Elements of design - horizontal and vertical lines

I had noticed a number of potential locations in Guildford town centre:

- the steel structure of the construction of the new Civic Hall

- backlit figures in the morning light in the narrow alleyways off the High Street

- the lock gates on the River Wey.

However, the weather was bright but not sunny on my photography expeditions for this exercise. I found a number of other subjects which I used instead of the last two above. I also took some photographs on a walk around Windsor Great Park and one of these fitted in with the requirements of this exercise.

I tried to look for subjects which were less obvious as having horizontal or vertical lines. Nevertheless, all of the images are of manmade structures except for the fallen tree trunks in image 6.

After selection and processing, I ended up with six images: three of horizontal lines and three vertical lines. The processing was done in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements including some cropping and conversion to black and white.

Image 1: Steel frame for civic hall

Nikon 18-70 mm lens at 50mm. Iso 250 f8 at 1/500th

The structure is a mass of verticals and horizontal lines. I selected an area where the dominant element is two horizontal floor platforms, the edges of which were catching the sunlight. I cropped out two figures who were on the scaffolding higher up. I used the "newspaper" preset to convert the photograph to black and white.

Image 2: Folded cardboard

Nikon 18-70mm lens at 60mm: Iso 250 f8 at 1/20th

I spotted these cardboard boxes outside a shop waiting collection. The texture and shadows between the layers caught my eye. I took a number of vertical and horizontal and chose this image as the two dark horizontal shadows made it stand out. The cardboard is not perfectly horizontal but I decided that it was OK to include this as an image for this exercise.

Image 3: Scaffolding covered in textile

Nikon 18-70 mm lens at 24mm: Iso 400 f8 at 1/800th

I was attracted to this building by the oblique shadows of the scaffold pole ends. The sunlight was falling diagonally onto the textile accentuating the texture and creases in the fabric. I took photographs from various viewpoints and selected two of them. In this one, the horizontal sheets of fabric stand out separated by dark strips of shadow in between. I left in the uncovered lowest level in the frame as the picture had more impact with this interest.

Image 4: Railings

Nikon 18 - 70mm lens at 18mm: Iso 250 f8 at 1/200th

I took a number of photographs of these steps and railings placing the camera on the ground at its widest angle. I liked this viewpoint as the railings at the back form an arrow head shape in the centre of the frame. The old fashioned street lamp and car together add interest to the plain vertical lines of the railings in the foreground. I corrected the distortion of using the lens on wide angle in PS Elements so that the railings are almost vertical.

Image 5: Scaffolding pole ends

Nikon 18-70mm lens at 48mm: Iso 400 at f8 at 1/1250th

This is the second picture I selected of the scaffolding covered in textile. In this one, I photographed the ends of the scaffolding poles from below. I chose this particular photograph as I liked the pattern that the poles made against the sky. The photograph has been straightened and cropped to accentuate the vertical lines.

Image 6: Tree trunks

Nikon 18-70 mm lens at 18mm: Iso 100 f8 at 1/60th

This is a photograph of a tree that had fallen in the water. I tried to find a viewpoint where the three main trunks were vertical in the frame as well as including the shadow of the left hand trunk. The water was reflecting the bright cloudy sky which helps to create a silhouette of the tree trunks. In the conversion to black and white in PS Elements, I chose the preset which accentuated the texture of the bark. I cropped a strip from the bottom of the frame which showed the top of the junction of the trunks. This detracted from the parallel lines of the tree trunks.

Of these images, the three with vertical lines seem to me to be the strongest images:-

- The vertical lines of the railings (image 4) and scaffold ends (image 5) have a strong visual impact. The unconventional viewpoint distances the viewer from the actual subject.

- In the photograph of the fallen tree (image 6), the texture of the bark and the reflections of the water compete for attention. However, I think that the parallel trunks of the trees have a stronger visual impact than if the trunks had been spreading out at angles.

The images of the two structures (images 1 and 3) have far less impact. Maybe the perception of horizontal lines set in a horizontal frame is just unexciting. Also, there are significant vertical lines in these images so that the overall effect is of a "chess board".

The photograph of the folded cardboard is the least interesting visually for me. Possibly the cardboard is rather uniform without a particular focus of interest.

Trevor Gellard - Brighton and beyond

Trevor Gellard was the guest at Guildford Photosoc yesterday evening. He presented a selection of his prints, mainly his repertoire of street photography. This included scenes of holidaymakers and events in Brighton, circuses and protests. Many of the candid photographs were taken with a neck slung camera with a wide angle lens.

