photo:composition
the art of photography - composition
Introduction
the human brain has evolved to respond positively to sensory inputs, and generally these need to have a pattern and this pattern should not be too simple that it is boring or too complex that it can't be well appreciated
an analogy is how our brain and bodies respond to rhythms, it seems we all have a built-in “metronome” which responds to rhythms, and humans are unique in that in early childhood, our brains develop entrainment to music whereby we move our bodies spontaneously to the beat of music which presumably evolved from primitive drumming which then became the neural evolutionary fore-runner to speech. African drumming tends to have rhythmic ambiguity with mixed rhythms which make it more interesting for our brains.
likewise our brain responds to visual patterns - preferably not too simple but not too complex
Compositional "rules", elements and considerations
gestalt psychology of visual perception
how the mind perceives an overall image and attempts to organise it and relate it to past visual memories to determine what the “object” in the image is, what is it doing and where is it going, and then also can assign aspects of aesthetics, emotion, interest, etc.
the eye is generally drawn to the area of highest contrast and to the brighter parts of an image and through the process of emergence, attempt to identify the whole before identifying the parts that make up the whole
law of closure
the mind will tend to extrapolate parts of an image to fill in the “gaps” (reification) in virtual lines to close the image as a recognizable subject even though it may be just an abstract image
the viewer can be led to see such virtual images if they are primed by getting one into a “perceptual set”
law of similarity
law of proximity
the tendency to group objects based upon proximity
can create connectivity but also a visual tension, eg. two hands almost touching
conversely, distance can also create visual tension between subjects who “should” be close
it is used to create depth between foreground and background
pragnantz
figure-ground relationships (FGR)
law of continuity to connect subjects to create movement and unity by using flowing tools such as:
the curve of an arabesque or an ellipse
coincidence - edge to edge relationships hidden imaginary lines can “join” subjects
radiating lines
enclosures such as triangles
greatest areas of contrast to direct the viewer to your subject
dynamic symmetry grids
law of symmetry
sometimes the subject in the center is what your image needs especially if it creates a balanced image!
an off-centre subject usually needs a secondary subject to counter balance it otherwise one gets imbalance and unwanted negative space which may paradoxically take attention away from the subject
an image often needs vertical space above and below the horizontal center line to give breathing room, and space to the left or right of midline to provide gazing direction
gamut
minimizing edge distractions
simplification
use of lines
most images contain lines whether real, implied or suggested
the photographer can use these lines to:
use of shapes
can be geometrical, organic or abstract and each may have their own psychological impacts
shapes can be abstracted by super-imposition, blur, light and shadows, distance, cropping, etc
shapes can act as metaphors for other subjects
use of negative space
generally bland areas can provide balance too and center attention on the subject as well as provide the subject with a story-telling spacial dimension
the tone of the negative space can add emotive impact
rule of space
rule of thirds
divide the image into 9 regions separated by 2 vertical lines and 2 horizontal lines which are a third in from an edge
one can use this to place the centre of attention at one of these intersections but generally you then need to counterbalance this with a secondary subject
one can place the horizon on one of the horizontal lines providing more weight of teh aspect of the scene you wish to emphasize rather than having the horizon splitting the image in half (although this can work too - once you understand rules, you can break them!)
-
rule of odds
use of sub-framing
use of depth
dark and light balance
the middle line
rhythm and direction of the story
the placement of compositional elements such as light and dark areas, and leading lines tend to lead the viewer from one area to another
viewers tend to go first to the brightest area, and they tend to prefer to “read” the image from left to right
if you brightest area is not related to your subject in any way then it will be distracting and should probably be de-emphasized or removed
flipping an image horizontally can dramatically change the rhythm and direction, it is generally better to have a leading line coming from the viewer to the subject placed starting on the left of the image rather than on the right
photo/composition.txt · Last modified: 2019/12/26 10:00 by gary1