Basics Photography 01 Composition Sample Chapter 'Formal Elements'
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Transcript of Basics Photography 01 Composition Sample Chapter 'Formal Elements'
Mezquita, Cordoba (above) All the formal elements are carefully framed, balanced and organised columns and transept roof of the Holy Cathedral and former mosque in Cordoba, Spain.Photographer: Tiago Estima. Technical summary: 24mm wide-angle lens, 1/20 sec at f6.7, ISO 800.
It is unusual to find an image that exclusively uses one of the formal elements of composition. The best images are a remarkable combination of ingredients. Looking in turn at how each of the elements can be incorporated into images will help you to understand the process of composition. In the world of fine art, the formal elements are: line, shape, form, space, texture, light and colour.
Line can either be actual marks on the paper or a boundary suggested by shapes in the image.
Shape is an area that is defined by one of the other elements, usually line, though it can also be composed of light, texture or colour. Shape has mass.
Form has volume. In twodimensional art, adding shading to a shape gives the illusion of form. Space is two- or threedimensional, but most often refers to the representation of the third dimension on canvas. Negative space is the absence of volume and the areas between are positive shapes.
Light is the fundamental ingredient of photography. Photographers refer to the comparative light or dark of a grey or colour as tone. Artists refer to this as value. In photography, changes in light levels across the surface of a three-dimensional object gives the illusion of form.
Texture is a characteristic of surface revealed by the interaction of light and the surface, for example: polished metal and glass reflect brilliantly, while velvety cloth appears dull and soft. Colour can be identified as a result of human response to wavelengths of light and it affects our moods and emotions.
PointIn its purest photographic form, a point (or, in fine art terms, a mark) is the first and only place the photosensitive material changes by reacting with light this becomes a tiny pinpoint of light on a uniform background. Small objects can also be points. An image of a pebble on a beach is a point rather than a small area of tone. The simple point will draw attention to itself by being the only concentration of detail in an otherwise empty image. The message conveyed by the image of a single point is usually one of overwhelming isolation. Larger areas can have a central point that functions much in the same way as a simple point. This is the virtual point at the optical centre of gravity of the area of tone much easier to visualise than to describe. The
visual centre of an evenly toned area is easy to determine, but if there is an increase in tonal or textural density, the virtual centre point will shift towards that concentration. The placement of the point in an image can have a big impact on the way it is read by the viewer. The direction of the shadow if one exists can determine ownership of space. The point may appear closer or seem to be static if moved near to the bottom edge of the frame. Images are rarely composed around a single point on an otherwise uniform background. Composing with a true single point is an absurdity. By expanding the definition of point to mean a small area of concentrated detail, some of the most dramatic compositions use a point to convey information about the whole.
The spot is the outcome of the first contact of the tool with the material, with the basic surface. Wassily Kandinsky (artist)
Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London (right) The single point of concentrated detail is revealed as the isolated form of a man in the vast exhibition space of the Tate Modern art gallery.Photographer: Paul Stefan. Technical summary: Canon EOS 20D, Canon EFS 1785 lens, 1/60 sec at f6.3, ISO 800, some local exposure control (dodging and burning) in Photoshop.
Ouch (facing opposite) The subject is the pebble trapped in a crevice. The greater area of simply toned rock above the pebble seems to weigh down on the pebble, which introduces a new dynamic into an otherwise sparse image.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Nikon D100, 60mm Micro-Nikkor, 1/80 sec at f11.
Points and optical lines Immediately a second point is introduced into an image a relationship is established between it and the existing point. It now becomes impossible to treat the two in isolation as individual points. They are connected by a virtual line, often called an optical line. In compositional terms, virtual lines are as important as actual lines. The quality of the optical line, its direction and angle will be read as though it were a real line. This will have a bearing on the relationship between the two points. In fact, in some images, it may introduce an unintentional relationship. The optical line is the compositional equivalent of putting a set of weighing scales beneath any two objects the gaze will move between the two, making comparisons. This tendency will intensify if the two points are in any way similar in colour or texture for example. It may be preferable to exclude a second object from your composition precisely to
avoid such a possibility. Cropping the finished image or reframing the image in-camera would then be necessary. Depending how closely associated or widely separated the two points are within the frame, the viewer is forced to make assumptions about their relationship. This will be affected by the positioning of the virtual line between them. If two points are situated at a great distance apart in either of the top corners of the frame, the image will be read in a different way than if the same two points were positioned close together in either bottom corner. The strongest virtual line in any image is the human gaze. We all look to see where others are looking this is a response to both our instinct for survival and to satisfy a sense of curiosity. In portraits of two people, the relationship between the two individuals is rather like that between simple points and if there is a shared gaze the implied relationship is strengthened further.
Mooh! (left) An optical line joins the cows diagonally across the field. The tree on the horizon acts like a full stop to their sentence and is given scale by the diminishing row of animals. The bulk and tone of its canopy balances the cow in the foreground.Photographer: Jorge Coimbra. Technical summary: Canon Powershot G3, 1/1250sec at f4.5, ISO 50.
Southern wind (below) An optical line joins the centre of the heads of the two women. Their gaze also produces a set of optical lines to a point outside the frame. Their closeness and posture says there is something shared, but that they are for a moment distracted.Photographer: Karl Facredyn. Technical summary: Canon D60 with Canon 35mm 1.4L prime lens, lit only by sunlight through windows.
Groups Just as two points are linked by an imaginary optical line, we create shapes from simple groups of objects this is described by psychologists as closure. It is important when composing an image to treat the overall shape of a group and not just the individual items. Three stones in an image create a shape, a triangle. The composition will look either stable or unstable depending on the disposition of the triangle whether the triangle itself appears stable or unstable. An inverted triangle is inherently unstable, while a wide-based triangle is strong. If you place four pebbles on a background they become joined in an invisible rectangle and the shape and its properties will provoke a response to the finished composition. With groups of objects, the brain treats the shape created as a real-world object. If the shape formed by a group
of objects appears unstable the image will seem vulnerable and transitory, which creates tension. If the arrangement of the components is stable, then the overall effect will be of strength and tranquillity. When composing images with a few distinct objects on a background whether landscape or still life consider the way objects are grouped and whether you want to use them to create an undercurrent of tension or a sense of calm. One of the hardest effects to achieve in still life is to create a natural composition. Experimenting with a handful of disparate pebbles, you will discover that you start to create patterns when trying to arrange them in a natural way. It is difficult to achieve a genuinely random, natural-looking arrangement. This shows how powerfully we search for pattern and structure. Selecting an odd number of items when photographing groups helps to avoid regularity.
