The Crucifix of Badia Fiorentina, Florence

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

Concept: Balance (dynamic equilibrium); Single point (extreme periphery); Triangles (downward-pointing)

Description: The eye is naturally drawn to bright points of light, in this case the window in the apse of the Florentine Abbey, a site famous for manuscript copying and illumination. The framing of the window at the periphery is to accommodate the size and position of the crucifix - its visual counterweight. There are two main triangles: a literal downward-pointing triangle, whose two sides are formed by the crucifix's suspending filaments; a horizontal triangle implied by the apse window and the cross.

Title: 'Assumption of the Virgin'

A Sunflower in Classe, Emilia Romagna

Photograph Copyright ©2012 Loo Yen Yeo. All Rights Reserved.

Concept: Circles and ellipses (implication); Single point (centre); Frame shape (non-bias patterns)

Description: Fields of sunflowers line the way from Classe back to Ravenna. This is a classic photograph where a normally static central placement of a single point, the flower's centre, lets the sunflower's pattern tell the story. Sunflowers owe their dynamic pattern to the Fibonacci sequence, which encourage the eye to trace clockwise or counter-clockwise spirals simultaneously.

Multiple concentric circles are strongly implied, and the central point of focus is accentuated by the radiation of bright yellow petals whose tapered bases vector mildly inwards.

Title: Mesmerising

03.01 Single Point

The single point is the most basic of graphical elements. It is small relative to the image, but should contrast with its background in such a way that it is the first thing the viewer sees. An example would be a long distance shot of a sailing boat on the ocean.

Single points may be compositionally placed:

1. in the centre - usually creating a static image
2. moderately off-centre - some dynamism
3. at the extreme periphery - a highly dynamic or unstable image requiring justification

Brunelleschi's Lantern, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence

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

Concepts: Frame dynamics (alignment); Single point (moderately off-centre)

Description: There are actually two alignments: lines of the Temple of the Apocalypse in Vasari's 'Last Judgement' with the top and right edges of the frame; and the lower-most putti [cherubs] seem to jump off the bottom of the frame. The single point is the brightly-lit negative space of the lantern's interior (although  bigger than what one would expect).

Title: Putti-powered flight