Assignment 1: Still

I decided to use this photograph to depict Still; for me it shows the still of the morning, the tranquil sunrise - so still through mood rather than anything else.

Rounded

I think I'm going to use the granite ball for rounded; shot 1 in the last post. I've re-cropped the shot and I think it works better.

Assignment 1: curved, rounded, smooth

The following shots are my first attempt at these three contrasts.
Curved

1.	2.
3.	4.

These are all based on a granite ball in the garden, it sits on a circle of pebbles and in the summer water flows up through it and trickles down it's surfaces back into a reservoir below. I think that 1,2 and 3 work pretty well. 4's not so good. 3 might be too abstract, with only the edge of the curve being in focus. At the moment I'm thinking that 2 might be the best.

Rounded

1.	2.
3.	4.

These are all taken in the same areas of the garden as the above pictures. The granite sphere is used in shot 1. I think this shot works well. Shots 2, 3 and 4 are 2 Scottish cobbles that I stacked up. Out of these, I think I prefer 4.

Smooth

1.

2.

Same location for these shots. They you go, a less abstract view of the granite sphere in 2. I think that smoothness is conveyed more in 1. I should try turning on the water pump to see if a flow of water over the sphere helps better convey the smoothness of the granite.

Continuous

Continuous
Originally uploaded by Richard RP

This is a crop and rotate of the static ring. This works much better.

Assignment 1 - Continuous

I'm working on Assignment 1 - continuous today. I've gone for the age old symbol, a ring (my wedding ring) and have taken some shots on the table top studio in the lounge (the coffee table). I don't had a dedicated macro lens at the moment and so I'm using a Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L and I can fill a tiny bit of the frame with the ring, I could fit 80 or so on the frame! Here's the result of the first shoot:If I use one of the above, then I think I will use one with motion. The still shot is a bit too uninspiring. I particularly like the first shot, it's pretty abstract, almost like smoke. Maybe I should consider different lighting and backgrounds. More colour? Less contrast? I'll head out to the art shop later to get some different colours of paper, probably some pastels.

Project 15: cropping

Summary of the exercise: Select 3 photos, of different subjects. Produce various crops explaining why you chose them.

Tree

The Original

A different cropof the tree. I removed some of the sky and grass, these weren't particularly interesting. The panoramic style makes the eye travel in the horizontal and the viewer will naturally look to see what's in the distance.

The scenery in the distance. This is another pano, the brightness of the church is the first object to catch the eye, behind the village there are lots of outlines of trees. I picked this crop to show the detail that was in the original, it's a different picture altogther. (This might have been better had I cropped off the left 1/3rd of the frame).

The scenery in the background with a part of the tree and grass in the foreground. I kept part of the tree to add some forground interest. I kept the village church to act as a focal point in the background.

Canal scene

The Original

A close crop of the Lock. This removes much of the foreground that was in the original. This was selected to allow the viewer to concentrate on the action around the lock.

Dafs with the canal. I went for this to show off the dafs whilst keeping some of the key context. I like they way the reflection in the water shows a few chimneys. Not sure about the balance of this shot?

Just the dafs. Cropped in a very narrow portrait format to emphasise their height.

Windmill

The Original

I went for a square crop with much of the surroundings included. This allows the track to lead ones eye into the windmill, the square I think works with the centre placement of the windmill. i put the horrizon on the lower third line.

A very veryical crop. This was intended to keep the track to lead the eye, and then to allow the eye to work it's way up into the frame. I think the sky and clouds are worth including.

I selected this crop, putting the windmill on the lower left, it's on an rules of thirds intersection. I kept the bold blue sky to add to the contrast of the shot.

This shot shows the windmill and some of it's surroundings. I like the heavy looking clouds separated by patches of blue. The windmill in on the right hand 1/3rd vertical.

Project 13: the golden section

After reading the text in the folder, I still had gaps in my understanding of the Golden Section and so went searching for more information. Here's a resource I found useful: Apogee Photo Mag: Creativity and the Rule of Thirds and there's a useful Photoshop script to add a layer to images with the rule of thirds or golden section: GoldenRatio.zip and in addition there are lots of sites that talk about the Fibonacci series and how that relates to it. On with the task, six pictures which fit the rule: "A simple approximation of these proportions is the Rule of Thirds, i.e. if the frame is divided both horizontally and vertically into thirds, lines such as the horizon or important focal points can be placed on or near to the intersection of these divisions to achieve a balanced composition".

Does this fit the Golden Section? The horizon is on a line and the main subject is on an intersection. So Yes.

Does this fit the Golden Section? Top to bottom I think it does may be in the horizontal plane it doesn't.

Does this fit the Golden Section? The boats are on an arc which crosses two of the four intersections. So I think this does.

Does this fit the Golden Section? The orange area fits (just about) in a large rectangle, and in the smaller, diagonally opposite rectangle is the stem, so yes.

Does this fit the Golden Section? Eyes are on the intersections, so I think it does.

Does this fit the Golden Section? The horizon is on a line.

I think these pictures look balanced from a compositional perspective.