Photography Education

Collage?

 

I took a collage class in college! LOL

 

Count me in

 

So, anyone notice anything the past few days? Working on lesson 2...

 

The past few days? Cloudy skies, rain and generally shitty weather. Not as shitty as those south of me, so no room to complain.

But to get back on track. Not something new that I noticed, but a different way to look at it because of what you said. I like the summer much more than the winter, actually I hate winter. I've always gotten somewhat depressed, not clinically, just not as peppy, when summer is fading. Thinking about it, it really starts when the shadow from the trees hits my pool at 5:00 instead of 6:30. Or less specific, when the afternoon shadows are sharper than they are in mid summer.

On the art thing, I've always liked impressionism. My wife broadened me some. Picasso, Calder (statues and mobiles), Rodin (Gates of Hell is a phenomenal piece of work) and a few others. I'm not sure how to relate that to photographs but I await new knowledge and perspective.

 

still working on lesson 1...i need to slow down and smell the flowers so to speak

 

Great thread @smslavin! Looking forward to learning something new. I took a few classes in school on shooting 35mm, but those days have passed, and I'm not terribly interested in lugging around a camera bag with me on vacation. I'll be looking for tips on composition of landscapes and shooting mostly with a cell phone. I've always struggled with capturing what is in front of me. For instance we just got back from Ireland and it just didn't seem possible to capture just how breathtaking something like the cliffs of moher or the burren was.

 

Sorry, fat fingers on my phone, did not notice until you posted this. It was college.

 

I just wanted to use ^ this. I'm in.

 

There was actually lots to notice with the changing of the seasons. The sky is holding back the sun in the mornings and evenings so the colors are richer. The shadowing was more pronounced. I find my self looking from different prospectives to either elongate or eliminate shadows. It was the first time I paid less attention the subject and more attention to the the other visual elements associated to the subject. In addition I have been doing as you suggested, I have been checking out a lot of other visual artists work to see what I like about them more so to figure out what draws me to it. Exercising my vision I believe you called it.(Thanks by the way).

 

Running a wee bit behind on lesson 2. Heads down working on it now while I have quiet time before the day job starts. I will have it done in the next day or two and posted before I hit the road on Monday.

 

Take your time! I'm sure i speak with everyone when I say we appreciate you doing this!

 

I forgot about this pic! I took this a couple of years ago when a storm was rolling in and the sun was setting....I had to stop and take a pic. the colors were amazing!

 

Ok, here's lesson 2. It's a lot to cover and I tried to be as concise as possible.

Lesson 2: Composition

There are rules. Some of them are pretty esoteric. Some of them are pretty basic. Some get touted as needed to be followed. All. The. Time. Rules are there to provide guidelines and structure. There are meant to be broken. But, before you can break them, you need to understand them.

com・po・si・tion

noun

• The artistic arrangement of the parts of a picture

When you look at a particular image, whether it’s a photograph, a painting, or just walking down the street, you have an instant reaction to it. You are either drawn completely into it or you go a little cross eyed with the feeling that something is just a wee bit off. That image that made you go, “Oh my god, that’s awesome.” has some basic geometric principles behind it. Yep, math. Remember when you were sitting in 7th grade geometry wondering when you would ever use it, now is the time.

First off, let’s define a few things so we’re all on the same page. Here is some basic terminology.

• Eyes: An image can be divided into two vertical and two horizontal lines. This is the basis for the Rule of Thirds which will get to below. The four intersection of these lines are called the eyes.
• Gamut: This is the limited number of shapes or diagonals to use in a composition. The concept of less is more is what to follow here. The rhythm of an image is created by using a gamut.
• Intervals: These are repeated lines that give a rhythm to the image.
• Major Lines: Part of creating an image, painting or photograph, is to define a hierarchy. This hierarchy is what helps a viewer understand what they are looking at. In every image there is a single horizontal, vertical and diagonal line that is the main reference point for the composition.
• Reciprocal: Back to our geometry. This is a line that intersects a diagonal at 90º. In our image, this line should be supporting and reinforcing the diagonal.
• Arabesque: This is nothing more than a curve. It can help unify elements as well as provide a path for a your eye to wander the image.
• Greatest Area of Contrast: I’m not a fan of adding to the alphabet soup of acronyms but I’m going to shorten this one to GAC. This is the spot where a viewer’s eye will be drawn to first. It is nothing more than light vs dark and you, like a moth, are drawn to the light areas first.

Let’s a take a moment and talk about diagonals. Diagonals help create visual rhythm to an image. If there isn’t a readily available diagonal, get low or get high. Lines are everywhere and something will present itself.

