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.