Several techniques were interesting:

- Taking pictures of people watching a street entertainer.

- Photos of people in and around beach shelters taken through translucent glass.

In his digital photographs he often desaturates the background colours where these are bright and distracting. He also desaturates other images to provide a pastel colour instead of bright colours.

His sense of composition was excellent using a variety of different compositions. An inspiring evening.

Elements of design - multiple points

For this exercise, I took ten silver beads belonging to my wife.

- I tested various permutations before deciding to spread the beads on a mid-grey woolen scarf with a decorated silver box in one corner.

- I lit the scarf by indirect natural light from a window. I used the window blind to restrict the light to a narrow band across the bottom of the window. This lengthened and intensified the shadows.

- I chose a viewpoint slightly above and to the side to create a feeling of depth.

- Under these conditions I found I needed to shut down the aperture to f16 to make the area in which I planned to place the beads sharp from front to back.

I placed the beads one by one in the frame taking a picture after each addition. I placed them in the frame quite far apart to minimize overlapping of beads and shadows. I felt that the shadows added to the feeling of the picture.

I also rotated the beads to show the patterns and reflections in a variety of ways. The last few beads I propped against other beads. This had the benefit of showing the patterning and added some unevenness to the group.

I also tried reflecting light into the shadows on the beads, but the additional highlights added nothing to the composition.

The sequence of photographs was as follows:

Step 1. Single bead

Step 2. Two beads

Step 3. Three beads

Step 4. Four beads

Step 5. Five beads

Step 6. Six beads

Step 7. Seven beads

Step 8. Eight beads

Step 9. Ten beads

I sketched in the lines that followed the placement of the beads in the following picture:

Sketch of lines

Relationship between points - library photographs

I have two library photographs that I wanted to revisit in relation to this exercise.

Image 1: Desert survival

In October last year, I entered this picture into a Guildford Photosoc internal competition. The judge of the competition commented that he thought that the picture should be cropped to include only the area around the green plant.

I think that I now understand better why he made this comment. The plant shadows in the sand are too many and too random to make a pleasing pattern. Also, the horizontal frame does not accentuate the top to bottom ripples in the sand. I have accordingly tried cropping this photograph to create a stronger and more interesting image.

Desert survival - revised

The reasons for this selection were as follows:

- I chose to place the green plant in the top right of the frame so that its shadow stretches towards the far corner.

- I cropped the frame to a more vertical shape to accentuate the ripples in the sand.

- I retained two of the other plant shadows but placed these at a similar distance from the edge of the picture at the top and bottom.

I debated whether to include one or two more plant clumps to create a square or polygonal shape, but I decided to stick to the triangular spots.

Image 2: Masked face

I took this photograph at an short photography course at West Dean College which included two sessions with a model to gain familiarity with the camera controls. I had not looked at the print of this photograph since then, so it was interesting to view this again. The print is cropped just below the nose and it is true that the photograph is difficult to look at close to. The eye moves back and forth from one eye hole to the other.

Elements of design - relationship between points

Chichester Harbour is a location where I hoped to find suitable subjects for this exercise, such as boats at moorings. As it was low tide in winter, most of the boats were laid up on the mud rather than in the water. It was difficult from eye level to place the boats anywhere but on the horizon. Whilst I liked some of the photographs that I took, I decided that most of these were not suitable for the "Positioning a point" exercise above.

The most suitable subjects I found were a couple of swans by the quayside seen from above.

Image 1: Face to face

The swans are facing each other and the lower edges of their bodies form a gentle curve. The position of their bodies creates a diagonal across the frame accentuated by the small duck on the same line. However, the shadow of the neck of one swan falls between them, curved in the opposite direction. This seems to be a discordant element.

Unusually, the lower swan appears more dominant than the central one. I attribute this to the fact that its face is brightly lit whereas head of the swan in the centre of the frame is shaded. This may be overriding the effect of its position in the centre of the frame.

Image 2: Side by side

In this photograph, the bodies of the swans are almost parallel. There are shadows on the water showing the curve of their necks. The central swan definitely dominates the lower swan in this picture. Again however, I feel it may be the fact that the lower swan's head is underwater and not visible which partly accounts for this.

Reviewing the photographs, I realized that one of the photographs of a boat grounded on the shore is visually a two point subject.

Image 3: Boat on the shore

The boat and the dark trees on the shoreline have a significant relationship. I realized this when I cropped out the right hand side of the frame to place the boat in the centre of the frame. Without the trees, the boat loses its relationship to the scene, and image loses a lot of vitality as can be seen below.

