Sunday 9 October 2011

Colour Theory

There are two fundamental systems in use to describe primary colours; Additive and Subtractive

The first, Additive, is used to describe the three primaries where combinations of them will produce all the colours in the visible spectrum and where the three primary colours themselves, when mixed equally, will produce white light.  This is the greatest hint of all as to where these colours are found - they are the colours of transmitted light.  The primary colours are Red, Green and Blue (RGB) and they relate particularly to light, digital cameras and displays.  This is illustrated in the figure below.



Subtractive colours are so called, because when the three primaries used in this system are mixed together in equal parts, they produce Black.  A good way to remember this is that if you remove all light, then there is nothing left and "nothing" is typically associated with Black.  In digital terms, Black has the value 0 and White is represented by 255.

Subtractive colours are Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (CMY), as used in printing, or Red, Yellow and Blue (RYB) which are used in painting and in art theory.  In a later section of this part of TAOP, the colour wheel used will be that based on the painters primaries, RYB and their complementary opposites, which are green violet and orange.  In printing, these colours are also referred to as CMYK, where K stands for black, or originally "Key Plate".  The Key Plate, in printing, was that which was used to provide or enhance detail and contrast and was usually impressed in black ink

The way subtractive colours mix is shown in the illustration below.



The figures used above have both been obtained from Wikipedia and have been released into the public domain by their author.

Complementary and harmonious colours.

First of all a simple definition of primary colours, based on that given in the course text.  Primary colours are those which cannot be further broken down into other colours.

I have already used the term "complementary", so probably best to describe here what is meant by this.  Such colours are those which are located opposite to primaries in the colour wheel.  So with the RYB model, green is complementary to red, violet to yellow and orange to blue.  Where such colours appear in a photograph, they create maximum contrast (should I be using this word here as it could be misunderstood) and can create greatest impact.

Harmonious colours are those which are located alongside each other.  Why so called?  That is because there is some harmony between them; I've seen reference to such colours giving a sense of calm and peace, though this does not really equate with the way we see colours, with oranges and reds providing striking and vibrant images, warm looking, whereas blues and greens are cool and therefore frequently regarded as restful. Less saturated harmonious colours, regardless of whether they are "hot" or "cool" produce images which are restful.

TAOP Part Three: Colour

Colour is easily taken for granted.  After all, for most of us, the world is seen in colour, in its many qualities, and we also react to colour in many different ways.  When I was introduced to photography by my parents, the films used were predominantly black-and-white and colour was reserved for "high days and holidays".  Indeed, the reproduction of colour, even to me as a child, seemed very poor, though this might have something to do with the camera used at the time - a Kodak Duaflex 2!  Certainly there seemed to be no objection to viewing the world in monochrome.  50 years on, monochrome is generally regarded as "arty" and colour is the norm.  We even accept that colour can be and is manipulated, particularly where advertising is concerned, or in almost any publication.

For many years we have accepted the way the world is reproduced by artists, whether as paintings or in print.  Here, artists have mixed colours, available as pigments, in order to produce on canvas their perception of how a scene looks in colour.

This part of TAOP addresses the basic properties of colour, learning how to control, alter and modify them in photography and to use them as an element of design.

The use of colour in design, and in particular the psychology of colour is something which is of particular interest to me and I shall be exploring that further in my learning blog.

In this section I have made use of a variety of reading matter, not least making use of that source of all knowledge - Google.  Its amazing how many articles and other works can be found by typing in "psychology of colour" as a search term!  Wikipedia has also made a contribution to my understanding.

To be honest, I almost had too much in the way of references, however these did stimulate my interest.  I was particularly interested in Pantone, and that they had been acquired in 2007 by X-Rite, who produce Colormunki, the monitor and printer calibration system.  I use Colormunki to calibrate both monitor and printer.