The two individual points are linked by an optical line. Given the equivalence of the two points, they can only be treated as the end points of a line.
Introduce a third point and a shape emerges in this case an unstable triangle.
Polaroid apples (above) A group of apples in a wooden bowl move any one and the arrangement might collapse.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Polaroid Polacolor ER image transfer on Fabriano cold-pressed watercolour paper from a Kodak Elite Chrome Extra Color 100 35mm transparency.
The fourth point creates a stable rectangle. Irrespective of the distance between the fourth point and the first three, the figure is not interpreted as a triangle and an isolated point. The original line has gone, although its end points have not moved.
With three more points there are two groups of points based on similar properties. The original rectangle remains, joined by an unstable triangle. A new group formation based on similar colour or shape will be treated as its own separate shape.
LineLines can be real or a virtual construct as with the optical line that connects two points. Lines form the outlines and shapes that make up our earliest drawings on paper. It is only later, if we pursue the subject, that we learn how to sketch in tone and shadow to represent form. Even painters use simple construction lines in their underpainting and preparatory sketches. Lines can have different qualities strong, continuous, weak and even intermittent. Lines are really a mental construct. Our visual system, under the processing control of the brain, acts to simplify the chaotic visual jumble of the world. It does this by emphasising the edges and contours of objects while minimising areas of constant tone in a process known as lateral inhibition. This begins to explain why we draw with lines, when in nature true lines are rare, and are more likely to be simply the visual boundary between one area of tone and another. The Find Edges command in Photoshop works in much the same way; finding big numerical differences in the image data that represent the edges of blocks of tone.
One of the most important lines in photography is the horizon. The sea/sky horizon is usually a true line and needs very careful alignment in images. If the horizon is an area of water and it is tilted in an unnatural way it disturbs the viewer. Water is only at rest on a truly horizontal plane. Where the true horizon lies behind a mountain range an horizon line is implied and it becomes important to level the camera with the invisible horizon to create a stable image that does not appear to be slipping off the print. It is particularly difficult to square up the camera faced with curving shorelines and mountain ranges some photographers resort to using a bubble level on the camera body. Some of the most dramatic lines in the everyday world are those temporarily created in the skies by the condensation trails produced by jet aircraft. For photographers trying to compose a timeless landscape image these lines are a nuisance, but they can add drama to a skyscape. Overhead power and phone lines can also be successfully built into an image.
There are often few true lines in our images (1 and 3) as many lines are really boundaries between areas of tone (2 and 4).
Skyward (above) This unexpected viewpoint looks directly up at the lines of the graceful cable-stay Swan Bridge (Erasmusburg) that joins north and south Rotterdam. Lines radiate from a carefully placed single point of interest into the four corners of the frame.Photographer: Wilson Tsoi. Technical summary: Nikon D70 with Nikkor 1870mm, f3.54.5G, AF-S, 1/160sec at f16, ISO 200, with a little warmth added using Colour Balance in Photoshop.
The meaning of lines Just as we treat images of objects as standins for the real thing, we treat lines in an image as though familiar, real-world forces such as gravity or the wind act upon them. There are two states of balance for straight lines; vertical lines are one. They represent a balance of forces and are static. Forces are in balance to keep the line upright. A gently curved line shows the action of unequal forces bending the line over to one side the greater the curvature, the greater the apparent force. We know the direction of the force from what we know of nature that the line bends away from the force. The curved line is stable, but giving way to the force acting upon it. Angled lines are dynamic. They are most unstable around 45 degrees the line appears about to fall flat at any moment.
Sinuous, S-shaped lines are known as beauty or Serpentine curves. Their interpretation can depend on their orientation in the frame; arranged vertically they reflect strength and dynamic balance, like muscles acting on each other. Across the frame, they are undulating like hills or rivers through a landscape or the soft curves of a reclining body. They show the action of great forces moving slowly. Zigzag lines are evidence of a disruptive force, and are interpreted variously as exciting, angry or unsettling. They represent concentrated energy. Horizontal lines are the most stable. They respond to gravity and are at rest and motionless.
Gently curved line
Dynamic angled line
Invisible forces (above) The dynamic tension of this image relies on the shape and angle of the tree created by the reaction to the strong forces of wind and weather. Compositional interest is added by the fact the tree seems to have taken on the shape of the rock below it as if it has been moulded by some unseen force.Photographer: Michael Trevillion, Trevillion Images. Technical summary: Olympus OM1 with 50mm lens, 1/125 sec at f8, Kodak 35mm infra red film, slight burningin of sky, a bit of soft focus filtering during print exposure in the darkroom.
Diagonals Angled lines impart some degree of movement. Diagonals are a special case. They are lines that run roughly from one corner of an image to another. They give the feeling that the line is displaced. This creates a feeling of expectation, movement and tension in what would otherwise be a static image. They need not be actual lines, as points in diagonal arrangements appear to move down the optical line that joins them. Diagonals appear in images in one of two ways. Diagonal lines in the real world can be photographed in their true orientation. Alternatively, lines that are horizontal or vertical in the real world can be canted over to the diagonal. Tipping an image over in the frame has become photographic shorthand for energy and dynamism, sometimes disorientation. Just cropping an image of a stationary vehicle on the slant will make it appear to be moving. In Western culture, our eyes are accustomed to scanning a page of text from top left to bottom right. We treat empty rectangles in much the same way. Diagonal lines that run with the gaze reflect a sense of order, but do not have the same impact as those that run counter to our gaze. Diagonals that run from bottom left of the image to top right are considered more dynamic and give greater sense of movement.