We have two types of diagonals: Baroque and Sinister. The Baroque diagonal, lower left to top right, creates left to right movement which, for most of us, can be more pleasing as that is the direction we read. Going the other direction, lower right to top left, is the Sinister direction. This direction is more aggressive, hence the name, in that it is opposite to the flow we are used to seeing.

If we take the diagonals and use a GAC, we can create natural uphill or downhill movements.

• If the GAC is in the lower left on a Baroque diagonal, you’ve created a natural uphill movement and your eyes will quickly go left to right.
• If the GAC is in the upper right on a Baroque, it will remain pushed uphill. Your eye will not allow it to roll down as you are continuously reading from left to right.
• If the GAC is in the lower right on a Sinister diagonal, your eye will naturally keep it pushed down in the corner and your brain will have to work extra hard to get your eye to move to something else in the image.
• If the GAC is in the upper left on a Sinister, you’ve created a back and forth movement. You start at the left, with the GAC, read downhill to the right but then are naturally drawn back to the left because of the GAC. This can be referred to as magnetic momentum.

Now, let’s revisit the arabesque.

In Gestalt Psychology, there is a principle called the Law of Continuity. I imagine you are now scratching your head. I’ve been talking about geometry and now I’m diving into psychology. But, everything around us, nature itself, is based on mathematical concepts. How we react to those concepts is based on psychology. With our art, we are striving to replicate both the math and psychology that gives you that breathless moment as you walk, or drive, through a forest, stand on a mountaintop, etc.

So, the Law of Continuity means that your eye will always follow the path of least resistance. Certain visual elements will automatically drop away if they are not needed. As artists, we want to use the arabesque to weave together foreground and background elements. Look for items in the landscape: clouds, lines in the ground, tree branches, etc. If you can’t find a curve, but you are shooting with a model, have the model create the curve with their body or clothing.

There are two other concepts that we need to cover.

Negative space is, well, negative. More accurately, it’s the empty space around your subject. You can use it to create desolation and/or aloneness. It works best with a GAC and a subject that is relatively apparent.

Breathing room is top to bottom, or edge to edge, balance within the image along with your sense of gravity and boundaries. Those boundaries can be the horizon or the edge of the frame. You want to avoid compressing your subject along the edges. This is best illustrated with portraits.

If your subject is looking, or moving, to the right, don’t mash them against the left edge of your image. This creates a sense of confinement, which might be useful, that doesn’t allow you to see where they are going. Your subject’s direction is a leading line. Depending on your vision of the image, scoot them toward the center or even over to the right 1/3 of the frame. Now, you’ve given them space and expanded what the viewer perceives in the image. What are they looking at? What are they moving towards?

Ready for the rules of composition? Here a few of the mostly widely used.

• Rule of Thirds: This relates to the definition of eyes above and many cameras now overlay this either within the viewfinder or on the LCD at the back of the camera. This is nothing more than a 3x3 grid that you can use to organize elements within your images. It helps you avoid putting your subject smack dab in the middle every time.
• Leading Lines: This should be fairly self explanatory. This occurs when you line up your image with lines that draw your eye to a specific place. A road. A mountain trail. Cables. Tire tracks. Buildings.
• Golden Triangles: This is similar to the Rule of Thirds except we use triangles instead of a grid. With this, we split the image with a diagonal from lower left to top right. This is known as a Baroque diagonal. More on that below. From that diagonal, we put in two reciprocals from the top left to the diagonal and from the bottom right to the diagonal. This can be used to create visual tension in the image or much more subtly as a leading line.
• Golden Ratio: I’ll call this the Rule of Thirds on steroids. Instead of a grid, the image is split into a series of successively smaller squares. The squares are then linked by a curve called the Fibonacci Spiral. The spiral is a leading line that provides a visual flow to the image.

What we want to try and do is take these rules and combine them with the other concepts I spoke about earlier. Using the GAC with any of these is the easiest and most straightforward. But, what happens if use the GAC, with an arabesque or leading lines, with the rule of thirds? We start giving the viewer a flow to follow. Something that draws them into the image. Something that makes them linger and study. That is the goal. You can test that out by going to the art museum and taking your time. Certain paintings will make you stop. Why? Study the lines. Study the light. Take that and use it in your photographs.

Are there other ways to construct a pleasing composition compared to what I have talked about here? Totally. I could spend days talking about this. You can use patterns. Textures. Shapes. Colors (we’ll get into color theory a little). Shadows (GAC). Combine those with the rules and concepts above and the possibilities are quite large.

The takeaway from this is really rather simple. If you see something that is pleasing to you, that causes a reaction in you, chances are someone else will think and feel the same. What you need to do is deconstruct that feeling. Pull it apart and figure out why it happened. Once you understand the why, you’ll be able to apply it to your own imagery.

 

As a reference, this is one of the best talks on composition I've seen. It's a long view but if you've got some time to spare, I highly recommend it.