From the Pantone web site, I quote: "In 1963, Lawrence Herbert, Pantone's founder, created an innovative system of identifying, matching and communicating colors to solve the problems associated with producing accurate color matches in the graphic arts community. His insight that the spectrum is seen and interpreted differently by each individual led to the innovation of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM®, a book of standardized color in fan format."  The range and interpretation of colour by Pantone, is just incredible, but realistically beyond what I am trying to achieve here.

Delving into the Epson book is again outside the scope of this part of TAOP, more likely to be relevant in the Module "Digital Photographic Practice", however the book contains a lot of images which are great examples of use of design through form and colour and provide ideas and inspiration.

My references for this section include:
  • OCA TAOP course notes - Part three: Colour;
  • Basic Colour Theory - OCA Photography Course Supplement; 
  • Colour, Michael Freeman, ILEX, 2005;
  • The essential colour manual for photographers, Chris Rutter, Rotovision SA, 2006; 
  • Methuen Handbook of Colour, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1981;
  • Colour, Marshall Editions Limited, 1983;
  • EPSON Complete Guide to Digital Printing, Rob Sheppard, Lark Books, 2008; 
  • Pantone, www.pantone.com

Saturday 10 September 2011

Back to work!

I've not done much towards TAOP since early June. I developed neck pains in February which became increasingly severe, to the point where the various pain-killers which I was taking left me totally spaced out.  Eventually, in August, a lipoma was removed.  This had attached itself to the vertebrae in my neck and applied pressure on the nerves.  This, however has not been the entire solution and there is further damage to the vertebrae.  I'm due an MRI scan in just over a week and then, hopefully, the consultant will come up with a course of treatment which will help!

During this time,  I was not entirely idle - I did go to one of my favourite galleries in London - the National Portrait Gallery, but more of that later.  A day after the stitches were removed from my neck, I went to the wedding of my Brother in Law's son, and, whilst I was not the official photographer (that honour went to my other Brother in Law), I did take my camera and practiced some wedding photography!  I would welcome comments / feedback regarding these.













Meanwhile, I have also signed up for the People and Places module.  I must be mad, but I really enjoy taking photographs involving people, so I felt that this would help me with moving on with TAOP.

Sunday 5 June 2011

The Art of Seeing

Essex County Council libraries have come up trumps again.  I have managed to get my hands on two volumes of "The Art of Seeing".  This is a collection of some of the finest photographs coming from the photographers of the Reuters News Picture Service.

The vision expressed in these photographs is just amazing - there are simply too many fantastic photographs to list any particular one, though I do have some favourites.  Each is annotated by the photographer which puts the photograph in its context.  What sets these apart is that in most cases considerable thought was given into the design and structure of the photograph, despite the moment in some cases being quite fleeting.

All manner of subjects are covered, as could be expected.  From sport to dance, war and natural disasters.  Meetings of heads of state and fashion.  There is something there for all tastes, but they do have one thing in common - they are inspiring.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Assignment 2: Elements of Design

The whole process leading up to this assignment was challenging, but thoroughly enjoyable.  Certainly I feel that I am now viewing potential "subjects" with these design elements in mind.

The purpose of this visual design is to support the subject matter.  An interesting book on this subject is that by Freeman Patterson - "Photography and the art of seeing".  This was a little gem found by searching through the catalogue of books available in Essex libraries.  Quoting from the book, "If we look at something that might seem mundane, such as a gravel pit, we are first aware of what it expresses in only the most general sense: destruction, desolation, loneliness, timelessness.  The message or theme is expressed in the sum of the features of our subject matter.  It is only later that we observe the details - their shapes, textures and colours that form their inherent design."  The challenge, however is not to codify the subject matter into specific design elements, but to use these elements intuitively in order to express the qualities inherent in the subject.