Grand Prix, British Rallycross (above) Although it is usual to leave some space in front of a moving object, Elsworth places the subject at the bottom of the slope and as close to the frame edge as possible to accentuate speed. Careful pre-focus and panning with the autofocus off captures the subject sharp even at slow shutter speed.Photographer: David Elsworth. Technical summary: Nikon D100 with Sigma 70300mm lens, ISO 400, 1/20sec at f8.
Curves A simple curve can have dynamism, but somehow it calms and slows down the action. Because of their close association with the curves of the human body and with gently rolling hills and valleys, we connect curved lines with beauty and the sensual. The line of beauty, about which the artist William Hogarth wrote at length, is a double curve or flat S shape (a compound as opposed to simple curve). The ideal is said to be the curve where the lower back joins the upper buttocks which is much the same in a man or woman. Aligned vertically, this compound curve looks perfectly balanced. Gravity runs through it but the curve seems to resist the force. The beauty curve is also referred to as a cyma curve (from the Greek, meaning wave). Sensuous curves are produced where water wears
down rock with the action of the waves. Photographers have found water-worn rock a rich source of images that are sympathetic with the human form. There is a satisfying harmony and stillness in these curves. When the S shape lies in the perspective plane of the image and is foreshortened in, for example, an image of a meandering river, it suggests natural, unhurried progression. It lends a feeling of timelessness without the image appearing to be static. A real or absolute line is not needed, only the suggestion of the curve by careful placement of points of interest. Two beauty curves together can suggest pulchritude, kissing lips or, if reflected back to back, the upward flickering of the flame.
Eleanor 1947 (facing opposite) One of Callahans series of nude images of his wife, in which the female form is brilliantly reduced to the simplicity of a gently curved upright line with smaller lines branching off. The crop around the subject abstracts it slightly, forcing the viewer to question what it might be.Photographer: Harry Callahan. Technical summary: None provided.
Leading lines The concept of the leading line is one of the earliest in photographic composition. It is also one of the hardest to discredit, despite being challenged by scientific evidence. Leading lines, which are meant to entice the eye to the real subject, are a photographic myth. As long ago as 1973, Andreas Feininger, one of the best photographic writers of his day, wrote: The entire theory of leading lines is a fallacy. Yet, the idea is still presented as fact in photographic magazine articles and on websites today. Research studies, using miniature cameras to record eye-movements, show that we do not look for lines, real or otherwise, in images. In fact, our gaze is more attracted to angles than to straight lines. Viewers often enter the picture at small areas of high contrast (potentially significant features) looking straight at the part of the picture that first catches their eye.
When we look at a picture the order in which we scan the different elements varies considerably as does the time we spend scanning for and looking at each element. Experiments on human eye movement show that viewers spend most of their time looking at parts of an image that have the most detail, contrast or curvature. The viewer may see other things in your images than your subject. He or she may be interested in entirely different aspects of the subject than what you intended to show. Presented with accompanying captions, the viewer can be predisposed to scan images in a particular way. (What a viewer also brings in terms of culture has a major impact on what they see in a picture.) The viewer treats portraits in much the same way as another human face, focusing on eye contact, except that with an image the gaze is not returned, so the relationship is much less intense. The painting, opposite, by Ilya Repin, a Russian Naturalist painter, was subjected to an experiment by Russian physiologist Alfred Yarbus to determine the patterns of just this kind of seeing.
1 Without any instructions, the viewers eyes scanned the picture. It was concluded that viewers did not use the strong perspective lines of the floorboards as leading lines.
2 This scan pattern shows how a viewer looked at the picture when asked to judge the wealth and standing of the family depicted in the painting.
3 This shows the eye-movement pattern produced when the viewer was asked to estimate the ages of the characters in the painting.
ShapeShape is usually defined by one of the other formal elements, such as line. Shapes are even described as being delineated, but shape can also be composed of an area of even or gradually changing tone. A pool of light, a patch of texture or splash of colour all present as shape. What has already been said about curves and zigzag lines applies equally to curved and jagged shapes. As with literal and optical lines there can be literal and virtual shapes in our images. In the section on groups, page 42, we saw how shapes are created by points formed at the corners of shapes, enclosing an otherwise plain area of background. And, just as we look for faces in a fire, our active visual-processing system loves the challenge of ambiguity and tries to work out the puzzle by looking for recognisable shapes. Artists treat shapes as either being geometric or natural shapes. Abstract shapes are generally natural forms that have been simplified in some way. Many photographers have studied natural organic shapes to find the underlying geometry. A common device is to photograph an object that has the shape of another a cloud that looks like a face, for example. These images have the same attraction as optical illusions based on the reversal of a human face or figure and something else entirely the fascination stems from not being able to see both forms of the image at once.
Succulent triangle (above) Three optical centres produce a stable triangular arrangement, while the inverted triangle of colour above introduces an unstable dynamic into this close-up photograph of three stages of flower growth in a succulent.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Nikon D100, 60mm MicroNikkor, low, summer evening light, 1/10 sec at f32.
A stable and unstable triangle arrangement.
Pose (above) The picture has incident. Once we make out the simplified shape of the black cat, we know that a cat in this posture is just poised to spring.Photographer: Jorge Coimbra. Technical summary: Canon Powershot G3, 1/800 sec at f8, ISO 50.
Dominance of size and tone In any image, two areas of roughly the same size and tone will appear to be in balance. The balance will tip in favour of either a larger area, an area with greater density of information (more detail) or one that is markedly darker or lighter than the rest of the picture. Painters refer to this quality as attraction. Some elements will attract more attention than others. Shape, lines, tone, form, pattern density and complexity, colour all play a part in the balancing act, which is difficult to quantify, but easier to identify in wellcomposed images. Position also plays an important role. Given the same two elements, the one nearest the edge will be treated as having greater attraction. Every part of the image has some degree of attraction and even an
empty background will have some aspect of tonal gradation or even suggestion of what is not or what could be there. Individual points especially similarly sized or toned points will be associated by the viewer and will be assessed, from the point of view of balance, as a single entity. The eye naturally seeks balance in an image and this can be either static or dynamic. Static balance is found in purely symmetrical images with their equal elements placed on either side of a central line or pivot these images, their strengths and weaknesses, are covered later in the book. Dynamic balance is achieved when items with unequal attraction are given some equivalence. This can be done by increasing the attraction of one by putting it near an important locus within the frame (the point of interest hotspots) or near to the frames edge.
