05.03 Reactive

Reactive shooting relies on the photographer's ability to recognise an unfolding opportunity (observation) and to take advantage of that opportunity before the moment has passed (reaction). These are the hallmarks of street photography, because that's what's necessary in order to capture its images.

Successful outcomes of reactive photography are highly prized; and their virtuoso exponents, of whom Henri Cartier-Bresson is regarded as one of the foremost, are highly respected due, in no small part, to the recognition of how little control the artists have over their shooting environments.

This does not make reactive photography any more legitimate than its opposing counterpart, planned shooting. More realistically, reactive photography occupies one end of the shooting spectrum with planned photography at the other extreme. Between these is the 'half-planned' shoot, where favourable conditions are established, and then reactive shooting is allowed to take its course.

Laura and Andrea, "Rome Calling" in Discoteca di Stato, Rome

Photograph Copyright ©2011 Loo Yen Yeo. All Rights Reserved.

Concept: Eye-lines (direct eye contact); Content (strong); Reactive (half-planned); Moment (emotion);

Description: At the end of "Rome Calling", TC Electronic's inaugural seminar series on Audio Mastering, Andrea (right) called me over to pick up my credential. "Surely you can put more into the presentation of my hard-won cert?" I cajoled mischievously. Laura and Andrea held up the frame between them, the smiles from my playful teasing still on their lips.

I only had one shot at capturing their loveliness in an unguarded moment. This photo was the result.

Title: Loo's Certified

02.14 Content

The content of an image should not be confused with the subject.

Content is the result of the approach a photographer takes in resolving the subject into an image. The directness of the approach is what determines whether the content is considered strong or weak.

Strong content
The fact of the event is paramount, and the manner of its capture is to document this fact as clearly as possible. Image composition is of a practical bent. News photography, or reportage, is the best example.

Weak content
The treatment of the subject - abstractive, generic and symbolic - is paramount, not the fact of it. A subject is imaged for "what else it is" (Bruce Barnbaum in "The Art of Photography"). Image composition is of an unusual bent. Expressive and abstractive art photography are good examples.

A strong cautionary tale about the seductive tensions between strong and weak content can be in Michael Freeman's "The Photographer's Eye". George Rodger was a photographer who entered Belsen concentration camp alongside Allied troops towards the end of the Second World War. In a later interview, he said:

"When I discovered that I could look at the horror of Belsen - 4,000 dead and starving lying around - and think only of a nice photographic composition, I knew something had happened to me and it had to stop."

Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Trevi, Rome

Photograph Copyright ©2011 Loo Yen Yeo. All Rights Reserved.

Concept: Eye-lines (looking at another object); Diagonal lines (ordering); Cartesian lines (vertical);

Description: In Nicola Salvi's sumptuous baroque creation, the central figure of Oceanus stands in an alcove on a shell reminiscent of Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus', his eye-line directing ours to the rearing mount of a triton in front of him. Eye-lines from the allegories of Abundance (left) and Salubrity (right) reinforce the vector.

Salvi's design utilises a framework of vertical elements: Corinthian columns varying in scale to create a bulge in the middle of the façade with a semi-domed recess; from which spill irregular shapes of statuary, lent dynamism by the also-issuing water.

This image was cropped to emphasise the diagonal of morning light from top-right to bottom left; a line which imposes order on the composition: from the Corinthian capital of the right-most column, to the frieze atop the right-most column of the alcove, then Oceanus and his eye-line, ending finally at the tension in the triton-horse sculptural group.

Title: --

03.07 Eye-lines

The strongest implied line is the eye-line - the direction which someone is looking at. The eye-line owes its insistence to three factors:

1. the high visual weight of the human face;
2. the high visual weight of the eyes in the human face; and
3. the Gestalt theory of Continuity.

Simply put, we want to see what others are looking at, because what interests someone else might well interest us too.

If eye-lines are present in a composition, they will nearly always be important structural elements because of their hard-to-dilute inherent power of directing the viewing eye. Eye-lines take two common forms:

• Direct eye-contact with the viewer
  The observer has direct first-person involvement with the image. This kind of eye-line is the highest attractant.
• Looking at another object
  Used to point out an object of interest, the observer has a third-person involvement. If the eye-line is directed at something out of frame, this introduces ambiguity which creates either delay or a sense of suspension.

02.12 Visual weight

Visual weight is based on the idea that visual elements differ in their ability to draw attention to themselves - some do so more than others. Those elements which attract our eye more are described synesthetically as being visually 'heavier'.

Fluency with the use of visual weight allows an artist to convey importance of meaning and to establish order in a composition.

• Importance of meaning
  Increasing the visual weight of an element elevates its importance, and decreasing its weight causes the element to recede into the conceptual background.
   
• Establishing order
  The viewer's eye starts at the most attractive (i.e. attention-grabbing, not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing) element and moves to the next-most attractive, and then the next. There is, therefore, an order to viewing: a hierarchy based on decreasing visual weight. Composers utilise this hierarchy to direct the viewer's sequence of seeing.
   

Visual weight is thus the building block of symmetry, balance, and harmony. Graphical factors which influence visual weight include:

1. Size
The more an object fills the frame, the greater its visual weight, the more its implicit importance.

2. Saturation
Richer, deeper hues are visually heavier than lighter, washed-out hues.

3. Contrast
The greater the tonal contrast, the more dynamic the image and the higher its visual weight.
A note of caution though - it's important to ask, "does this suit the mood of the image I want to create?". Sometimes a low-contrast image like that of the Venetian lagoon in a misty morning may have a more enduring appeal.

4. Placement
The further from the centre, the more dynamic the placement, the greater its visual weight. Note: the more extreme the placement, the greater the need for conceptual justification.

5. Complexity
An element may be made 'heavier' by aggregating it with identical elements to form a larger, more complex, patterned or textured mass (see the Gestalt Theories of Visual Perception).

6. Actuality
Drawn on our knowledge-base of real-world experience, a physically heavy object will be perceived as heavy. A mass of feathers in the foreground can be outweighed by a marble statue in the distance.

In addition to graphical elements, there are subjects which possess high attraction weightings:

I - The Human Face
Our eyes are highly attracted to the human face and particularly its informational components: the eyes and mouth.

II - Inscriptions
Writing, whether we understand the language or not, heavily draws the eye because of its informational value.

III - Emotional
A nebulous category and contingent upon the personal interests of the viewer, themes include: sexual e.g. burlesque; 'cuteness' e.g. puppies; horror e.g. genocide; fashion; disgust e.g. environmental contamination; desirable materials e.g. gems; and novelty items.

The Monumental Baroque Staircase, Giardino Bardini, Florence

Photograph Copyright ©2013 Loo Yen Yeo. All Rights Reserved.

Concept: Diagonal lines (multiple); Diagonal lines (zig-zags)

Description: Taken in the very early Florentine spring, the planting has yet to come into bloom. Lines which are parallel in real life - like the staircase and the hedge; and the paths of each tier - are rendered non-parallel through the use of a wide-angle lens.

A restricted colour palette accentuates the form-lines; and it is the profusion of diagonal lines and their convergences (between paths, flower-bed edgings, stairs and hedges) which create zig-zagging sharp visual switch-backs that energise this picture.

Title: Playgrounds