The brief for this assignment called for me to incorporate the insights learned so far on this course into a set of photographs directed towards one type of subject.  I am to produce at least 10 photographs, all of a similar subject, which between them will show the following effects:

  • single point dominating the composition;
  • two points;
  • several points in a deliberate shape; 
  • a combination of vertical and horizontal lines; 
  • diagonals;
  • curves;
  • distinct, even if irregular, shapes;
  • at least two kinds of implied triangle;
  • rhythm;
  • pattern.
I chose for my subject, the buildings and gardens comprising the "Cressing Temple", This is a historic monument established by the Knight's Templar in the 13th Century.  A truly fascinating place which I visit regularly.  A link to a leaflet which gives a bit more detail is here.

A single point dominating the composition

Window:  ISO200  93mm  f11  1/160
The single point here is the window in the side of the granary house.  Its size and white colour causes it to dominate the image, even though the old brickwork is in itself interesting.  I used ISO 200 to give me flexibility as in my camera there is little loss of quality but it gives me greater flexibility.  An aperture of f11 was selected to provide good sharpness throughout without any loss of quality due to lens design.

Two points

Eyes:  ISO200  105mm  f11  1/50
Decorative heads around a water feature provided the two points for me.  The mouth contained a water spout, but the eyes are so "piercing", they just had to be done.  To enhance the image, I cropped tightly, giving a symmetrical image either side of the nose.  My concern here was to make sure that I had sufficient depth of field throughout, as I was shooting quite closely at the maximum focal length for the lens.  I also chose a "head" which was in shade so that I had even lighting throughout.  I felt that harsh shadows would detract from this image.

Several points in a deliberate shape

Lily pond:  ISO200  80mm  f16  1/40
I found that the lily leaves in the pond formed the number four, giving me this shape, which based around a triangle.  As I was shooting at an angle to the surface of the pond, I wanted to maximise my depth of field so I selected f16 as the most suitable aperture.  To me, the brickwork reflecting in the pond added texture and further interest, so I did not attempt to remove these reflections using a polarising filter.

A combination of vertical and horizontal lines

Wheat Barn detail:  ISO200  105mm  f14  1/125
For this, I was seduced by the plethora of actual horizontal and vertical lines formed by the brickwork and the wooden structure of the barn.  I felt that a "head on" shot of this wall was too static, so I moved slightly to the side giving gentle diagonals leading the eye through the photograph.  By using the modest telephoto of 105mm, I managed some compression as well which has made the wall less static.  I selected f14 as the aperture which would provide me with sufficient depth of field, from side to side and this also gave me a comfortable shutter speed for the focal length.

Diagonals

Walled garden:  ISO200  24mm  f16  1/80
The path alongside the wall in the Medieval garden has provided strong diagonals which lead the eye to the tree positioned at the end and then the small figure underneath the tree.  I enhanced the effect using a wide angle of 24mm and then used a small aperture of f16 to provide me with good sharpness throughout.

Curves

Temple grounds:  ISO200  32mm  f14  1/80
One of the paths in the grounds, leading to the walled garden in the distance, provided me with an elegant curve for this photograph.  I enhanced this by using a medium wide angle of 32mm and an aperture of f14 has provided me with good sharpness throughout.

Distinct, even if irregular, shapes

Stairway to heaven:  ISO200  32mm  f14  1/250
This fire escape caught my eye as soon as I walked in into the Cressing Temple grounds.  This led from the top floor at one end of the Granary building.  I shot this as a semi-silhouette as I wanted to retain some detail in the metal work.  To me this had a large number of shapes, ranging from curves, through vertical lines, diagonals and triangles.  What appealed to me was just the graphic nature of this structure.  I took quite a number of different shots from different angles, but this, I feel, came closest to what I wanted.  I wanted the structure to be sharp, so used an aperture of f14 and exaggerated some of the lines by using a mid-wide angle.

Two kinds of implied triangle

Corner of wheat barn:  ISO200  16mm  f16  1/30
 Shooting close to one corner of this barn, using a very wide angle has created a triangle by convergence.  This is very much a standard form of an implied triangle.