 

Got a little quiet. Feels like I overwhelmed everyone a bit. That last post was a bit heavy I know. But, I just started writing the next lesson and we're moving on to actually touching a camera. Plan is to write tonight and tomorrow night here in the hotel then post on Thursday. Bear with me. We needed to build some foundations. Fun stuff is coming. I promise.

 

How about a group shot to go with singles? I'd love a little photo shoot.

 

How did I miss this thread??

Sean, gimme a minute to catch up and I would love to learn as well.

 

Let's plan it.

 

I'm down...for sure!

 

because you are slacking!!!! He started it because I asked him to teach me

 

Can it be in November?

 

Been away for the weekend time to get caught up....

 

These are some Impressive pictures:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/milky-way-shines-down-mount-slideshow-wp-113232015.html

 

I call this one "The Gunslinger". Notice the lines of the gun bring you to the smile on my wife's face which in turn draws your eye to the two women laughing hysterically in the backgound.

 

I call this one "Content". The line of the picture follows up McLovin's nose, through his body, and up to the man's face.

 

Great idea for a thread! I'm an avid hobbyist/part time professional (Real Estate) and teach it as part of my curriculum as a high school multimedia teacher. Some good concepts to discuss with students that I have overlooked due to complexity, but you explained it in a simplified enough manner that my students would understand.

 

So, I've gotten behind. I apologize. Day job has had me on the road and underwater. Here's the next lesson. As always, reach out if you have questions.

Lesson 3: The Camera

The first lesson taught us how to see. The second gave us some rules to follow for better compositions. This is the one where we finally pick up a camera and talk a little about exposure.

So, what’s a camera? Whether we are talking about an 8x10 view camera, an old 35mm film camera or a modern digital, cameras are really only made up of two things. A light proof box and some sort of opening to allow light in. This could be as simple as a pinhole or as complicated as a monster 1200mm super telephoto.

There are two controls on the camera that will affect how much light reaches the film. Er, sensor. Shutter and aperture. We’ll talk about shutter first.

There are two types of shutters, leaf and focal plane. A leaf shutter is built into the lens itself and is found in view cameras and some medium format cameras. It is made up of small metal plates, “leaves”, that open and close in the specified amount of time. The advantage of this system is that it is quiet and allows for a higher sync speed when using flashes or strobes.

A focal plane shutter is built into the camera body itself. It is composed of two curtains that form small slit that moves across the sensor. These curtains can either move side to side or top to bottom. This biggest advantage of this system is cost. SLR lenses are far less expensive than a leaf shutter lens. The biggest disadvantage is the sync speed for flash. Most modern DSLRs will only sync to a shutter speed of 1/250. We’ll take more about this later on.

What does the shutter do? It controls the amount of light entering your camera by the amount of time it stays open. This is one aspect of the exposure triangle. If we double the amount of time it stays open, it gives one more “stop” of exposure, or double the amount of light. If we halve the amount time, it’s one stop less or half the light. The term stop is used when we change the exposure by either shutter or aperture.

On my Canons, the shutter speed is on the LCD and denoted by the 60.



You will notice that it only shows 60. This means 1/60 of a second. When we reach slow shutters of one second or longer, the LCD displays them as 0”1, 0”2, 0”4, etc. Using 1/60 as an example, one full stop more would be 1/30 and a stop less would be 1/125. A doubling or halving of the amount of light entering the camera.

Old film cameras displayed shutter speeds in full stop increments on a dial. Modern SLRs, whether film or digital, as well as medium format bodies, will display shutter speeds in full, 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments. I keep my Canons, bodies and flashes, in 1/3 increments. Here’s a quick table.



Shutter speed will affect our image in a few different ways. In general, the faster the shutter speed, the more likely we are to have a sharp subject. This is used in situations with lots of light or high speed action such as sports. Slow shutters can be used in low light situations or when you want to give the sense of movement. We can also use a slow shutter with a technique called panning which keeps the subject sharp but blurs the background. The technique is to move the camera in the same direction as your subject while the shutter is open.

I am a huge fan of trying to convey a sense of motion in my images. I use panning a lot but sometimes, especially when doing portraits of kids, I like to run behind them as they run through a park or field. I’ll also use it when doing street photography to try and capture the chaos of a bustling downtown area.

Moving on to aperture.

The aperture, the lens opening, controls the brightness of the light that reaches your sensor. This is the second part of the exposure triangle. Just like the leaf shutter, the aperture is a series of metal blades inside the lens. When it expands, more light is allowed through. When it contracts, less light. The best analogy for aperture is the pupil in your eye.

