Balance

Here i took 6 of my images and tried to analyse the balance in each and how it effects the composition.


In this image the 2 main features that balance this compostition are the sign and the bridge to the right. The sign is larger but because it is more central the smaller bridge seems to balance the composition evenly.


In this image the main features that i notice are the triangle of earth leading into the image and the tree on the right. The triangle is quite central but the tree moves the balance slightly to the right. this image is not 100% balanced.

The features here that balance the image are the car on the far right, cars in the centre and the street sign on the left. The light on the road also balances the frame with the houses in the opposite corner of the frame.


It is easy to see, even at first glance that this image is balanced. The main focus is perfectly central and the buildings each side balance eachother.


I feel that even though the dark mass of the building here is to the left the composition is somehow balanced. This may be the fact that the right side is lighter than the left meaning that the light area balances the dark.

Again, this central composition balances the image purely because of it's simplicity. All of the viewers attention is drawn directly to the centre.

From this you can see that good compositions are often naturally very balanced. There is a danger of seeing this as a rule and taking every shot the same way. i believe that while this is a good starting point for composition, innevitably some shots will simply work better in another way.

Focal Length at different viewpoints.

For this is used the same momument as in the previous exercise and shot it at 55mm and at 18mm trying to fill the frame each time. The photographs turned out very well andthe images varied in character and mood immensely.

The change in viewpoint and focal length had a massive effect on perspective and the severity of the converging verticals.

55mmThis shot feels very natural. The verticles converge in a natural way, the subject feels connected to the foreground and the perspective is as the eye would see it. It is recorded in a very normal way.

18mmPerspective here is more unnatural however the subject does feel more connected with the background that the foreground. Verticals converge quite sharply and there appears to be some foreshortening of the monument. The structure appears to 'loom' over you in this pic.

This just shows that the mood and atmosphere of a shot can be changed by using a focal length and a shooting position to suit the shot you are trying to achieve.

Focal Length

I needed an open vista here with some interest in the frame for a closer shot at a longer length. I used a local monument that looks out across the town and is one of the highest points for miles around.

I took several shots, 18mm, 34mm, 55mm and 300mm.

The images did not seem to alter in terms of perspective, just that all of the items in the frame appeared larger. If the 18mm shot had high enough resolution, you could simply crop down to the 300mm shot. This can be seen below:


My favourite image of them all was the 55mm crop. The monument was a clear feature but the backdrop exposed well with good colours and a nice composition. It can be seen here:



The 300mm shot did not expose very clearly and isn't 100% sharp due to camera shake. The colours are very muted and there is nothing to grab your attention in the frame. It was a very unsuccessful image.

Sequence of Composition

For this exercise i chose a patch of forest at a local countryside park as my area to find a subject. I liked the lighting through the thin canopy, casting interesting shadows and the colour of the leaves on the ground. There were also interesting shaped to be found in the trees.

Below is the sequence of images i took. I started by finding something interesting and using the viewfinder from this point to find an interesting composition. The subject did change several times during the sequence but was still the same area of landscape.

This tree is the one with the swing attached to it. From here i took several shots of the swing, varying the composition and below are the results that i came up with. I decided that this would be the final subject for my composition. Below are some of the shots i took. Some are in Black and white because i felt the images worked better and were more striking than the colour versions.


This was probably my favourite image of the sequence. There is interesting in the foreground and the swing is the obvious subject, the background is busy without being too destracting and the monochrome effect adds an almost sinister mood to the shot. I did not process the shot at all other than the black and white conversion as i tried to incorporate what i had learned from looking at the photographs of wildlife photographer Andy Rouse (www.andyrouse.co.uk) He managed to capture his subject, in it's surroundings while making it prominant and without making the background too destracting. He also uses almost no post processing.



In this shot i attempted a more close up shot of the rope where it is knotted. I liked the way the light shone through the thin strands of frayed rope and was happy with the composition, however i found it too dark and did not like how destracting the background was.



A more close up shot of the rope, with a more cental composition. Again i felt the background was too busy here.



For the penultimate image i tried a more energetic angle for the composition. I think the angle worked to separate the subject further from the background and i liked the shadows that crossed the image. This made for a very strage image.



This is the final image in the sequence and at this point i had established that shooting in portrait was the best way to capture the swing. The background is nicely out of focus and i liked the black and white conversion. The composition felt balanced but i didn't like how the vertical rope lost it's impact to the verticals of the trees in the background.

If this exercise has taught me anything, it is that a picture is made or destroyed by the photographers ability to compose the frame correctly. This is a very important part of photography, and even though my final images weren't incredible, i feel that i understand the importance of using the viewfinder to compose the scene.

Andy Rouse

I've just visited the website of a well known wildlife photographer 'Andy Rouse' and am in awe at the quality of images he produces. What i noticed initally was his ability to capture his subjects in their natural environment and make the images come to life without the use of (from what i can tell) post processing.

I particularly liked his images of gorillas, something which i imagine to be a difficult subject in such dense jungle. He uses the vivid greens of the foliage to frame the subject and bring the eye to rest where he intends it to while using just enough DOF to allow the backgrounds to be distinguishable yet not destracting.