Planters:  ISO200  73mm  f18  1/30
The two planters standing on top of the wall pillars and the rounded form of the bay tree against the wall has created a natural triangle.  The viewer's eye is drawn to this triangle formed by the 3 shapes.  Standing back and using a small amount of telephoto has strengthened this effect by making the three object appear as though they were in the same plane.  I ensured good depth of field by using an aperture of f18.

Rhythm

Waves 1:  ISO200  f4  1/1250
The curved roof tiles on top of the 16th Century farmhouse in the grounds gave me plenty of opportunity to explore the use of rhythm.  I have, here selected three photographs which illustrate rhythm, using the same subject, but taken from different angles.  The tiles suggested waves to me, flowing in a strong motion from left to right.  In "waves 1", I angled the shot so as to look over the top of the waves and, additionally, I used an aperture of f4 to provide a shallower depth of field, focusing a third of the way into the frame.  This, to me adds to the sense of movement.

Waves 2:  ISO200  105mm  f13
In "waves 2", I shot this much more "square on" onto the roof, using a small aperture of f13 to provide good depth of field.  This now gives the look of repeating "U"s moving from left to right across the image.  The valley of the "U" is now much more pronounced and the tiles give the impression of crests of waves going vertically up the photograph.  Again, a definite sense of movement from left to right.  The imperfections and irregularities of the tiles seem to add to this sense of movement.

Waves 3:  ISO200  98mm  f18  1/80
In "waves 3" I wanted to give a starting point to the rhythm or movement and the small black "chimney" provided this.  Shooting lower down the roof, provided a shot of the edges of the lowest tiles and this now gives a much different impression.  Firstly, the rhythm is anchored at one end, and now the waves move from there, though they appear to have much greater peaks, giving a "choppier" movement.  I felt that for this to work, I needed to shoot at a small aperture to maximise DOF.

Pattern

Barn roof:  ISO200  105mm  f14  1/200
I found, again, I had many choices of subject, the first of which was this barn roof.  It could have been usd as a "single point" with the diamond shape in the top left.  I stared at this roof for some time and the different colours and shades of tile seemed to create patterns across the frame.  I then played around with different ways of expressing this and, by increasing blacks, brightness and contrast in Lightroom, as well as rendering the photograph in Black and White, I arrived at the image below.

Barn roof 2
In B&W this starts showing the various patterns I could see in the roof tiles - irregular, but significant.

Path:  ISO200  24mm  f16  1/80
The path, I feel is a much more natural / traditional representation of "pattern", her the bricks being laid out in what is a herringbone pattern.  The crop of the photograph enables the mind to expand the pattern, in this case, in all directions.











Saturday 21 May 2011

Hoppé Portraits - Society, Studio & Street

Well, this week I finally made it to the exhibition - on a Thursday evening during one of the National Portrait Gallery's "Late Shift". Before talking about the exhibition, I would just like to mention the concept of the "Late Shift".  This is the most innovative idea I have come across for a long time.  On Thursday and Friday evenings, the Gallery is open until 9pm, with a bar in the main foyer, a DJ playing some great music (on the day I went) and a variety of other activities.  There is a lovely relaxed atmosphere which really helps in viewing the exhibitions.

The first thing which struck me about the exhibition was how prolific HoppĂ© was - I imagine that the photographs which were on display were only a part of the main collection.  Some of the photographs were original vintage photographs and some were modern reprints - however this did not detract from the pleasure of viewing them.

So what were my impressions.  HoppĂ© captured the spirit of the subject, whether the androgynous look of Vaslav Nijinsky (1914) image here, the confidence of a young Margot Fonteyn (1935) see image, taken after her first major performance at the age of 16, or the thoughtfulness of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1912) see image here. With regard to much of his early work, there is a soft quality in the vintage prints which just could not be reproduced in digital.  This is not just due to the very wide apertures used by Hoppe, but also the materials of the period, such as the gelatin silver prints.