Image 3: cropped version

In the original frame, the eye seems to make a pattern of the stones that stick out of the mud, which adds detail interest. This is also lost when the image is cropped.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009

I visited the exhibition of the selected photographs from this competition at Natural History Museum in London last week. The quality of photographs and range of prizes was most impressive.

My particular preferences were:

- Clash of yellowhammers by Fergus Gill

The composition is superb with a yellowhammer in flight in the upper left of the frame attacking another yellowhammer perched on a plant in the lower right with its wings extended in alarm. Both birds are looking at one another.

- Starling wave by Danny Green

This is an extraordinary black and white photograph of a huge flock of starlings. The photographer used a long exposure time so that the flock forms a wave passing over the silhouettes of two trees. Visually, the lines of the birds in flight are like pencil shading.

- Big fjord, little auks by Carsten Egevang

This is another photograph where composition plays an important role. In this case, the white cliffs of the fjord in the top third of the frame float above a misty sea. The flock of auks form black dots in the foreground standing out against the mist. The fjord appears light and cloudlike despite its massive bulk. The flock of birds form a similar ephemeral shape in the bottom half of the frame.

- Puffin in the snow by Jan Vermeer

The puffin flies head on towards the viewer just off centre in a grey blizzard background.

- Footprints by Robert Friel

I liked the wry humor in the way the juvenile penguin is examining the human footprints in the sand. This cleverly conveys the question of human impact.

Elements of design - positioning a point 2

Looking through my photo library, I found a few "single point" subjects. The ones I have selected were of sea birds and dolphins taken in Indonesia.

In the original photographs the creatures were tiny in the frame. I had previously cropped these photographs for use in a photobook of the holiday. For this exercise, I have revisited the composition of these pictures to reconsider the choices I made.

Image 1: Dolphin jumping

I was lucky to catch the moment that this dolphin flung itself out of the water. I selected roughly one third of the original frame, placing the jumping dolphin roughly on the intersection of the thirds in the lower left:-

- I wanted to show the vast emptiness of the sea that the shoal was swimming in so I retained the sea to the far horizon. Similarly, I left space in front of the dolphins to convey the fact that they were far away.

- The other dolphins in the shoal are indicated by the disturbed water to the right of the leaping dolphin.

The horizontal line from the dolphin is therefore fairly tangible. The implied line vertically through the dolphin is not much in evidence.

Image 2: Dolphin jumping

This dolphin leapt out of the water even further away, but the silhouette of the dolphin's body was relatively clear.

This frame represents about one sixth of the original frame:

- Again I placed the dolphin just off centre on the lower third of the frame jumping towards the centre of the frame.

- I left the sea to the horizon in the frame to convey the vast open space. I reduced the space between the viewer and the dolphin to give the single subject more impact.

- There were no other dolphins visible in the original frame, so I cropped to a square format which seemed to suit the upwards stance of the dolphin.

The implied vertical line is more discernible in this picture as angle of the dolphin's body is more upright and the sides of the frame are closer.

Images 3 and 4: Sea eagle and Frigate Bird

The Sea Eagle picture (left) is about one sixth of the original frame, whereas the Frigate Bird picture (right) is just under a half of the original frame.

- In both cases, I placed the birds near the top of a vertical frame to be consistent with the viewers standpoint underneath the birds. The frigate bird is particularly close to the top edge, but I still feel that this is suitable for this subject.

- I placed them just off centre so that the line of movement would stay within the frame

- I left the angle of the wings unchanged. The more diagonal angle of the eagles wing seems to imply a spiral direction of flight, whereas the more vertical line of the frigate bird's wings seems to imply a linear direction of flight.

- The implied vertical and horizontal lines seem more apparent in the frigate bird picture, probably because of the almost vertical position of the wings.

Elements of Design - Positioning a point 1

Finding an interesting subject comprising a single point was not easy. Visits to various local parks to photograph snowdrops and local footballers did not result in any suitable pictures.

Another day, I found a swan standing on its nest on the banks of the local River Wey which reasonably fulfilled the requirements. The swan only rarely raised its head and as a result I only obtained one photograph of many taken where the swan was holding its head up. I therefore used this one photograph cropped in several ways to change the position of the swan.

Version 1: Original composition converted to black and white

The original photograph had a vertical frame with the swan in the upper left quarter. I cropped a strip from the top of the frame containing buildings and a strip from the bottom of the frame where the reflection of the light sky attracted they eye away from the swan on the far bank.

Comments on placing of the swan:

- I placed the swan in the upper left as there is a garden and house just outside the left hand edge of the frame that I wanted to exclude.