When formal elements are present in equal quality/quantity around a central line the pivot point or fulcrum the picture is described as Static being in static balance. It may be pleasing to look at, but there will be no drama. An image can still be in balance when formal elements are present in unequal quantities/qualities if the balance point of the picture is shifted. Here, a small, dense object balances a larger, lighter object. This is known as dynamic balance and it lends drama and tension to an image. Dynamic
Balance (above) Dynamic balance applied to the foreground and background of an image. Balance is not to be judged across a horizontal line in an image, but in the planes of the image itself. A darker, small object in the distance will balance a lighter, larger object in the foreground.Photographer: Jorge Coimbra. Technical summary: Canon Powershot G3, 1/250 sec at f4, ISO 50.
Negative shapes If people are presented with a completely homogeneous field of view they become disoriented pilots and skiers sometimes report this in white out weather conditions. Our visual system needs something on which to fix. Our visual world consists of numerous instances of subjects seen against their backgrounds. We choose the subject depending on our motivation. What a photographer would refer to as subject and background is what a psychologist would call figure and ground. Artists would refer to the same idea as positive and negative shape. If the subject of the photograph is the positive shape, then the background is the negative shape. The optical illusion of figure
and ground immediately produces tension. This is because the brain, unable to hold on to both negative and positive shapes, cant decide which is the most important. Choice of viewpoint can distinguish between or emphasise the relationship between subject and background. When taking a picture, positive and negative shapes can be enhanced by lighting to produce wide tonal separation between the subject and background. High-contrast film or custom contrast curves on a digital camera can be used to enhance the difference. At printing stage, high-contrast photographic paper can reduce the shading and fine textures that contribute to the appearance of form. The manipulation of contrast and threshold gives much the same control with digital images.
Ambiguous (left) Figure/ground reversal in a real photograph it is a hand, but are the fingers light or dark?Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Nikon D100 Nikon, 70300mm zoom, 1/125 sec at f4, ISO 200, deliberately defocused.
Streetlights (above) Though the centrally placed row of streetlights is the formal subject of this image, the negative shape of the late evening sky, as defined by the silhouette of the buildings, plays a large part in its attractiveness.Photographer: Mellik Tamas. Technical summary: Fuji Finepix S2 Pro, 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens, 1/45 sec at f4.8, ISO 400, some cropping, sharpening and increase in saturation in Photoshop.
FormA shape defined by lines, colour changes or areas of pattern and texture is still a twodimensional object in an image. It covers an area and is described as having mass. What makes a shape take on form is the introduction of shading within its boundaries. Form is the representation of the third dimension in the two dimensions of the flat image. Tonal gradation We understand how light falls on threedimensional objects from observation. We process the information from highlights
and shadows to create a mental map of an object, which enables us to grasp it in our hand rather than putting our hand through the shape. The richer the information the photographer captures about the way the light falls on an object, the more realistic the representation of the object will be to the viewer. The viewer also takes some cue as to the emotional mood of a picture by the positioning of the main light. The higher the highlight on an object, the higher the sun is in the sky. Conversely, low-angle lighting will be interpreted as evening and evoke tranquillity.
Beach forms (above and facing opposite) Astute photographic observations of form. Shadows and highlight play an important role in creating the appearance of a sensuous three-dimensional world, enhanced by the colours and texture. Such close observation triggers a response to treat these geological formations as if they were flesh and blood.Photographer: Stephen Coll. Technical summary: 1954 Rolleicord 75mm Xenar Ektachrome 400 and 1960 Bronica S2a with Nikkor 75mm, Fuji Provia F 400.
Bodyland (above) The simplest photographic vocabulary the subtlest grading of tonal values can say so much, creating a strong emotional reaction in the viewer.Photographer: Tomas Rucker. Technical summary: Fuji Finepix S5000 compact, 1/140 sec at f2.8, ISO 200.
Shape plus tone The quality of form is down to the subtlety with which the photographic medium portrays tone. Information about tone is in the density of silver grains in film or in a digital number code. Fine-grain film is a guarantor for subtle tonal information and the bigger the negative area, the better. This explains why the 5 x 4in negative and view camera are still favourites with many flower or figure photographers where capturing subtlety of tone is key. With the digital medium it is not quite as simple as more pixels means smoother tonality. The quality of digital image processing in-camera has as much to do with the quality of tonal information as raw pixel count older 4-5MPx professional and semi-professional cameras produce a smoother tonality than more recent 78MPx consumer models. The physical size of the pixels on the digital sensor and its inherent noise also play a part in how clean the image appears. Digital post-processing can lose tonal information, especially if information has to be made up (interpolated) by the computer when levels or curves are coarsely adjusted the existing tonal information is stretched to cover a wider range of tones, and banding (posterisation) can occur that reduces the smoothness and subtlety of the tonal range. The average human eye can see more than 65, but probably less than 100 different shades of grey. Digital systems would seem safe with 256 levels of grey, or 8-bit, but you can push the boundaries by choosing 16-bit grey, which offers a greater safety margin and better mathematical precision for manipulations.
Overcoming the limitations of 2D Many of the art movements of the twentieth century struggled with what were considered by many to be the limitations of realist art. The Cubists challenged the notion that art should reflect nature. They turned their collective back on the traditional depiction of perspective and instead attempted to simplify form into simple geometric solids (the cube of Cubism) using multiple viewpoints in their images. Artists such as Picasso and Braque influenced Alfred Stieglitz and his circle of photographers in America. Vorticist paintings looked like superimposed photographs manipulated to form swirling, moving forms in the static world of the canvas. In the early 1970s, the Yorkshire-born artist David Hockney experimented with Polaroid instant cameras to produce explorations of reverse perspective and made reference to Picassos Cubist paintings. Hockney tried to break through the two-dimensional bounds of the photograph by capturing a series of images taken around an object. He experimented with reverse perspective, creating striking portraits which looked as though the skin had been unwrapped from the subject. Early on, Hockney created montages of component images in a structured grid and later in a more organic style. He called these images joiners. Intriguingly, as he shot the images, he was also recording the passing of time. His joiners are a combination of images of the same subject taken from different viewpoints at different times. Digital cameras are uniquely convenient for shooting sequences of images that explore the three-dimensional nature of an object. Imaging software makes it easy to create a blank digital canvas and to drop in the various images to create a joiner.