One of the most exciting series of prints in this exhibition, was "street" which was Hoppe's venture into street photography, sometimes using cameras which were hidden inside brown bags with a hole for the lens!  It is, however, a great insight into English and in particular, London, life.  Here were some of my favourite photographs:

British Museum Underground Station (1937) see image here, for me the curves of the tunnel, the positioning of the man looking at the advert and the light pouring in from the end of the tunnel come together just so well that I am constantly drawn to it.

Sandwich Board Man (1945)  see image here  There is a tremendous dignity of the Indian person who was carrying the advertising boards.  Clearly he is on a the street, but the use of the wide aperture and the low positioning of the camera, give the man such great importance.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Assignment 2: Planning and execution

Well, I have at last arrived at the point where all the exercises and projects which lead up to the assignment have been completed and its time to get going with the assignment.  I have been working up to this in the background and have set myself the task of completing this assignment within the grounds and in the barns, garden, grounds of Cressing Temple as well as some of the activities going on in there.  I feel that doing it this way and basing it around a pretty small area, will be quite challenging and will provide some photo-journalistic feel to the assignment.

Exercise: Rhythms and patterns

Following on from the preceding commentary, is an exercise where the brief asks for at least 2 photographs; to convey rhythm and to show pattern.  I have taken several photographs in my quest to demonstrate this and have chosen two of each as representative.

Rhythm

Barn wall:  ISO 200  105mm f14 1/125
 I have given this image a tight horizontal crop as I feel that this works well and accentuates the design so that the viewer's eye can move from point to point in a rythmical way.  To make this work, I have taken this at a slight angle and compressed the perspective using a telephoto lens setting.  By using f14 as the aperture, I provided sufficient sharpness across the image.  The eye movement is from black post to black post and some lingering with the brickwork framed by the posts.
Mongol bows:  ISO 400  84mm f4  1/60
A pretty "neutral" arrangement of the bows arranged in a tent at a medieval fair.  The angle / curvature of the bows is such that the eye is led across the frame from left to right.  I used the widest aperture available to me on that lens as I wanted to reduce and remove distractions from the background, however this was not entirely successful.  Again, I have used a tight crop to match the flow.

Patterns

Arrows:  ISO 200  65mm  f4  1/1000
 The photograph of the arrows standing vertically in a container has created a significant pattern.  I used a shallow deoth of field to try and add to the abstract quality of this pattern.  A tight crop gives the suggestion that there is more to this pattern than can be seen immediately.  This certainly works for me!

Leather bags:  ISO 200  35mm f5.6  1/125
 This time the pattern is made up of clearly visible and identifiable objects.  They are suspended on a grid and by cropping, the suggestion is that there are more bags to be seen and that the pattern extends beyond the present boundary which I have imposed.  In my view the pattern works with a limited number of objects and the viewer can try to organise them into shapes.

A bit of both?

Footpath:  ISO 200  24mm f16  1/80
Within the walled garden in Cressing Temple, the footpaths are made of this brick, herringbone design.  When I took this shot, the sky had clouded over, so I enhanced this slightly in Lightroom, giving an extra 1/2 stop exposure and moving the left hand side of the histogram until black clipping just occurs.  The effect has been to give greater clarity to the design.

The question is whether this shows rhythm or whether it is a pattern.  I shot this initialy with pattern in mind, however, looking at it on the screen there seems to be more than just a suggestion of flow across the frame, in both directions.  Therefore should this be classified as rhythm?

Project: Rhythm and pattern

Rhythm has been defined in our text as dynamic repetition and pattern as spatial repetition.  What does this mean?  When we want to have the viewer's eye move across the frame or photograph we need to establish a sequence across the photograph which conveys movement.  An example of this from some of my previous photographs could be:

Beach Huts: ISO 200  160mm  f16  1/250
 In the photograph above, I have reproduced it cropped to emphasize the rhythm or movement across the frame.  Even though these are static objects, the differences in colour create a flow across the frame.  This was shot at an optimum aperture to ensure sharpness and good depth of field, whilst still providing a good shutter speed to ensure lack of camera shake.