- I pointed the lens downwards as the river in foreground had dark patches and reflection patterns, whereas the sky above was clear without visual interest.

- The swans white body stands out clearly from the texture of verticals and diagonals of the undergrowth and trees. The detail of this unruly undergrowth gives the viewer's eye somewhere to wander in the frame, as there is no other focal point.

- The roughly horizontal line between the undergrowth and river is about two thirds up the frame. This creates an impression of distance from the viewer. The reflections in the water provide visual interest without creating an identifiable point of visual interest.

- The swans head is looking at a position inside the frame even though the swan is facing to the left.

- The swan's stance could imply that it is about the enter the water but there is a visual space for it to do so. (In fact it was static and did not enter the water.)

Version 2: Swan placed close to left edge of frame

This change adversely affects the composition:

- The swan's head is looking out of the frame and this takes the viewers attention out of the frame.

- There is not enough space for it to move into so that the swan seems to be hemmed in by the edge of the frame.

- The picture is totally unbalanced.

Version 3: Swan placed centrally between the sides of the frame.

This seems the most successful version of the photograph in my view:

- There is a better balance in that the swan is more prominent and the undergrowth is reduced in scale.

- The vertical frame emphasizes the vertical reeds on either side of the swan. This pattern was subdued in the original frame. This introduces some order into the wild undergrowth.

- The undergrowth and reflection on the right hand strip of the frame in the original composition did not seem to contribute anything to the subject.

Elements of design - black and white photography

As suggested in the introduction to this section of the course, I have experimented for the first time with black and white photography.

I used a still life subject as the first experiment with black and white comprising the ingredients for apple chutney: a bramley apple, some shallots and dried apricots. I was hoping that the different textures of the shiny apple, the dry skin of the shallots and the wrinkled apricots would catch the light. I placed the items on a table by a window and adjusted the window blind so that just a narrow band of light fell on the subject. I used some kitchen foil to reflect some light on the shaded side of the subject, experimenting with various positions.

I took a variety of photographs with the apple in different positions and a second series where the apple was cut in half to reveal the light colored interior.

I selected photographs of four of the variants and converted these into black and white in Photoshop Elements, using the Convert to Black and White dialog in "Enhance" menu. The dialog has a number of presets: Infra red, portrait, newspaper, scenic landscape, cityscape etc. In the first instance I rotated through these to get an idea of the impact on my photographs. I tried adjusting the sliders from the preset positions, but I did not feel I had improved the results from the preset versions.

The four images I selected were as follows:

Image 1: Landscape with apple in the centre

I chose "newspaper" setting which gave the apple an almost metallic shine.

Image 2: Portrait with apple

I used a vertical frame for this version due to the confines of the plate that I was using. Again, I used the "newspaper" conversion setting which adds lustre to the apple.

Image 3: Vertical frame with half apple on left side

I thought that the light colored cut apple would create a stronger contrast with the mid tones of the shallots than the green skin of the whole apple. The strong contrast might be better for a black and white image. However, the shade on the dark side of the apple means the solid form of the apple is less distinct. I used "scenic landscape" setting to convert to black and white. The "newspaper" setting blew out the cut face of the apple. More importantly, the composition is rather dull. I think this is due to the central position of the apple and the fact that the cut face is parallel to the side of the frame.

Image 4: Portrait frame with cut apple on upper left.

This was also converted to black and white using the "scenic landscape" preset. The green and red adjustments are relatively similar in the adjustments. I chose this as it accentuated the green skin of the apple. This composition is far better even though the cut face of the apple is also parallel to the side of the frame.

Reviewing the four images, I would choose image 1 for two reasons:

- the apple is placed at an angle which accentuates its shape

- I like the skin tones of the shape of the apple.

Irving Penn portraits - National Portrait Gallery Exhibition

I visited the Irving Penn portrait exhibition today at National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition covered portraits of individuals and groups in the years from 1940s through to 2007.

At the same time, I have been looking through a book of the photography of Jeanloup Sieff another renowned fashion photographer from the 50s to the 90's "40 years of photography". Professionally both were fashion photographers working for Vogue - Paris, Harpers Bazaar - New York, Queen, Elle and so on.

It is interesting to compare the style of the two photographers. Several celebrities were taken by both photographers e.g. Alfred Hitchcock and Rudolph Nureyev.

My notes on Irving Penn included:-

- Portraits were taken mostly in a bare studio or room in black and white.

- In the later years his portraits were predominantly head and shoulders whereas in the early years most portraits were full length.

- The photographs were almost all taken at eye level.