Ian washing his hair, London, January, 1983 (facing opposite) This joiner expands both space and time to create a complex narrative within the image.Photographer: David Hockney. Technical summary: None provided.
Emilie (above) Texture need not mean rough wood and rock. Diffuse frontal light and a shallow depth of field (critically focused on the eyes) flatter the smooth skin textures of this young sitter and the soft fur of the hood.Photographer: Nina Indset Andersen. Technical summary: White balance was adjusted in converting the RAW digital file to give a colder light.
TextureSight and touch are very closely related senses. Because of this strong connection, developed in our infancy, the visual representation of texture can generate a strong emotional response through association or memory. In many viewers, the high-contrast texture of reptile skin will evoke quite a different reaction from softly lit wool. The photographer can exaggerate texture to evoke emotion or can choose lighting conditions that reduce the appearance of texture when it is not wanted. When we talk about texture, we often mean the surface area of objects such as rock or wood, but texture in an image can mean much larger or more expansive features of landscape, for example the furrows of a ploughed field seen from a distance. The differences between textures helps the viewer to appreciate depth and perspective in an image. Just as the archaeological photographer waits for slanting light to reveal the shadow of a long-buried village, the landscape photographer waits for the sun to illuminate the textures of sand dunes, rocks, and cultivated fields. In portraiture, care must be taken with the angle of light so as not to unduly emphasise skin texture if it is not appropriate to the image. High-contrast, side lighting can add years to the appearance of skin. Softening the light and angling it directly onto the subject reduces the effect.
Angle and quality of light When light falls across the surface of an object at an angle it reveals its texture the shallower the angle, the more prominent the texture. Direct lighting illuminates the tiny peaks and troughs of a textured surface evenly, which reduces the appearance of texture. Side or raking light casts deep shadows that enhance the texture of an object. If the texture has a grain wood or skin, for example the lighting should always be angled at right angles to the run of the grain to fully reveal the texture.
The quality of light also plays a part. The important aspect is not the colour or direction of the light but whether it is diffuse or focused, omni-directional (spreading in all directions) or from a single source. Some light sources cast hard shadows, while others create softer shadows each reveals the texture of a surface differently. Soft boxes and available light through a window, for example, produce flattering light. This soft lighting is frequently used in portrait, glamour and fashion photography where the skin texture is important. Conversely, a spot light throws hard light on a subject, producing hard-edged shadows which are useful for adding character to a face.
Light hits the surface at right angles illuminating peaks and valleys evenly.
Light hits the surface at a shallow angle each peak casts a shadow in the next valley micro contrast (texture).
Driftwood (facing opposite) Low evening light picks out the wood grain and worn paint in this fence made from driftwood in Kippford, Scotland.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Nikon D100 with 60mm Micro-Nikkor, 1/90 sec at f4.8.
Grain and noise Beyond the texture of the subject and of lighting, the medium can contain its own texture. Black-and-white film is composed of clusters of silver halide crystals and colour film is composed of tiny clouds of dye. Film that is more sensitive to light is composed of coarser grains. Grain lends structure and many black-and-white photographers consider that grain adds value to an image. Aficionados talk about gritty photographs, which are high-contrast, grainy images often associated with social documentary photography. Digital has its grain, too this is called noise. When a digital camera takes long exposures in low light, the background noise of the sensor itself is nearly as big as the signal (the picture) that is being recorded. The sensors in digital cameras are analogue
devices, which sample the image, divide it up into pixels and measure the power of the red, green and blue components of each of these picture elements this information only becomes digital after it leaves the sensor in an analogue-to-digital converter. The sensors inherent background noise can break up the image with pixel values that are out of place hence, visual noise. Digital photographers more often consider noise to be detrimental to the quality of an image. They employ noisereduction software to reduce the effects. However, noise can enhance an image. Digital noise can even be added to an image at a later stage using image-editing software. Many professional digital cameras have high-sensitivity settings that can be used to produce lots of chroma, or colour, creating an effect similar to the coloured grain of high-speed colour film.
Pictish man (right) This small fragment of a Pictish carving of a saint lay in the dark corner of a museum cabinet. High digital chroma (colour) noise was a bonus for this subject.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Nikon D100 with 60mm Micro-Nikkor, ISO 6400, 1/60sec at f4.
Grove Rake mine (facing opposite) The film grain adds to the exceptionally heavy rain in this image of the remains of the last working fluorite mine in the high North Pennines, UK.Photographer: David Prkel Technical summary: Leica R8 3570mm with Vario-Elmar zoom, Kodak TMax 3200, digital brown tone.
PatternHumans are fascinated by pattern. When we look at anything, the receptor cells in the retina react specifically to certain lines, angles, colour and movement under the organising control of the visual cortex in our brains. The appeal of visual puzzles and eye-catching quality of interlocking patterns demonstrates this. Our brains are programmed to compare the elements of pattern and to look for differences. Pictures containing patterns must feature something more than simple repetition. It can be easily over-done and becomes a compositional clich. The challenge for the photographer is to capture the rhythms and variations of alternating pattern in an image,
while also saying something about the subject being photographed. Perversely, what attracts the viewers attention is when expectations are not confirmed when the pattern breaks, for example. Pattern can even be used to reveal form. Light coming through repeating structures, such as fences or windowpanes, creates fascinating shapes as each repeated block of the pattern falls onto and wraps around the solid form. A very fine repeating pattern will look like a texture. The urban landscape is full of geometric, repeating patterns, while nature offers a more random arrangement of quite complex patterns that can be harder to interpret.
Water abstract (facing opposite) A pattern made by the arcing water spouts of a fountain are made more interesting by the unique details of each jet. The choice of viewpoint and lens focal length lends immediacy. The image highlights the striking contrast between the curves of the water and the straight lines of the metal pipes, a detail that can go unobserved.Photographer: Tiago Estima. Technical summary: Canon EOS 300D with Canon 28105mm f3.54.5 zoom, 1/30 sec at f22, ISO 100.
