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?

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.

Exercise: Curves

The brief for this exercise is to take 4 photographs which use curves to emphasise movement and direction.  Curves are another form of line and these can take in circles.  Where circles are found, these are more used in the form of a cone where attention is drawn by using a conical perspective.  The photographs below illustrate curves used as a design element.


Benches:  ISO 400 32mm f10 1/80

The benches I found in Colchester town centre - a brilliant design feature by the town planners for a change!  I found that these were visually very powerful, the curve grabbing you and projecting you off the end!  I used a wider angle here to exaggerate the curve and the flow which was repeated by several such benches being lined up along the pavement. 


Castle Hedingham:  ISO 400 190mm f16 1/250

 Here, in a source of much inspiration for me, I found the grass in the moat area, following the line of the moat and directing the viewer to the bridge at the end.  I used a longer focal length to compress the scene sufficiently to give greater value to the bridge and in particular its arches, which themselves suggested circles, thereby giving greater depth into the photograph.



Mansion door:  ISO 200 300mm f8 1/320

In this shot I am experimenting with using a circle to draw the eye to the central object which is the door to the mansion in the grounds at Castle Hedingham.  I am using the trees and shrubs to form a circular window through which the door is being viewed.

Staircase:  ISO 800 16mm f3.2 1/30

Circular staircases are a natural curve which draws the viewer along and, as in this case, up the stairs.  I have, here exaggerated the curves by using the 16mm end of my wide angle lens.  There is strong movement and direction up the stairs taking the viewer to the top left.

Exercise: Diagonals

The brief required 4 photographs demonstrating diagonals in different situations. 

Most diagonals are formed as a consequence of camera angle and perspective.  In addition, I have found that the diagonals are exaggerated with the use of a wide angle lens.  I have seen these aggressive diagonals referred to as "one-point perspective".  One area where this is used today is in architectural drawings.

Researching this further, mostly through Wikipedia, I found that in 1021 a modern optical basis of perspective was given by an Iraqui mathematician named Alhazen.  He explained in his "Book of Optics" that light projects conically into the eye.

By the 14th Century, Rennaisance artists started making use of perspective as the book became available in Italy.  Perspective in art flourished in Italy, particularly in Florence.  At the same time, artists elsewhere were still struggling with the use of perspective in painting.  My examples below are all of one-point perspective.

Castle Hedingham:  ISO 100 24mm f11 1/100

Lake at Castle Hedingham:  ISO 200 28mm f14 1/60



Valdemossa ISO 1600 45mm f6.3 1/25




Colne Valley:  ISO 200 24mm f11 1/160



Exercise: Horizontal and Vertical Lines

The purpose of this exercise is to discover lines and how they appear to the eye and to the camera.  Some of the lines would be clear man-made objects, othere less so, being created by appearance alone.

Horizontal:

ISO 200 67mm f5 1/320

 The rivets on the exposed steam engine boiler created a lot of opportunity and thought.  Even though I deliberately shot this in a vertical format, I feel the pattern created by the rivets is in a horizontal plane.  I believe that this influenced by two things:
1.  the highlight in the upper third which runs horizontally; and
2.  the reinforcement plate which is at the base of photograph.

Of the two, the highlight, to me, has the stronger effect.


ISO 200 28mm f10 1/80

 A man-made landscape at Marks Hall shown above.  There is a walled garden and brickwork forming the bank of the lake.  To me this shouts horizontal lines and there are plenty - doubled in the reflection!


ISO 200 300mm f14 1/200

  Lines created through blocks of colour, though the mist has taken the vibrance away from the sky, however, there are clear lines formed at the division between the blocks of green and yellow.


ISO 200 67mm f8 1/160

 Again, though shot in a vertical format, I feel that here there are strong horizontals formed from the steps which then lead to the apparent platform and bannister railings.

Vertical:

ISO 1600 105mm f10 1/30

 The levers in the signal box provided an opportuntity to have a mass of individual objects lined up tightly with some tightened perspective.  This certainly provides strong verticals, but also diagonals leading into the shot.

ISO 100 105mm f9 1/10

 I was having a bit of fun with purpose.  there were lots of trees in the woodland in the grounds of Marks Hall, but I wanted to accentuate the vertical nature of these Douglas Firs by moving the camera vertically during exposure.  This ends up with a strong vertical feel.


ISO 400 100mm f11 1/250

 I used this photograph previously in the exercise where relationships between points were examined.  Here the lines created in the grass by the lawn-mowers and viewed from a height, provide the vertical lines.