Aperture is denoted by a number called the f-stop. Here’s an example: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11. The smaller the number, the larger the opening, the more light that gets let in. When we go from 2.8 to 4, we are halving the size of the opening which in turn halves the amount of light coming in to the camera. Sound familiar? It should as it follows the same pattern as shutter speed. We can talk about aperture in full, 1/2 and 1/3 stop increments just like shutter speed.

Here’s a small table to give you an idea.



You may have heard lenses described as either fast or slow. A fast lens is one with a really wide aperture. A lens labeled as f/1.4 would be fast than one at 2.8. The faster the lens, the more expensive it is. Some lenses (zooms) are also labeled as variable aperture. For example, Canon’s 28-135 is labeled as f/3.5-5.6. This means that at 28mm, the lens has a maximum aperture of 3.5 while at the other end, 135mm, it can only get to 5.6. This is a function of lens design and keeps the cost down. Some zooms are constant aperture such as Canon’s 24-70 f/2.8 which holds the maximum 2.8 aperture all the way through the zoom range. Cost and size increase with these types of lenses.

Besides the amount of light, aperture also controls the depth of field. The depth of field is the area from near to far in a scene that is sharp in the photograph. The smaller the aperture, the larger the depth of field becomes. To achieve this sharpness, you will often hear people talking about stopping down there lens. The wider the aperture, the narrower the depth of field. A narrower depth of field allows you to blur out elements in the foreground, background or both. It is a common technique for separating subject from background.

Most relatively modern cameras, either film or digital, will have a depth of field preview button. This is a button located on the camera body near the lens. Pressing it will stop the lens down to the set aperture giving you a “preview” through the viewfinder. This kinda sorta works and experience will give you a better feel.

Older, manual lenses all had a depth of field scale on them. Some SLR lenses still have them. Here’s an example from one of my Canon lenses.



The window of the lens shows the focus increments. Under the window, you’ll notice a series of numbers with lines. The numbers are f-stops and the lines indicate the depth of field boundaries. You match the lines up with the focus scale to understand the size of your depth of field. I use this when I street shoot. I will manually focus the lens to somewhere between 8-10 feet then set the f-stop to 5.6. I then know that everything from about 8-12 from the camera will be in focus. It allows me to react faster to scenes without having to wait on the autofocus.

We just talked about 2 parts of the exposure triangle, shutter and aperture. Triangles have 3 parts though. The third piece is ISO which we will cover below. First, I want to go over using shutter and aperture together to create a properly exposed image.

The combination of shutter and aperture is what lets in the “proper” amount of light for a particular scene. Of course, proper is dependent on your creative vision for the scene but we’ll talk about it in general terms.

Once I find a combination that lets in the proper amount of light, I can change one setting as long as make an equivalent change, in the opposite direction, to the other setting. This is called an equivalent exposure. For example, if the setting is f/5.6 at 1/60, I can decrease the aperture to 4 but then I have to increase the shutter to 1/125 to keep the exposure the same. Here’s an analogy.

If we try to fill a one gallon bucket in the sink, it’s going to take a certain amount of time. The determining factors for that time are how wide the faucet is open and how long it is open. If a wide open faucet fills the bucket in 2 seconds, then a half open one will fill it in 4. Either way, the bucket will still only hold one gallon of water.

Your camera is like that bucket. It will only hold one gallon of light. If we try to stuff more light into, the image is overexposed. Not enough light makes it underexposed. If our correct exposure is 2 seconds at f/4 then we get the same exposure with twice the time and half the light, 4 seconds at f/5.6.

Now, the last part of our triangle is ISO. In terms of film, ISO was referred to as the film’s speed. The faster the film speed, the less light you needed but you gained grain during the development process. Grain is not evil. It can be an aesthetic part of the final image. Slow film needed more light but had less grain. Slow ISOs would be films rated at 50 or 100. Faster films are 400 and 800. There are tricks you can play by “pushing” and “pulling” film by using different ISO settings then compensating in the development process. That’s a little beyond what I want to cover here but tons of fun to play with.

In general, ISO is how sensitive your camera will be to light. Lower ISO settings make your camera more sensitive, needing more light, whereas higher ISOs make it less sensitive. Even with digital, higher ISOs will create grain or digital noise. Today’s DSLRs and software limit the noise really well.

How does ISO relate to shutter and aperture? Let’s look at the following information.



You can see that we are keeping the aperture constant. By increasing the film speed, we also need to make a corresponding increase (one full stop) in the shutter speed. Could we have kept the shutter speed constant and increase the aperture? Sure thing. We would have gone from 2.8 to 4 to 5.6. However, that would have also changed our depth of field. Again, we need to think about our creative vision and how we want the final image to appear.

With the next lesson, we’ll dive into more detail on exposure. In the meantime, pull out those cameras and experiment with the exposure triangle and get a handle on how each of the three sides affects your final image.