If i have learned anything from viewing his images it is that a good photo doesn't need heavy processing to be striking. Using what is produced in the camera is enough.

Link - Andy Rouse Photography - http://www.andyrouse.co.uk/index.asp

One of the first sunny days this year.

A few of my sunny day shots i got during the nice weather. If only it would stay around for longer...



This is Poppy having some fun in the sun with her favourite ball. I liked the expression on her face here but i think the composition would've been nicer with the ball slightly more to the left.


A sparrow sat on some plastic piping here, I like the way that the piping leads the eye diagonally from bottom left inwards to the main subject and i was pretty happy with how well focussed it was. I also liked how the colour turned out.

I'm reaching a point where all my photos are looking better after i apply a vignette and wonder if this is wise or not. I'm also, looking back at my images on the blog, going to make a pledge to approach each excercise with the aim of achieving a technically good and usable image rather than 'a tick in a box' for the excercise since i felt i was doing this.

Subject in different positions in the frame.

For this i used a very simple subject. I used a peppercorn as the main subject and a layer of large grains of salt as the background. I was attempting to create a striking and contrasty shot from 2 simple subjects and make something mundane and otherwise boring, interesting.

I took 4 differently framed compositions and ordered them from favourite to least favourite. My favourite shot was chosen because i felt that the composition had a purpose. It seemed intentional and kept central interest without splitting the frame too much. It was also on an intersection on a grid of thirds.

My second favourite shot was the dead central one. Even though it 'punctured' the background and grabbed attention away from the rest of the frame i found that the added impact worked well.

The third in line was a shot with the subject one the edge of the frame in the lower left. This did not work at all. It didn't seem intentional, had no central interest and seemed to throw your eye outside of the frame. There was no natural way to 'read' the image.

My least favourite shot was the first i took. It had no intentional composition whatsoever and it was clear. The main subject was almost central but still off line. It didn't work at all for me.

Fitting the Frame to the Subject

For this excercise i took 4 shots of an old cutting machine. In one shot i just framed the subject in whichever way was easiest to record the scene. In the next, i framed as tightly as possible, the third i took a close up of the most interesting part of the machine, and in the final shot i tried to put the subject into context by framing as much of the background and surroundings in as possible.

The most successful shot by far was the contextual shot but the composition of the tightly framed shot was also pleasing to the eye. After i had done this, i then cropped each image down to improve the composition of the framing. I found that the crops tended to place the points of interest on the intersections between lines drawn to separate the frame into thirds. I also found that when the subject created lines of thirds this worked well, and finally, lines running from bottom left to top right improved composition. All of the above can be seen in the images, below:

Excercise - Panning with different shutter speeds.

The subject i chose for this excercise was slightly different to the last one, i used passing vehicles on a street and tried to frame the shot so that half the frame was background and half the moving subject. My original attempt at using birds in flight as the subject was binned because the subject was too fast to track and keep central. I used shutter speeds of 1/400, 1/250, 1/160, 1/100, 1/60, 1/40, 1/25, 1/15, 1/5 and 0.30 sec (in order below) and tried to pan with the subject at a focal length of roughly 120mm. My technique at following the moving target (or lack of) effected some of the slower speed shots and camera shake is evident. Results below:




For me the most successful image is between 1/60 and 1/15. Both are quite well balanced between background blur and subject sharpness. 1/15 is sharp because the panning was successful whereas 1/60 is sharp enough because of the shutter speed.

This is something i think i can apply when tracking moving targets in future. If i get a single attempt to capture the shot, a slower shutter speed would be useful but if i can repeat the shot until the tracking is right i could slow the speed for more background blur.

Excercise - Shutter Speed

In this excercise i used a running tap as my subject. With shutter priority turned on so that the camera automatically adjusts the aperture to keep the exposure constant, i took 10 shots at different speeds to capture the effect it had on motion blur. I used the speeds: 4sec, 1sec, 1/4sec, 1/10sec, 1/20sec, 1/50sec, 1/100sec, 1/160sec, 1/250sec and 1/400sec.

The results can be seen below.
- 4 sec - water barely visible - appears as a slight mist over the background
- 1 sec - water slightly visible - appears as a blurred mass - no highlights/shadows
- 1/4 sec - water still very blurry - Some highlights/shadows
- 1/10 sec - As above - slightly more highlights/shadows
- 1/20 sec - Even more detail + sharpness - becoming apparent that subject is water - detail in fastest part of the image beginning to show
- 1/50 sec - Darker shadows, sharper and more detail in fast area of image
- 1/100 sec - Image frozen in some parts - lots of detail in slower areas
- 1/160 sec - Image almost all frozen
- 1/250 sec - All frozen, even fast water
- 1/400 sec - As above - Maximum detail

For me personally, if i was shooting this type of subject, i would use a speed of roughly 1/100 sec. At this point there is enough detail in the water while still allowing some motion blur in order to capture the speed of the action and keep the photo interest there.