Overview | Imaging Basics and Controls | Composition | Lighting and Portraiture | Photography as an Artform | Summative

Composition is the combining of distinct parts or elements to form a whole; the arrangement of things within a scene

Composition is what distinguishes a great photograph from a good photograph. There are a number of established composition guidelines which can be applied in almost any situation, to enhance the impact of a scene. Once you are familiar with these composition tips, you'll be surprised at just how universal most of them are. You'll spot them everywhere, and you'll find it easy to see why some photos "work" while others feel like simple snapshots.

Leading Lines

Leading lines point towards an interesting subject. They lead the eye from one part of the picture to another: from the foreground to the background, the secondary subject to the main subject. Anything with a definite line can be a leading line. Fences, bridges, even a shoreline can lead the eye.

Contrast

The difference between things/elements in a photo. Contrast adds variety because too much similarity in a photo is boring.

Rule of Thirds

This guideline helps photographers achieve an interesting image. The scene or subject matter is divided into nine equal parts by two parallel horizontal lines and two parallel vertical lines.

Framing

Framing is an effective way of directing the viewer’s attention to the focal point. Use objects in the foreground to frame the focal point or the scene.

Ideally, the frame should relate to the theme of the picture.

Texture

Texture refers to the surface quality or "feel" of an object - smooth, rough, soft, etc.

Texture helps to emphasize the features and details in a photograph. By capturing "texture" of objects being photographed, you can create form.

The texture of an object is emphasized when light strikes it from the side.

Depth

Because photography is a two-dimensional medium, we have to choose our compositions carefully to convey the sense of depth that was present in the actual scene. You can create depth in a photo by including objects in the foreground, middle ground and background. Another useful composition technique is overlapping, where you deliberately partially obscure one object with another. The human eye naturally recognizes these layers and mentally separates them out, creating an image with more depth.

Filling the Frame

Often a photo will lack impact because the main subject is so small it becomes lost among the clutter of its surroundings. By filling the frame with the subject you eliminate the background "noise", ensuring the subject gets the viewer's undivided attention.

Symmetrical balance

Balance refers to the visual weight of a scene. When a photo is symmetrically balanced it means that both sides appear to have equal

weight

Oral critiques are beneficial for a number of reasons:

• critiques give you the opportunity to present your photographs to the class and provide the audience with insight into your work.

• to effectively discuss your photographs you have to reflect on the final photographs and on the process you took to get to there which helps you grow as a photographer.

Additional to this is the opportunity for the audience to provide their own comments or suggestions which in turn will help you as a photographer. A good question or comment is constructive, not vague.

• example of a vague comment - “Your photo looks cool.”

• example of a constructive comment - “I like how you blurred the area behind the figure. It really emphasizes the subject by eliminating the distracting background.”

BE PREPARED

Spend time organizing your answers so that when you speak you sound prepared, confident and knowledgeable. When presenting face the audience and not your photograph

Some questions to help you direct your critique:

1. What is the title of your photo?

2. What does it demonstrate (ie. leading line, texture, rule of thirds)?

3. What genre does your photo represent (ie. portrait, landscape, nature shot)?

4. What aperture, shutter speed and ISO did you use when taking the photo? Did you use a tripod?

5. Discuss how you composed the photo when looking through the viewfinder.

   • What is the focal point (the main subject)? What about it draws our attention to it first?

   • What vantage point did you use? Was the camera positioned at eye level, from a birds-eye-view, from a low angle? Was the camera held in portrait format or landscape format?

6. What was the light like when you took the photo? Was it sunny so the shadows are strong? Was it cloudy or were you standing in the shade so that the shadows are soft? Were you inside and therefore had to use lamps to light the scene? Is the light effective or not? If you are unsatisfied with it how would you change it?

7. State and explain any difficulties you encountered during the entire project. How did you overcome these difficulties?

8. Describe what you would do differently if you re-did the project.

A reminder to discuss the elements of composition. They are:

• • leading lines

  • contrast

  • rule of thirds

  • framing

  • texture

  • depth

  • symmetry

'Photography' is derived from the Greek words for light and writing. Photography, as we know it, has only been in existence since 1839 when the process first became public.

The invention of photography didn’t happen all at once; instead it was a gradual process that resulted from the combination of several technical discoveries.

16th century: Brightness and clarity of camera obscuras improved by enlarging the hole and inserting a telescope lens.

