you sit right now. look Up and what you see it a complex make up of lines Just like a line drawing.
Take a way the solid fill ins. and you have lines that make up our world.

Here are 4 photographs showing diagonal lines.


Planks on a varanda in the late evening sun.  Diagonals can lead the eye into and out of a picture At  the same time bring a picture together.

This is the inside of the beach hotel kota kinabalu. Lit with available light. The Diagonals lead the eye to the back of the picture. 

The Islands of KK about to be hit by a monsoon. . The front hear building up in a dramatic fore of nature, about to burst in a torrent of down poor. Hastily Taken, coming back from a scuba dive. I could not miss this. One reason for carrying a compact camera, where ever I go. 

As the sun hits the steel line of the railway. Although I like this, and its a good example of Diagonal 

4:Lines

Exercise Horisontal and vertical lines. 4 photos of each. Not being the same .

This project I thought would be simple , Landed up being a task. To photograph Vertical lines is simple. They are everywhere.  And very apparent. They stand out over the rest. But where there are vertical lines,  There are Horizontal lines to hold them up. Trying to capture and image, where the line or lines are the first thing your eyes are drawn to. Well that creates another challenge.

Building have many lines. however, as much as I like architecture. Often lines are not always vertical. At least not the ones that catch the eye. Most are going away from you. Look up and they lead away . Some thing in photography I taught my self to avoid . Was Horizontal lines . As they tend to break up a picture or destroy the composition.

Time to break that rule.   Here are the photos I have taken to show this. as said before . Some lines are clearly evident and stand out. But are crossed with others that may waiver the eyes.

Lets see :   The bridge In Brisbane  Clearly Horizontal, Because the bridge does not cut the picture in half, due to the tonal balance, and being slightly lower in the frame. This works.

Lines deliberately to capture lines and the shadows crossing the lines of the wood. Here  the eyes focuses on to the Horizontal lines the larger being most dominant here, before moving off to scan the rest of the image. I feel the eyes are swept to the top right of the frame, Following the shadows.

A window display:
 Aluminum pipes, to give a modern futuristic look, attracted me right away. Noticing these horizontal lines .  I could use this for light and dark . 

Calm Before the storm 

This I could not help noticing the build up of cloud, with this horizontal line of day light managing to squeeze through the clouds, and Islands. 

Again with out cutting the picture in two. The tone of the cloud and of the sea balance well with the islands and water. 

Verticals. 

Feeling we have been here before, in the exercise of frame, format. 

Sat outside where I have breakfast. This wonderful building towers above me in vibrant colour. 

No touch up on these, as it stands as it is. Freshly painted. 

I got a bit carried away with this building. And went back, when the lighting was better, to see what els I could bring out. 

This was my favourite. Taken on A680 compact. set to land scape mode to give maximum depth. 

Verticals are everywhere, more so then horizontals. Although they are there. As the world is made up of them, The Verticals are more dominant. And architects love them. As they make a building look taller. 

Proud and up right, is the statement that come to mind from this building. Taken around 7am I some times think that I take better pictures with my compact then with my SLR. 

 Vertical lines give a sense of high status. This was taken out side the hotel on the river bank of Brisbane Australia. For some reason they asked me to leave . May be some one important was there.

And lastly:
The twin towers in KL. Lines that reach into the night sky. !!Tall relating to success.

3:Multiple Points

Multiple Points In a photograph. 
A Simple Exercise using Desk top photography. Its Been many yeas from when i last done this sort of work. Now I miss having a studio. Perhaps again one day.


Arraignments of multiple Points.  Quick think. back drop ?!.  Use brown paper roll. Using two cameras . use of 17-40 L lens Stopped down max F16 Bracket exposure. Using Glass mats as a backing to
brighten up the image .

Shells:.
 Choosing and arranging these Items. Was not to much trouble. 

Pattern. Visualizing an image and creating it. 

I done three attempts, showing different Arrangements of the shells.

End result for that after cropping and adjustment .

 

The first was a blunder. Second attempt to remember the basics. The above was badly lit. Not sharp, Lack of depth. Although the brown paper aided the over all tone. I could have taken it a step further and used white sand. I think it would have made to much of a mess in the home. But would have been a nice touch. And contrast. 
Also the Horizontal format gave to much, for the eye to scan. Just the shells on the glass would have been enough.

This was my second  attempt:
The balance seemed a bit static, and to focused to the centre. Although the large shell is dominant over all. From the arrangement of the shells . The Placement leads the eye into the center through to the bottom right. So a quick re think.


Simplistic is the key. Fewer shells.

Although I had used less, and tried a curved approach to the composition. The end result was still not what I was looking for. I still had the centre focus point. It shows that some Objects are more powerful in cheating the eye to be lead astray. I noticed the cone shells, being long and pointed like arrows. they were over coming the objective. Making dominant lines . Over all I like this one best. 

Take a look at the two pictures here where I have drawn lines to show the line of sight. Although the top larger shell, again is dominant in size. The eye follows through the picture. As the cone shells seen on the right are more leading. The picture comes together By balancing the two dominants,  blocking the direction with the smaller shells. Diverting the eye down the curve of the bottom right shell helps this. 

2:OCA AOP Relationship Between Points

3 photographs :

As Done perviously But unintentionally for this Exercise. 