ToneIncreased contrast in an image simplifies shape and emphasises strong textures. Lower levels of contrast softens tone, reduce the appearance of texture and can change the mood of an image. Contrast can also be manipulated to creative effect at printing stage. Tone refers to the full gamut of greys all the shades from solid black to paper white. A subject with a full range of tones has normal contrast. In black-and-white photography, the degree of contrast in the printing paper is selected to match the contrast in the negative to produce a print with a full scale of tones. Variable contrast papers, which alter contrast under different combinations of yellow and magenta light, make this easy in the darkroom. A lowcontrast print is composed largely of light greys and dark greys. The degree to which a low-contrast image is successful depends very much on the subject of the image. Low-contrast images evoke tranquillity. High-contrast images contain more extremes between black and white with very little
mid-tone information. They are attentiongrabbers and their graphic nature can sometimes enhance the compositional structure of an image. Using image-editing software, contrast can be adjusted with the contrast slider in the Brightness and Contrast adjustment dialog box, although this is often not the best way to achieve the effect. The contrast slider can push pixel values through the black and white limits, producing shadows with little detail or blown-out highlights. These effects are called clipping. The Level or Curves adjustment is better. With Levels or Curves, the black and white points of the image are pinned and the contrast curve can be adjusted either through multiple points (Curves) or by moving a central point (the grey or gamma point slider in Levels). The Greek letter gamma was originally the value used to describe the slope of the contrast curve in film.
Toscano (above) The high-contrast approach helps emphasise the graphic qualities in this symmetrical panoramic composition of a Tuscan landscape.Photographer: Ilona Wellman. Technical summary: Four frames taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5700, 1/500 sec at f5.1, merged and sepia-toned in Photoshop.
The artist must feel free to select his rendering of tonality as he is to express any other aspect of the subject. Ansel Adams (landscape photographer)
Windowsill (left) Colour can be given high-key treatment as effectively as black-andwhite. Flooded with natural backlight in a well-lit window these flowers were perfect for a high-key approach. On-camera flash was used to lift the flower blooms. Although there was plenty of bright ambient light reflecting around the deep, white-painted window recess, it was not enough to show the subject crisply. Flash compensation of -1 stop reduced the flash component of the image for balance. Trial exposures were assessed using the camera histogram display to avoid lost highlights.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Nikon D100 with 60mm Micro-Nikkor, 1/180 sec at f8, background slightly desaturated in Photoshop.
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High-key effects A true high-key composition will contain a full range of tones from black to white, but will have a preponderance of lighter tones. A high-key image is not the same as an overexposed image, which will not have any dark tones whatever. In portraits, pupils and shadows in the nostrils or ear tend to be the only black parts in an otherwise lighttoned image. Some subjects snow scenes and young children, in particular would be perfect subjects for a high-key treatment. Great care is needed lighting high-key images as it is easy to overexpose the image. This is much more of a problem with digital cameras. The photographer must decide whether a tone
is required in the whites or whether the white will be blown out, which means the printing paper shows through in these areas. Studio high-key images invariably use white backgrounds and plenty of light is required to create the effect. When taking light-meter readings from high-key subjects it is important to use an incident light meter or to use substitute metering from a standard grey card. Incident (hand-held) light meters record the light falling on the subject rather than the light reflected from the subject as does a conventional meter in the camera. Taking a reflected light meter reading without using exposure compensation would produce a grey rather than a white image.
A correctly exposed high-key image of largely white objects. The digital histogram (see opposite) shows few mid-grey tones and a predominance of light greys.
Low-key effects True low-key images retain a full range of tones from black to pure white, but they are composed mainly of darker tones. They should be thought of as predominantly dark images with a small area of high contrast. Low-key images have a sombre, moody feel and can be produced in one of two ways. A composition containing only dark elements when correctly exposed will produce a low-key image. Alternatively, a scene with a normal range of tones can be darkened right down and lit selectively to produce a low-key image, too. In the studio, it is usual to use non-reflecting black material (velvet will look blacker than black paper) and high-contrast lighting to achieve the low-key effect. Underexposing a normal scene will not produce the same effect as a low-key image, as the image will have no highlight information at all.
One difficulty with low-key images is holding on to shadow detail. If you are using a light meter, dont use a reflected light meter for images of this kind unless you meter from an 18-percent reflectance standard grey card. If you use a reflected meter reading without exposure compensation, the image will not be dark enough. A reflected light meter tends to underexpose dark and overexpose light subjects. Instead, use an incident light meter to get an accurate exposure for low-key as well as high-key images. An incident light meter that measures the light falling on the subject will achieve a correct exposure.
Portrait of Spring Hurlburt (left) This low-key studio portrait of a woman in veil and hat evokes a sense of sadness and mourning. The picture was taken of the subject after her fathers death and she contributed the image to the photographers project Different Hats. The left side of the subjects face bears the lightest tones and shows good modelling from the key light the natural skin tones are darkened by the veil. The dark upper-right corner of the print holds the subject in and emphasizes her gaze at a close-by but invisible point out of the frame.Photographer: Jim Allen. Technical summary: Sinar P 5 x 4 largeformat camera, 210mm Nikkor f5.6, scanned from Polaroid Type 54.
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objects (below). The digital histogram, left, correctly displays no information above mid-grey and a predominance of dark greys and shadows.
ColourPhotographers deal with light. Without light, there are no colours. Pure, white light is an equal addition of red, green, and blue light these are called additive primaries. Primary colours are the colours from which all other colours can be made. Taking away each of the additive primaries from white light creates in turn cyan (white less red), magenta (white less green) and yellow (white less blue) light, which are known as the subtractive primaries.The additive and subtractive primaries.
