Beautiful Things: Frame shape: uninsistent

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Piazzale Michelangelo, Florence

Concepts: Frame shape (an uninsistent frame)

Description: A bright clear day on Piazzale Michelangelo overlooking Florence. The scene abounds with colours, textures, and points of interest - there is plenty of potential for re-composition through cropping.

Title: Florence uncut

Concepts: Cropping; Horizon (emphasising sky)

Description: A strong crop from both top and bottom frame edges with more space given over to the sky, the original width is retained. The eye sees the arrow-like high cloud formation right-of-centre which directs it down to the hill onto the spires of Florence. The thin ratio of ground to sky is intentionally unbalanced, concentrating the eye strongly on the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Despite the higher proportion of sky, the most visual tension centres around the Duomo.

Title: Heaven on Earth

Concepts: Cropping; Horizon (foreground interest)

Description: A crop from both top and bottom frame edges with space given over to the foreground, the original width is retained. Palazzo Serristori, the reddish-brown mansion in the centre, is the visual fulcrum of the image - an apex of at least three triangles with Brunelleschi's dome and Torre d'Arnolfo; Brunelleschi's dome and the viewing platform; and with the topiary hedge.

Title: Seeing Florence

Concepts: Cropping; Horizon (similar proportions)

Description: A crop from both top and bottom frame edges with emphasis upon the middle distance, the original width is unchanged. This time Torre d'Arnolfo is the first draw, followed by Palazzo Serristori, and then Brunelleschi's dome creating a single triangle. Ponte Vecchio assumes more prominence, setting up a line through the tower and dome, and a lesser triangle with the tower and the palazzo. This is a simpler, more coherent composition to that with foreground dominant.

Title: Three Icons

Concepts: Cropping; Frame shape (shooting vertically)

Description: An all-around crop to vertical format is possible. In this case the message is the human activity of the foreground against a historic city backdrop. The fore and mid-ground textures would be too dense if they weren't balanced by suitable expanse of sky.

Title: --

Concepts: Cropping; Frame shape (the square frame)

Description: An all-around crop to the challenging square format. Composing in a square frame can be awkward, and cropping helps us achieve it post-capture. Although the perspective best shows off the direction of light on the bell tower of Chiesa di San Niccolò in the lower right, and then the curve of the Arno sweeping up to the three bridges, there's a touch too much sky for perfect balance - but that lends a restless energy to this composition.

Title: --

Thursday, 2 May 2013

01.02 Frame Shape

The shape of the viewfinder as determined by its aspect ratio - normally of 3:2 (classic 35mm camera) or 4:3 (consumer camera) - strongly influences the composition of a picture, because of there is an intuitive pressure to compose right up to the edges of the frame.

The 3:2 frame has stronger 'orientationality', with most photographs being taken in the horizontal orientation for three reasons: device ergonomics; human field of vision; and the portrait position is perceived as being too elongated.

The 4:3 frame being shorter and fatter, has less orientation bias and exerts less pressure on composition. It is hence less insistent.

The 1:1 frame, like the Polaroid or instagram images, is uncommon for good reason. Few subjects lend themselves to the "tyranny of its perfect equilibrium" (Michael Freeman 2007).

Switching orientations between landscape and portrait, arises out of necessity; although a composition works well in landscape, it may be necessary to re-orientate and re-compose in portrait due to full-page print requirements.

Vertical subjects in horizontal frames can be a challenge. One strategy is to offset the vertical subject to draw the eye horizontally across the photo.

Shooting vertically, there are two important factors to take into account:

the human eye is more reluctant to move up and down than it is from side to side; and that
the bottom of the frame is assumed to be the base, therefore the focus of attention tends to below the frame's centre.

The portrait orientation is commonly used when capturing vertical subjects such as the likes of standing figures, plants, and doorways; and objects moving 'upward' in frame.

Non-bias patterns are most immune to the impact of frame shape on their successful portrayal.