- With a few exceptions, the photographs were in a square frame.

- He used background light and shadow to create a halo around the head and body, with strong sidelighting. For male subjects, he rarely seemed to add any light to the shaded side of the face/body.

- He often seemed to exaggerate the physical attributes of his subject: Men with prominent noses were taken in profile or using a short focal length e.g. Saul Below, Jacques Yves Cousteau. Alfred Hitchcock was posed sideways sitting down so that the looked as short and fat as possible. Audrey Hepburn seemed to have been photographed with a short focal length that exaggerated her snub nose. Francis Bacon was taken with a short focal length looking up in a way that exaggerated his broad lower face.

Jeanloup Sieff has quite a different style.

- Also, photographs in the book were selected by Jeanloup Sieff himself. They include a mix of subjects, but fashion and portraits of friends and celebrities predominate.

- The photographs are all in black and white. Most are framed in a portrait shape (shape of magazine page?) or square frames.

- For many photographs, he ingeniously uses a frame within a frame to attract the viewer to the subject. The subject is often framed by a window or door in a building, vehicle, roof. I particularly liked a photograph of Francois Truffaut where he uses an umbrella to frame the sitter. In some photos, he even uses a person in the foreground in shadow to form the frame for the mannequin behind. The photograph is taken from a variety of angles to create the "frame" for the subject.

- The presentation of images in the book also take account of contrasts with juxtaposition of personal and impersonal portraits, curves and straight lines, lightness and taughtness of a ballet dancers physique.

Jeanloup's photographs of Alfred Hitchcock and Rudolf Nureyev place them in the context of their professional role, in contrast to Irving Penn where portraying their physical attributes seems to be the prime objective.

From the viewpoint of photographing ordinary local people when on holiday, Jeanloup's style appears to be the most appropriate.

Would I use a fast prime lens?

In one of the focal length exercises, the aim was to isolate a subject by using depth of field. This was relatively difficult with the two zoom lenses that I use where the maximum apertures are relatively high:

- Nikon 18-70mm f 3.5 to f 4.5

- Nikon 70-210 mm f 4 to f 5.6

This set me to wondering whether I would use a fast prime lens for some subjects where I needed a shallow depth of field. Two broad options appeared feasible :-

- A "standard lens" 35 to 50 mm with f 1.4 to f 1.8

- A "macro lens" 50 to 105 mm with f 2.8

A friend from Guildford Photosoc offered to loan me his Sigma 105 mm macro lens to try out for the past week. He is particularly interested in nature photography and he uses this occasionally for its macro capabilities. In contrast, I tried the lens in a variety of situations, some of which I compared with the zoom lens set at a similar 100 mm:

- Close up pictures of fruit in a bowl

- Garden pots

- Self portraits

- Street scenes

- Pictures of football players in a local park

In most cases, I was using the lens at f 2.8 because I wanted to see what was the effect of having a faster lens.

At full aperture, the Sigma lens did blur the background more than the zoom lens. However, the 1 stop difference did not have as much effect as I had expected. The lens was good for taking pictures of people and street scenes e.g. a busker playing in the High Street. It was necessary to move around quite a lot to photograph footballers as the lens has quite a narrow angle of view. The lens was very good for taking high magnification photographs beyond the range of the close up lens that I have. Macro photography is not at present a significant interest, however.

I would now like to try a "standard" lens for comparison. The extra stop of speed and the broader angle of view might suit my style of photography better.

Presentation by John Londei - Shutting up shop

On 1st March, John Londei was the guest at Guildford Photosoc, talking about his personal photography. John is a commercial photographer who lives in Guildford. Outside of his worktime, he has a fascination with taking large format photographs mainly of people. In the 70s and 80s, he took a series of photographs of small shops around the UK. These formed the subject of a book "Shutting up shop" which was published in the last few years and formed the basis of a private exhibition at National Portrait Gallery. Before publishing the book, John revisited the locations of the shops to see if he could still find the buildings, the proprietors or someone who remembered them.

The evening was interesting both from the standpoint of the shops and the stories of the people and from the standpoint of the photography. The pictures can be seen on his website www.johnlondei.co.uk.

He used the same wide angle lens for all the photographs. The images are in color, although the vignette of the lens and the appearance of the subjects give the images a strongly nostalgic feeling. Even though the subject matter of each photograph is similar, the shop and its staff, the variety of images is astounding. There are interiors taken at different viewpoints depending on the shape of the shop. There are exteriors, some taken square to the shop frontage tightly cropped. Others taken from further away so that the wide angle lens distorts the shape of the buildings.