RGB values Computer simulation of colour is achieved by mixing red, green and blue light on an integer scale from 0 to 255. With 256 levels (8-bits) per channel, this model represents 16.7 million colours. A colour can be described by the three values of its RGB components: for example, a very warm red might be red 218, green 63, blue 53. Our eyes, computer monitors and digital camera sensors all work with the red, green and blue components of white light. The eye has sensors for each of these colours, just as the digital camera chip has these colours in a mosaic over its surface. (Digital cameras use twice as many green pixels as blue or red to match human sensitivity to green light.) Colour wheel Photographers find it useful to represent colour on a wheel (see below). Imagine an equalsided triangle with each of the three points labelled red, green, blue (RGB) in any order. Now imagine a second triangle upside-down on top of the first. The points on that triangle will be labelled with the subtractive primary colours: yellow as a mix of red and green, cyan as a mix of green and blue and magenta as a mix of red and blue. Imagine each spot of pure colour blending into the next to create the colour wheel. (Hue or hue shift is described in degrees, which represents an angular shift in colour around the colour wheel.)R Y Y G G M Y Y G G C R M M
G G C C
The colour wheel can be used for both technical and aesthetic considerations. Technically, it is used to work out colour corrections (adding the diametrically opposite colour to correct an unwanted colour cast). It is also useful when working out which colour filter is needed with monochromatic film to darken and lighten the appearance of certain colours in the finished print. Blue/cyan skies are darkened by using a yellow, orange or red filter. Yellowgreen foliage is lightened on black-and-white film by using a yellow-green filter. The colour wheel rule for filters is that opposite colours darken while similar colours lighten.
Colour in harmony (left) and discord (right).
In aesthetic terms, colours adjacent to each other on the colour wheel are described as being in harmony, whereas colours opposite to each other are said to be in discord. A blue flower stands out from a yellow background or a red sailboat stands out on a sea reflecting a blue sky. Warm colours revolve around yellow and cold colours around blue. Colour contrast comes from different colours of the same brightness or the same saturation. Hues far apart on the colour wheel show a great contrast, but those diametrically opposite show the greatest contrast. Colour associations Colours also have psychological associations (though this is very culturally dependent). In Western culture, red is a signal colour associated with warning, action, fire and anger. Not surprisingly, red is heavily used in advertising. White is associated with purity but in the East it is connected to death and mourning. Blue is associated with cold, clarity, space and winter. Yellow, the colour of the sun, is associated with heat, life, joy and summer. For the psychologist, green is a reserved colour and considered to be neither warm nor cold, active nor passive. It is associated with nature, serenity and security. However, acid green is a great photographic attention-grabber. Brown the earth colour signifies warmth, peace and harmony.
Colour temperature If a block of iron is heated it passes through all the colours of red, orange and yellow, from dull red to white hot, at which point the iron burns (oxidises). The real temperature of the object can even be estimated from its colour. Colour temperature relates back to this concept as all our light sources are radiating energy. Colour temperature is measured in Kelvin (K).
Light source Candles and oil lamps Household light bulbs Sunrise or sunset Morning/evening sunshine Noon daylight/electronic flash Hazy sky Heavily overcast sky Reflections from clear blue sky in shade
Colour temperature 18002000K 28003000K 40004500K 5000K 55006500K 60007000K 7500K 16000K
Colour Rich yellow-orange Yellow Rich golden Yellow-white White Blue-white Quite blue Very blue
The quality (temperature) of the illuminating light needs to be considered when you take colour pictures. The time of day has a big effect on the colour of light. Reflected light takes the colour of the surface from which it reflects. Colour temperature can be adjusted by choosing from a range of blue- and amber-coloured filters over the lens. These filters do not have to be used to correct light for pure white, but can be used to artificially warm up or cool down an image. On digital cameras colour temperature is adjusted either on fixed settings through the White Balance menu or by entering a colour temperature in Kelvin. The Daylight setting for White Balance on a digital camera or daylight film interprets daylight as the sun in a blue sky, one-third filled with fluffy, white clouds (the sun shining in a clear, blue sky is actually too blue). Achromatic colours Some of the most important colours in colour photography are the so-called achromatic or without colour colours black, grey and white. These act as a foil for the colours of your composition. Any colour cast present in the scene will show first in these colours. White becomes grey as brightness is changed. A yellow cast is warm, while a shift to blue is cold. (See also the section on Warmtone and cooltone, page 90.)
Spot colour Small patches of very intense colour can be used to dramatic effect. Red in fog (left) The single spot of red colour of the buoy floating in a lake reflecting grey (achromatic background) boosts the graphic impact of the composition.Photographer: Trine Sirnes Thorne. Technical summary: Nikon Coolpix 880.
Chromatic colours The strongest, most intense, or highly saturated colours can confuse and dazzle the viewer or more simply attract their attention.
St. James beach huts (above) Long row of beach huts painted in primary colours near Cape Town, South Africa. The reflection of the strand and waters edge add a twist to this colourful panorama.Photographer: John Barclay. Technical summary: Hasselblad XPan with 90mm lens, 1/60 sec at f8, Fuji Velvia 50.
Saturation Saturation is a technical term meaning strength of colour. Neutral grey has no colour saturation. A bowl of fruit with ripe red apples and yellow bananas features highly saturated colours. A meadow in morning haze will show only soft, pastel (unsaturated) colours. In compositional terms, colour saturation communicates an intensity of mood or feeling and acts like a volume control on any basic colour association. In low light, only the strongest colours preserve their intensity. In very bright light glare the colours appear washed out. In strongly backlit scenes colours can contrast with deep, black shadows, while flat, bright light creates the most saturated colours.
To desaturate an image in-camera, use a diffusion or fog filter. Even something as simple as a plastic bag or nylon gauze pulled over the lens produces a degree of desaturation. It is harder to increase saturation. The so-called extra colour negative and transparency films offer a degree of colour boost. Digital cameras can provide an option to choose a saturated or desaturated image, though it is often better to delay your options and achieve the effect later using computer software. Colour-enhancing filters pop, or boost, one wavelength of light a redhancer, for example, will pop reds. These filters, made of rare earth glass, are often used to enrich the mood of garden images taken in autumn and can be used with digital or with film cameras.
Computer modelling Computers give digital photographers control over the separate colour and luminance components of an image. One method is via the HSL colour model. This describes colour in terms of its hue (colour), saturation (strength) and lightness (whiteness or the degree to which it appears to reflect light). This model enables digital photographers to make changes in composition after the taking by altering the colour of certain elements, and increasing or decreasing the saturation of colours.
