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.

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.

Project: Shapes - Triangles

The text says that "in theory at least, triangles of one kind or another can be found photographically in many places".  That is at least until you try to find them and they become incredibly elusive! 

Triangles, whether physical or implied, give structure to a photograph and therefore the viewer can clearly see what is intended.  It is equally true whether the photograph is that of fashion or a family portrait.  It could also be a landscape or a still-life.

An exhibition I went to in January of last year had many examples of the use of triangles in some of the most successful or iconic photographs.  The first of these is that of Sienna Miller, photographed for American Vogue in Rome, 2006 by Mario Testino.  It can be seen here. Sienna Miller in her dress creates the triangle.
In the photograph called Friends of the Spanish Press, 1968, by Malik Sidibe, even though the group portrait has 4 subjects, the structure is such that a triangle is formed.  It can be seen here. 

The photograph, The Qajar Series, 2001 by Shadi Ghadirian, seen here, makes use of an inverted triangle, joining the faces of the two women to the small table below them which is covered by a white table cloth.  As the image is in black and white, the link between the faces and the table is natural.

Don McCullin used triangles in many of his constructs, for example, the photograph of the shell-shocked soldier in Vietnam.

Inverted Triangle!

Reading through the May edition of the Journal of The Royal Photographic Society, I noticed the photograph below, which I felt supremely illustrated one of the design concepts discussed in this part of TAOP, namely that of the inverted triangle.

This photograph by Scott Barbour was the inaugural winner of the Wisden & MCC Cricket Photograph of the Year Award.  The images were all about capturing the the joy, spirit and essence of cricket.  To me, this photograph has great dynamism and the photographer caught the delta or V formation of the team members running towards the bowler at just the perfect moment.  The strength is not just in that, but also in the powerful dynamism of the inverted triangle.

More photographs from this competition can be found at http://www.lords.org/latest-news/news-archive/wisden-photo-of-the-year-2010,34,PS.html

Curiously, or perhaps not, the second-placed photograph of 4 players forming a triangle whilst making an "appeal" is also incredibly powerful.  This underlines how the triangle as a design element is visually so powerful.