ISO 200 300mm f16 1/125

 A mix of the man-made in the rill which had been constructed joining the ponds at two levels and the opportunistic shot of the youngsters themselves creating shapes and also adding to the vertical lines.  Using the long focal length of 300mm has flattened the perspective and changed the slopes into verticals.

Exercise: Multiple Points

The brief is to set up a still life using 6-10 compact and similar-sized objects and record this as it is built up "one-by-one".

Looking around the house, there seemed to be very little in the way of suitable objects to be used for this, so eventually I decided on some nuts which I duly purchased.  Setting this up definitely proved to be one of the most difficult exercises I have done.  Starting with just the one bolt I struggled to see how it would develop from there and I changed the arrangement around several times.  One of the most dificult design decisions was whether to have this in a compact or an expanded arrangement.


The first Bolt:  ISO 400 105mm f8 0.5 sec



A second bolt is added:  ISO 400 105mm f8 0.4 sec



And the Third...: ISO 400 105mm f8 0.3 sec



Number 4 is added:  ISO 400 105mm f8 0.3 sec



And the 5th - this time a pair treated as one:  ISO 400 105mm f8 0.3 sec



The 6th bolt - a larger one!:  ISO 400 105mm f8 0.4 sec



The 7th movement:  ISO 400 105mm f8 0.4 sec



And the final pair as well as some adjustment:  ISO 400 105mm f8 0.4 sec

I started using pairs of bolts to give the objects greater significance - this helped the "look" of the arrangement.  Finally I looked at the lines which related the objects and found several triangles joing the various bolts together.  This can be seen below:


"triangles"

To me there were several triangles - the primary relationship seemed to be governed by the size of the objects which can be seen joined above.

Exercise: The relationship between points

This proved to be a rather challenging exercise.  As noted in the text for this exercise, it is not quite so easy to find normally occuring situations where there are two points.  These were very much "found" situations, though for two of the photographs I did look specifically for that opportunity to arise.

Below, I have provided three such situations and in all three of them there is unequal balance between the points, with one being substantially more dominant than the other.  In two of these, the larger point was dominant, but in the third, the dominance was much more due to the positioning within the frame and also other factors within that frame.



Cows:  ISO 100 47mm f5 1/320

Here the cow is definitely the dominant point, primarily due to size.  The suggested movement and the visual lines draw the eye to the calf, which is the lesser point.


Light spots:  ISO 1600 70mm f7.1 1/100

My visit to Castle Hedingham provided this pairing.  Both of the light spots are in the lighter part of the frame, so the eye is drawn there looking at them equally.  However, there is a difference between the two, and the more "solid" spot of light has become more dominant.  The eye returns to that spot, refusing to linger for long on the lower, split spot.



Picnic:  ISO 400 130mm f5.6 1/1000

Here I found that tight groups of people become points.  I was hoping that this effect would happen, when I viewed the picnic area from a window near the top of the tower at Castle Hedingham.  I found that the group at the top of the frame was initially dominant, however, the lines in the grass seem to act as a pointer to the lower group and it seems difficult to get back to the top group.  The lines provide downward movement in this photograph.  


Exercise: Positioning a point

Following an examination of a number of previously taken photographs, this exercise called for taking three photographs where there is a single point positioned differently in each.  For each photograph I have drawn in the division and the movement on the smaller of the two images.


My submission for this is below:

Daisy:  ISO 200 105mm f7.1 1/125

Here there is strong movement from the much darker area in the bottom right through to the lighter area in the top left where I positioned the daisy (and attendant bee).  The flower is positioned close to the edge and this gives strong movement to the photograph.

Elk:  ISO 400 105mm f4 1/125

Here I positioned the subject centrally in the frame as shown by the division lines.  The elk was a wooden, almost two-dimensional "sculpture" which I came across in the woods at Marks Hall in Essex.  As such I considered that it was apt for the subject, the "point" to be central.  However, there is a secondary frame created by the trees which I have drawn above and this seems to reposition the point to a lower, off-centre position.

Castle window:  ISO 1600  28mm f5.6 1/30

 Taken in Castle Hedingham, this, I consider to be the strongest image of the trio.  A point of light seems to be a very powerful "draw", but also in this photograph this is reinforced or strengthened by the use of the diagonals which lead to the window.  The point is positioned slightly off-centre and this provides the movement and depth to the image.