Pattern is very much static and not neccessarily ordered.  There is no flow so the eye takes in the whole.  Ideally patterns would fit the frame to ensure there is no distraction.  Patterns would also have large numbers of individual items, whether actual items, shapes or patches of colour.

Peacock:  IS0 200  80mm  f5.6  1/125
In the photograph above I have used an old image of a peacock which I have given a tighter crop to emphasize the pattern and to contrast it with the photograph which shows rhythm.  The tight frame also suggests that there is more of the pattern available.

Project: Circles

The text says that circles are less easy to find and they are dependent on real objects.  They are a powerful boundary and carry greater weight of importance compared to other design features.


Ring:  ISO 800 100mm f5.6 1/500
 In the photograph above, despite there being an implicit triangle in the design, whose boundaries are the tree branches, the Gunnera plant on the left and the lake edge, it is the lifebelt which leaps out of the photograph.  I saw this image in precisely that way - unfortunately in my haste I did not consider the camera setting which I had used - an ISO of 800 was unnecessary here.

Red Cabbage Tree:  ISO 200  105mm  f8  1/200
The cabbage on this vegetable stallattracted my attention - even though we have the strong, white core of the cabbage pointing inwards - diagonals - the main design feature to me are the concentric rings provided by the cabbage's own structure.  The shallow depth of field, created by the close up and use of a telephoto setting adds to ensuring that the focus of the viewer's attention is the heart of the cabbage.

Door decorations:  ISO 200  28mm  f9  1/80
I consider this to be an example of an implicit circle which has been created by the "ring" of metal "flowers" arranged on this door.  The eye is not distracted by the shape to the right, it is always led to the centre by virtue of strength of this circular arrangement.  I used a square framing to this image as I felt this was the most appropriate way to present it.  Somehow, circles work well in a square, perhaps because they have, in common, a regularity and tightness of shape.

Project: Rectangles

Rectangles to me are solid frames within which there may be something else.  They reflect the "frame" of a "negative" and are strong at providing structure and order to the image.

To us, frames are typically doors and windows, so there may be a suggestion of something else within.  Use of rectangles and the more specialised form of rectangle, the square, are a design device of splitting the overall frame into parts, the most classic of these being the Golden Section. As a consequence, because this organisation is no longer implicit, rectangles need to be positioned carefully in order to have a well designed image.

Red Door:  ISO 400  35mm  f10  1/125
 The door and window is an architectural rectangle which successfully further sub-divides the frame into into sections.  Here the door is balanced by the white window which is located nearer to the centre of the frame.

Shop in a church:  ISO 2500  90mm f5  1/50
 This rather curious juxtaposition of a goldsmith's shop in the front facade of St Mary's Church at Moorfields caught my eye because it all seems to be contradictory.  However from the design perspective, it is full of rectangles so a useful illustration here.  The top third is a rectangle in itself, bounded by the frame, but also contains the two frescoes which themselves split that rectangle into two parts.  The shop front is split into three main parts - the sign and then the window and the much darker area of the doorway.  The sale signs and other advertising are all in rectangular format as well, though I consider these to be more points of interest rather than part of the main design.

Boxes:  ISO 2500  55mm  f5  1/80
 The streets are full of rectangular shapes - you just cannot get away from them.  Here my eye was caught by the black telephone box which was conveniently bounded by the rectangular pillars.  The background is yet more rectangles - the metal screening and then the building with its windows.  I placed this telephone box centrally to exagerate the mass suggested by the black colour.  It almost seems to act as a pivot for the two stone pillars on either side.

Shopping Mall:  ISO 2500  105mm  f5  1/40
This shopping mall has a concentric rectangular design.  It feels much more enclosing, than if it was rounded, the regularity, almost bellows-like, providing for a very stable structure.  This photograph, and the next one, provide examples of the rectangle as a frame within a frame.  The outer frame of photograph providing the boundary and telling the viewer that there is something within and theen in the case of the mall above, a concentric series of frames leading the viewer through to the end-point.