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Benidorm, Spain, 1997 (facing opposite) Parr achieved the rich seaside intensity of colour by combining ring flash (flash around and on axis of the lens) with the supersaturated Agfa Ultra colour negative film.Photographer: Martin Parr. Technical summary: None provided.
Kippford (below) Desaturating enhances the pastel tones of these cottages in Kippford, Scotland, but to keep some strength in the tractor, a bitmap (black-and-white only) version of the image has been layered in. Some image-retouching was performed to simplify the skyline.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Nikon D100 with 1835mm zoom, 1/320sec at f9.5 with +1 EV compensation.
Limited palette Reducing the number of colours in an image can simplify and strengthen the composition. Artists working in oil paints mix their colours on a palette. For photographers, an image with a limited palette is one that uses only a few shades of one colour. This may extend to a small group of colours closely associated with the colour at most there will be two small clusters of colour in an image described as having a limited palette. In landscape photography, where the photographer has least control, changes in weather can produce the best conditions. Mist, fog and rain all reduce the palette of colour, thereby simplifying the subject matter. By moving in closer to the subject and looking more at detail, the range of tones and contrasts in colour can also be reduced. Ultimate control over the palette of colours in your images can be achieved by taking your pictures in black and white and then hand-
colouring them. This is either achieved with oils or washes on silver gelatin prints made on fibre paper or on the computer. Marshall oils and oil pencils are probably the bestknown products for true hand-colouring. Specialist suppliers still stock felt-tip and brush-tip photo dye pens; alternatively, bottled dyes and retouching kits are available and the dyes applied diluted with a brush. The image-manipulation technique is to scan a greyscale image and convert the image space to RGB. Using selected colours from the Color Picker or, better still, sampled colours from other images, you paint these colours into the image using a range of soft-edge brushes on layers with the blending mode set to Soft Light or Color. Adjusting the opacity of the brush or layer introduces more subtle effects. Keeping each colour on separate layers enables you to adjust the hues of the colour palette on each individual layer. Waterloo Bridge, London (left) A misty evening light and a telephoto lens limit the palette of colours in this atmospheric scene on the River Thames.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Leica R4, 180mm Elmarit, Ektachrome 100.
Hand-coloured car (facing opposite) A digital hand-coloured image of an abandoned station wagon on a ruined farmstead, Ovid, New York. Colours for this image were sampled from a second image of fallen leaves.Photographer: David Prkel. Technical summary: Leica R4 with 3570mm Vario-Elmar zoom, Kodak TMax 400 black-and-white film plus colour sampled from second image on Elitechrome Extra Colour film.
Black and white For many years black-and-white film was the only acceptable medium for fine-art photography. Colour images were regarded with suspicion as something of a novelty until William Egglestons groundbreaking exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the early 1970s. While colour has its place, black and white still represents the ultimate in photographic abstraction. Black-and-white images are not just colour images with the colour drained from them; they represent tonality, shape and texture more explicitly. Black-and-white photography is about the presence or absence of light and its creation of texture and form. We do not see in black and white, so predicting the look of a black-and-white image is largely a matter of experience. Screwing up the eyes and squinting reduces their colour performance to some small extent, which can help with pre-visualisation.
The way in which monochromatic film responds to different wavelengths of light different colours, in other words gives it its characteristic look. For many photographers film has a unique, inimitable quality. Films sensitivity to colour can be manipulated by using coloured filters over the camera lens: filters of a similar colour to the subject lighten, opposite colours darken. On black-and-white film, for example, a yellow, orange or red filter would darken a cyan/blue sky, while a yellow-green filter would lighten foliage. Digital black and white is becoming increasingly popular, although the image is always originated in colour and converted to black and white using software. The practice of shooting black-and-white film can be a great help in visualising tonal relationships and in seeking out subjects worthy of monochromatic presentation. Black-andwhite photography offers a compositional discipline that will improve all other forms of image-making.
When you photograph people in color, you are photographing their clothes. When you photograph them in black and white, you photograph their souls. Ted Grant (Canadian photographer)
Foggy evening (facing opposite) There is nothing that colour could add to this image and much it would take away. Form, scale and shape are all made abstract and enhanced by careful subject selection and the use of black and white.Photographer: Ilona Wellman. Technical summary: Nikon Coolpix 5700, 1/250 sec at f5.0 using the black-and-white mode, contrast and levels were adjusted and the image sepia-toned in Photoshop.
Warmtone and cooltone Toning black-and-white pictures was originally introduced to preserve them, but there are also aesthetic reasons for chemical toning or the digital equivalent. With silver-halide based images the silver salt is chemically altered by toning to produce a range of brown- or blue-toned images perhaps the best-known toning process being sepia. Alternatively, the silver can be substituted or augmented by another metal, such as selenium. This produces a range of potential greys from graphite to a rich purple grey, depending on how long the print is left in the toner. Toning with gold, copper, iron and chrome have all been popular in the past at least with photographers, if not with health-and-safety experts. In a fully toned image all the blacks and greys will turn to shades of brown; in a split-tone image the lighter parts of the image are brown but the darker tone is more the original black. Split-toning using sepia and selenium is possible and has particular appeal.
All these chemical effects have a characteristic look that can be duplicated with image-editing software for digital images. Selective toning of black-and-white paper prints can be a very hit-and-miss affair. Colour is laid down on selected parts of the subject only one leaf from a carpet of leaves, for example. This treatment is so much easier to achieve digitally, without the need for careful applications of fast-acting chemical or elaborate masks laid with rubdown sheet or painted on as liquids. Black-and-white photo papers come in a range of tones, varying from brown-yellow blacks to blue blacks. The brown end of the scale is referred to as warmtone, while the blue end of the scale is called cooltone or coldtone. Again, these distinct looks can be achieved digitally.
Warmtone and cooltone effects
< Neutral grey >
Underground (facing opposite) Image of the London underground that uses the language of warm and cold tones to contrast the cold-blue corridor of the tube station with its warm, yellow depths.Photographer: Tom McGhee, Trevillion Images. Technical summary: Nikon F5 with Nikon 20mm lens, exposure unrecorded, colour negative film was crossprocessed in E6 chemistry.