17th century: Camera obscuras in frequent use by artists

With the use of the camera obscura an image could be projected and traced. But was it possible to transfer the image directly to the paper without the hand of an artist?

This next step in the evolution of photography came about through the intervention of science and the knowledge of chemical reactions.

Realizing the significance of his discovery, Niépce spent two years working with pewter plates to refine the process. In the summer of 1827, he was finally ready to test his invention. From a window overlooking a farmyard in France, he set up his camera obscura with a polished pewter plate coated with his derivative of petroleum. The exposure was close to eight hours — an entire day (you can see how the sun shines on both sides of the building in his orignal image). He then washed the plate with a solution that dissolved away the parts of his picture that had not been hardened by light. For the first time in history, a positive photographic image was intentionally preserved for posterity.

Daguerreotype

The daguerreotype was patented in 1839. It was the first practical process because the exposure time was greatly reduced to a few minutes. It was made by exposing the image onto a piece of metal. There is no negative used in this process so the photos were one-of-a-kind.

By 1853 approximately 3 million daguerreotypes were made per year in the US

Digital Photography

The world of filmless photography really began in the early 1980s. At first the quality was poor and the cameras were quite expensive. Quality improved and by the early 1990s, press photographers were using beginning to use filmless cameras by the late 1990's.

Today's state of affairs:

In 2008, stand-alone digital camera sales peaked at about 120 million sold. In 2011, less than 1% of all photographs were taken using a film camera.

In 2014 - sales of cameras around the world was 1.8 billion cameras for consumers (excluding webcams and security cams etc)

• • 95% of those are cameraphones on mobile phones

  • 5% are traditional stand-alone cameras.

Two decades ago, DSLRs were introduced to replace film cameras. With only a few megapixels, very short battery life, and an overall low quality, it was only natural that most photographers were very skeptical at first. It took a few generations until digital cameras were fully accepted and analog photography was left to the enthusiasts rather than the professionals.

In recent years, we’ve already seen a sharp turn in the status of DSLRs (10% decreases in sales-per-year). Mirrorless cameras and smartphones have become more popular for the average consumer. But even for professional photographers, there are more and more alternatives to old-school DSLRs.

The electronic viewfinder was a revolution, but a very premature one. In theory, the new viewfinder only offered advantages and new features. There are new possibilities of overlays, like grids, histograms, or focus peaking. But electronic viewfinders didn’t hold up to their promises.

They felt laggy, especially when moving the camera very quickly, the resolution wasn’t great, and in these ways, the EVF had clear disadvantages to the classic optical viewfinder.

However, recent advances have changed things. Additionally, whereas high-end DSLRs only can shoot up to 14 photographs per second (or 16fps with mirror lockup), mirrorless cameras are already able to get as high as 20 images per second in burst mode. Due to the physical limitations of the mirror, DSLRs will never advance as far as mirrorless in this area.

We’re living in a world of a billion photos an hour. Instagram and Twitter and Snapchat and Facebook are largely driven by visuals. And those visuals almost always come from a camera phone that have increasingly more complex lenses (and number of cameras on the phone).

When it comes to photography it's probably pretty easy for you to identify what it is you like. But, are you able to put into words the reasons why you like a particular photograph? Do you know what it is that is so appealing? By learning what visual elements the artist uses to communicate with you, you may appreciate better why you like or don't like a particular work of art.

Photo analysis is a method of organizing the facts and your thoughts about a particular photograph. It is broken down into four areas. Each area specifically looks at one section. The four steps are:

1.Description

2.Formal Analysis

3.Interpretation

4.Judgement

This order helps you make intelligent and educated statements about a work of art.

Description

Describe everything you can see without including any of your own opinions or interpretations. Pretend that you are explaining the photo to a blind person so you’ll need to include as much information as possible

Formal Analysis

Examine the formal and compositional elements and principles and explain how the photo has been composed.

• The elements are the things that make up the photograph (ie. line, shape, form, space, colour, value and texture)

• The principles are how the elements are arranged (ie. proportion, unity, harmony, balance, variety, movement, repetition)

Interpretation

Explain what you think the photograph is about. Your understanding of the photograph might be very different from someone else's. You can make guesses and inferences. However, these should be educated guesses and not just random guesses. A good interpretation uses proof to back up statements

Judgement

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the photograph? Do you think the photograph is successful or not? Why? Here you can express your opinion. You should be able to give some reasons as to why you like or do not like a work of art.

Example