Palma street:  ISO 640  105mm  f4  1/125
 Hear I framed the side street by using the archway created by the building and the road / pavement in the forground.  A picture within a picture - the outer structure provides a framing for the woman walking past - herself creating a triangular shape, and then the eye being drwn in to the lighter part, through a series of rectangles created by the buildings.

Home decorations:  ISO 800  24mm f5.6  1/25
Here the rectangles are in fact the edges of box shapes which house various shells and other materials to be used in decorating a room.  The edges provide order to the more random shapes contained within.  This is one of the functional design devices, where rectangles provide a sense of order to their contents.

Project: Shapes - Triangles - other examples

I thought at this point to add some more examples of implicit triangles.  It was fun looking for these and the results I wanted to share here.

Triangle 1:  ISO 200  300mm  f16  1/125
 An opportunist photograph above with the children unwittingly creating an implicit triangle.  The rill flowing from a higher lake to the formal lake was stepped enabling them to be at different levels.  The long focal length has flattened the perspective creating a very obvious triangle.

Medieval cloth:  ISO 3200 35mm  f4  1/50
 At this moment, as the seller was organising her rolls of medieval cloth in one of the barns in Cressing Temple two triangles were formed.  A smaller triangle with her head as the apex and the base being the roll of cloth which she is holding and the much large triangle extending from there down to the base of the photograph itself.  The larger triangle being caused through perspective and the use of the wide-angle lens.  The location was at the back of the barn with very little natural light.  I used Auto WB here and have since considered altering this, but did not like the effect of additional blue and the warm colour was much closer to the feeling I had when there.
 
Preparing Onions:  ISO 200  310mm  f5.6  1/2500
 Here the implicit triangle is formed through the arms leading to a point in the onion on the chopping board.  This device helps to focus the viewers attention on the subject which is the action of slicing an onion.  I focused carefully on the fingers and had the aperture fully open in order to have as shallow DOF as possible.

Sunday 8 May 2011

Exercise: Real and implied triangles

The brief is to produce two sets of triangular compositions, one using 'real' triangles, the other making 'implied' triangles.

Real

The triangles:  ISO 200  285mm f5.6 1/400
The above photograph is that of a detail from a medieval uniform as used by re-enactors.  It attracted me due to the triangle within triangle shape.  As this was a flat subject, I used fully open aperture to ensure I had a good shutter speed to ensure sharpness.

Cressing Barn:  ISO 200 16mm f16 1/30
A corner of one of the barns in Cressing Temple was used to illustrate the creation of a triangle through verticals converging towards the top of the frame.  I used an extreme wide angle to exagerate this perspective effect, ensuring that all parts of the photograph were sharp by using a small aperture around the "sweet spot" for the lens.

Cathedral walls:  ISO 100  28mm  f13  1/80
Here I used an inner corner of the cathedral to make an inverted triangle in the sky.  The walls of the building converging outwards enabling this effect to be captured.  In order to exagerate the effect, a wide angle lens was used and a medium aperture, here ensuring sharpness.

Implied


Weights 1:  ISO 400 58mm f6.3 1/40
A quick shot of the weights I use in weighing out ingredients for cooking, the heavieast weight defining the pinnacle of the triangle.

Weights 2:  ISO 400 105mm  f7.1  1/25
Here I have re-arranged the weights inverting the triangle giving the apex at the bottom of the frame.

Colchester Waits:  ISO 3200  35mm  f4.5   1/50
A "Shawm Band" which was performing at the Medieval fair in Cressing Temple agreed to pose for me to help me create triangles.  Here I wanted to create a double triangle, one, inverted, constructed with the faces of the performers and the second, using the face of the seated performer as the apex and then expanding outwards using the feet as the base.

It was quite dark inside the barn, so I used a high ISO and remained on auto colour balance, however I had to tweak it in Lightroom as it was still overly warm.