Mausoleo di Galla Placidia, Ravenna

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

Concept: Texture (kinesthetic)

Description: The vault of the southern transept of Mausoleo di Galla Placidia. The only doorway is on the south wall, and strong directional afternoon sunlight brightly illuminates the ceiling mosaics with hard incident light. This picks out the textural qualities of the fine tiles by relief, especially in the upper-half of the image.

Title: Golden sunlight

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

Concept: Pattern (regular)

Description: In the north transept, the lesser amounts of incident light (particularly in the image centre) present a flatter image, emphasising the pattern of the mosaic over its texture.

02.08 Texture

"The structure of an object is its form...
 the structure of the material from which it is made is its texture" 

     - Michael Freeman  in 'The Photographer's Eye'

Texture arises from the representation of similar elements countless in number, at a minute size relative to the overall size of the image. Texture is thus a function of scale: think of the ears of wheat in an image of an extensive wheat field. A defining characteristic of texture is that should appeal most to our kinesthesia - our sense of touch - despite being observed via our visual sense,

Surface texture is observed clearest when illuminated by directional lighting at an acute angle: the smoother or finer the texture (i.e. the larger the scale), the more acute the incident light required to emphasise the relief*. The limit of this approach is reached when the surface is so smooth as to be reflective, in which case no angle of incidence and produce shadow contrast.

*Relief is a sculptural technique where a raised 'figure' is created by carving away the 'ground' or background. The clarity of the figure relies on the creation of shadow contrast, created by incident light, to give it definition (see Relief).