Today is March Forth Day, an unofficial holiday that urges all of us to take a stand against procrastination or the justifications that creep into our heads discouraging us from even trying, like giving macro photography a try, for instance…
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“The earth laughs in flowers”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Throughout the history of photography, there have been many articles and books written about the rules of photographic composition, all pf which purport to offer a path to creating a perfectly composed image. For instance…
Rules are Rules
Let’s start with the famous rule of thirds: It urges you to divide an image into three slices dictating specific intersection points within the frame where subjects should be placed to produce maximum visual impact. Another rule states that your photographs should include leading lines that provide a path for the viewer’s eyes to follow throughout the frame directing to the main points of interest in the photograph. Many photographers have their own suggestions. My friend Rick Sammon suggests that The Name of the Game Is To Fill The Frame and I happen to think that’s good advice.
While there is an element of truth in all of these rules, whether they be leading lines, triangles or balance, using any kind of dogmatic approach to your photography may not always be the best solution to solving your own perspective on photographic composition, especially when conditions force toy to work fast. Hail Mary shots anyone? But here is my take and you can take it as a mere suggestion:
My approach to photographic composition is based on, I think anyway, how the human eye sees and interprets a photograph: When looking at a picture, your eyes tend to look at differing aspects of the image in the following order: sharpness, brightness and warmth. How you arrange these criteria within the frame that feature any or all of these characteristics affects how a viewer sees and interprets your photographs, in much the same was as a photograph that uses leading lines might accomplish a similar goal.
How I made this photograph: I photographed this flower (sorry, I didn’t get the species name) in Mexico at the Jardin Botanico de Acapulco using a Canon EOS !D Mark IIN and EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens (at 300mm) with an exposure of 1/200 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 250 with a plus two-thirds stop exposure compensation.
At its simplest level, if the subject of your photograph is the sharpest, brightest, warmest object in the frame, you’ve got a winner but if the subject is not sharp—tilt! The same thing happens when a sharp, bright object is placed near a similarly, sharp bright but warmer toned object; you’re eyes are going to gravitate to the warmest object, whether it’s sharp or not. So waddaya going to do? Change the framing of the image to eliminate the warm object or use depth-of-field to make it a lot less sharp. You get the picture…
Even Another Approach
For a unique way of approaching photographic composition, you might want to take a look at the recent reprint of William Mortensen’s classic 1937 book The Command to Look in which George Dunham is finally credited as co-author. For a look at the concept of Ghost Writers, check out my Book Club post on this subject. You can also read my review of this classic book that was written before the Book Club began. The reprint, like the original book, has now passed onto being an expensive collector’s item, but the Kindle version is just $9.99 for those preferring a digital format. While this book is not an easy read and the two non-original appendices are. to say the least, bizarre, there is a good chance it could change your photography forever…or maybe not. It’s all up to you.
PS: Wheels Wednesday is off today. I have a model shoot scheduled this morning with the amazing Erin Valakari aka Vala the Artist. Look for a special post for my Patreon subscribers about this shoot real soon now. Wheels Wednesday may be back next week maybe…
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