 Taken in the UK on Charmouth beach. My aim was to make a stone look interesting. However, As in the the picture in the course. Two points of focus here. The eye leads back and forth. Trying to make up your mind decide where to rest. In doing so you get the feel from looking at the wash of the sea, that the stone and the sea are going to make a connection. A 50, 50 balance. Despite the opposite tones. The back stone being smaller. The white wash being larger with a mid tone bringing both together. May be you may feel the white wash  is more dominant? In which case it is true as it will soon over come the stone. 

This Picture took my eye as  the colour of the doors and walls impressed me. Then my eye took to the contrast of the red car against the blue. A Nice balance of colour. And the main dominating point being the car. If I had just took the car and placed it in the middle filling the frame  It would have been a picture of the car. However By taking the car far to the left as it is pointing to the right. Into the frame.  The eyes scans the picture to and from the car to the door. analysing the setting giving a story to the over all photo. And then rests back on the car. 

Taken in the setting sun in a Village in Borneo. I took many photos here as the doors windows just begged to be photographed. And inside too, were a setting to be captured. They are for future viewing.

 I enclose the finishing photo. cats eyes as Eyes seem to be the theme. A close up cropped photo of cats eyes. Green as ever. The right being the dominant one. 

Some other examples . In this case for for ground of the identical subject in the picture become dominant.

Either because its closer to the viewer. Or more in focus.

Close up of eyes: 

 Looking at the relationship between two points.

Firstly the close up, that was my end challenge. I have already taken the premeditated photos. Here I went out to take the full face . Surprisingly, to ask any one? " may I photograph your eyes? ) Is a total NO NO!

I have taken photos like this before. Not so full on, thinking to get the eyes Equal distant to each side of the frame. 

Here In Borneo. People love having their photo taken .

 Two Philippine girls shouted "photo one ringet?! HA HA . RM is malaysian Ringet. I smiled they posed. They asked One ringet ser. I said . 3 photos and took the shots "close" ? Hold still. And click! the other one rolled in Laughter trying her best to hold still. 

I got my shot. I will include the other photos for fun. I did not have 1 rm, so I gave them 5rm = £1.00

Eyes of innocence? I thin k not .

Even in life subjects . None of us are perfectly balanced . Even here looking at the girls eyes. One tends to be more dominant then the other. For the on looker.

one can have difficulty in letting ones eyes come to rest. when looking at the girls eyes. But I feel, or tend to look mostly to the eye on the right side, now the left.

This dominance may also be controlled by expression and lighting. 

This was the first photo taken. Same here but my viewing rests on the right eye. 

1:Part 2 Elements Of design . Positioning a point.

What is a  Point :

A point of  Focus? mealy the Aim, of the photograph. A place where the photographer wants the Viewer s Eyes to rest. Governing all aspects of the picture, The Point of subject. Not the theme. The place Observed. The main subject or deliberate distraction, Of what is going on. This is my definition and conclusion to this practice.


Quite interesting to read about, how points are made. As looking at the photo of the boats. Its feeling to me, passes emptiness.  I feel a lack of point, or subject in the photo. I feel that something is needed to break the empty space in the middle of the photo. As stated the eye is cheated to move back and forth, without rest. Even from the dominant ship, cannot totally over come the objective.

I have avoided such photographs and many have put aside or rejected. Because of this Viewing mater. I like the single simple approach, or the law of threes. Triangles and loops. One way to cover such a picture, if one has control over the positioning of subject, or framing. Is to move in such a ways so the objects either move, or you set the frame, so that the frame (the Rectangle that you see through the camera) Compliments, or ads composition.

6th march: Read over what I have to do. yesterday I searched for that capture of two object. I covered the next task photographing a face close up.

Its deciding what to use and expresses this subject the best. Reading this Exercise I wondered . Is it one point or two in the picture. Its a single point as in the previous exercise. 

I am going to use deliberate photos I took for this

Exercise:

This photo I took when I was in the UK. Early morning down by the river Axe .

A Duck separated its self from its mate. Looking Isolated in the water. My thoughts was to take this picture to give a relaxed mood. Just bringing the duck to the left of the frame . At fist . I felt when looking at the photo , to edit out the twig at the top. Then I felt by leaving it in, It gave a more feeling of the duck, not being in a mass of water but mealy away from the bank, with out adding to much distraction. This way the duck did not seem lost in the expanse of emptiness. As most pictures read from left to right . If the duck was on the right. It would look to the viewer, The duck was drifting out of the picture. May be it could have just come down a little more.

This exercise has really made me think. As of so many photographs I take, I balance the point with the surroundings. Now I have read over the project time and time again. I see, and think of a total new approach. It makes a Dramatic impact to where the subject is placed when there is nothing more then a plain background to compromise a simple subject. 

 Although 3 photographs are required here. I am going to throw in some more. As when I am doing underwater photography. More then often I am face with this exact problem.

When it come to just a picture of a sea creature. Be it a fish or a Nudybranch.       ( Slug) I see many of my photographs looking like documental pictures, and nothing so artistic. Boring to say the least 

Here are two classic examples :

One can be over whelmed by the subject and colour. Looking at these photos, They are more a reference photograph then of something of beauty. To much in the centre, and very Static. 

So Back to my Exercise ! 

Picture 2 

A mollusk creeps across the morning sand. Leaving a pattern in the sand. taking the picture with the point to the left bottom corner makes the picture more interesting. As the old saying. dead in the center. Bringing life to the subject. More visual Impact A 680 

Locks .I took many like this. Some rich in colour,  others rust and old. 

This one captured my eye . The pastel colour .More to the eye. The locks shining and some how, giving a resting mood.  

Placing the locks to the right made the picture come together. at a slight angle breaks the  continuos repetition of static lines.