Beautiful Things

Friday, 31 May 2013

02.11 Depth

Photography, like Renaissance painting, seeks to manipulate perspective; to reduce or enhance feelings of depth in the image. Control of perspective, and therefore management of image depth, may be achieved using the below. However when applying these controls, you must remember that each image has its own viewpoint - its own distinct frame of reference - which is quite separate from viewpoints outside of its frame. (See later post).

Controlling Depth Clues

Strengthening depth

multiple connected planes
use a wide-angle lens very close to the subject, angled to a distant object
more directional lighting, less diffused lighting
brighter tones in the foreground, darker tones in the background
warmer hues in the foreground, cooler hues in the background
have a short depth-field of focus such that the subject plane is in focus but those on other planes are less so
place relative scale markers (e.g. human figures) as reference points on each plane

Diluting depth

fewer planes, disconnected
use a telephoto lens (or zoom facility) with a viewpoint as far away from the subject with few distance reference markers in-between
less directional lighting, more diffused lighting
darker tones in the foreground, brighter tones in the background
cooler hues in the foreground, warmer hues in the background
maximise the depth-field of focus so that distant objects are as sharp as nearby ones
reduce atmospheric haze (using filters) to compensate for tonal changes

Thursday, 30 May 2013

02.10 Perspective

Perspective is the appearance of objects arranged in space, from the viewpoint of the observer. It is one of the defining characteristics of Renaissance art, distinguishing it from the late-medieval Gothic art which preceded it, and one of the reasons why this project on visual composition began.

Optics presents distant objects as being comparatively smaller than identical ones nearby, and yet, our brain is able to understand them as being small and yet full-scale simultaneously. Multiple identical points arranged into two lines equidistant from each other; for example, milestones on either side of a straight road, will appear to get closer to each other (converge) as we travel further away from them, even though we know they remain the same distance apart. This is the perceptual phenomenon of "scale constancy".

We should have a conscious knowledge of the perspectival clues our eyes recognise when comprehending depth, as a necessary first step to being able to control the feeling of depth in an image.

Perspectival clues

Linear perspective
Two or more parallel lines converge or imply convergence at a distant vanishing point. This applies vertically as well as horizontally, but the latter is easier for the eye to accept.
Diminishing perspective
A special instance of linear perspective, where objects of known scale have aspects in inverse proportion to their distance from the viewer e.g. a single row of trees receding into the distance.
Aerial perspective
Contrast and colour tone diminish as distance increases due to diffusion by atmospheric haze.
Colour perspective
Air absorbs warmer-hued light (longer wavelengths) than colder-hues; we perceive warmer colours as advancing and cooler colours as receding.
Tonal perspective
As a result of our reality-exposure to atmospheric diffusion, we perceive higher contrasts as being closer to us and lower contrasts as farther away.
Sharpness
Diffusion of light due to atmospheric haze makes the outlines of distant objects less sharp.

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: --

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

01.08 Cropping

Cropping is part of the optional editing process which happens after the photograph has been taken. It occurs often in the print-making from black-and-white film, where darkroom development is within easy reach. Print-making from colour film is much more complicated, and most photographers resort to commercial labs where the process is taken out of their hands. However with the advent of digital photography, the editing process has seen a resurgence.

Cropping, or the process of removing sections from the image frame inwards, is very powerful because:

it can alter the visual composition and hence the message of the image;
design decisions can be deferred from the instance of image capture; and
it allows for new possibilities of composition to be explored.

The trade-off is that cropping is a subtractive process - there is a loss of information, so images should be taken in as high a resolution as possible. Excessive reliance of post-production processes, especially cropping, can lead to sloppy composition at the time of capture. It's always better to start off with the best possible original material.

Monday, 27 May 2013

Castel Sant'Angelo by Night, Rome

Concept: Curves (relationship to straight lines); Curves (implication); Multiple points (line dynamics)

Description: The curving sweep of the Tiber's northern bank accelerates the eye towards the sodium-lit ramparts of Castel Sant'Angelo, the brightest-lit patch of the photograph, and then across Ponte Sant'Angelo (perpendicular to the curve's tangent at that point) to the southern bank.

Title: Sant'Angelo - a beacon in Tiberian night

Sunday, 26 May 2013

03.06 Curves

Curves can be viewed as comprising a series of very short lines of gradually changing orientation. This gives curves special set of design properties.

A sense of rhythm and speed, and therefore of flow.
An overall orientation (based on the sum of fragment orientations) and therefore a sense of direction.
A smooth dynamic on account of their linear fragments' gradual changes in orientation.
A feeling of enclosure because curves are fragments of circular/elliptical circumferences.

Thus a curve will interact a straight line, and the dynamics of that interaction will be most influenced by the curve fragments closest to the straight line. This has three practical effects:

if the orientation of the curve fragment and the straight line is the same (i.e. parallel), then there is low dynamic tension, and a reinforcement of flow.
if the orientation of the curve fragment to the straight line is perpendicular (i.e. at a right-angle), then there is high dynamic tension and a redirection of flow to the radial centre of the curve (i.e. the curve's focal point).
curves interact less with the image frame, because dynamic tension is not maintained over the length of their relationship.

Curves are useful design tools because of their powerful ability to direct the viewer's eye; either along their length by flow or to their focal point by implication.

Curves cannot be artificed by the photographer (without the use of a fish-eye lens, in which case, then everything in the image will be curved), they have already to exist in real life perhaps by momentary implication. What can be controlled is the degree of curvature, which can be affected by acuteness of viewing angle.

Saturday, 25 May 2013

Hunting in the Garden of Roses, Oltrarno, Florence

Following a stream of tourists on their ascent to Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence's Oltrarno district, I stumble across Giardino delle Rose whose modest side-entrance barely registers with the climbing barbarian horde. Jean-Michel Folon's installation, 'Partir', is a red rag to a bull.

It's pretty obvious that Jean-Michel's drawn from Masaccio's 'Holy Trinity' in Basilica di Santa Maria Novella; there has to be one sweet spot where everything comes together, but there's no handy 'x' on the floor. Close-up and focussing on the installation doesn't cut it.

A slightly lower vantage point and focussing on Palazzo Vecchio's bell tower remains unconvincing. The sweet spot must be behind me and I start drawing back. Also, there's no visual 'hook', no relationship... apart from the installation to the view, which would only result in a "that's nice" sort of picture.

As I back up, a fellow tourist-photographer walks into shot. Suddenly there's the possibility for a stronger three-way relationship between her, the installation, and the view.

I want to keep my distance so that my presence doesn't distract her, so I use the zoom on my hand-held camera; and take two steps to my right to bring Palazzo Vecchio's belfry deeper into the installation frame. I'm still missing the sweet spot.

One more step to the side and I'm there. The relationship between the girl and the frame is good, but the interaction between my camera's frame and 'Partir' feels wooden. Also I'd like to exclude the gentlemen on the left from the shot - I turn my camera on its end and soften my knees to lower the perspective, so that I can look 'through' the ship's funnels more...

The moment's perfect - we're looking at her, and also what she's looking at. The lower perspective unifies the relationships and also positions central Florence through the ship's funnels, heightening the depth of our visual field. The framing adds dynamism and excludes the unbalancing presence of the two men, while retaining their shadows to add symmetry. The young woman and her scarf counterweight the square patch of paving.