seeing photographs

Good photos

1. Explore your options

See the potential photographs in front of your camera

Remember! Print is a flat piece of paper.

Photograph transforms a 3D event into a frozen instant.The scene will be reduced to a smaller size and confined within the edges of the picture format.

CONCENTRATE ON THE ACTUAL IMAGE!

Arthur Leipzig, Stickball, 1950

How much of a scene to show

Robert Frank, Parade, Hoboken, 1955

Get closer to your subject

Lee Friedlander

Jerome Liebling, Blind Home

BRUCE DAVIDSON. Untitled, East 100th Street, 1966.

What is your photograph about?

Jerome Liebling

Instead ofshooting rightaway, stop aMoment todecide whichpart of a sceneYou really wantto show.

Visualize what you want the photograph to look like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvYxxrLtQg

Sally Mann

Every time you make an exposure you make choices about framing

Ray Metzker

Don’t forget that the background is a part of the picture

Paul Strand, French Boy

Walker Evans

Use the background when it contributes to something.

Eve Arnold

BASIC DESIGN

Single small object against a contrasting background attracts attention

Hiromu Kira

The eye tends to connect two or more spots like a connect the numbers drawing

Don Hong-Oai, Hoops

Russell Lee, Hidalgo County, Texas, 1939

A line is a shape that is longer than it is wide. This is an Ex. of an actual line.

Russell Lee

Ansel Adams

More actual line

Actual lines

Alexander Rodchenko

Implied line

Cindy Sherman

Implied line

Cindy Sherman

Psychology of lines

Horizontal > calm, stability

Vertical > stature, strength

Diagonal > activity, motion

Zigzag > rapid motion

Curve > gracefulness, slowness

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams

Shape - tonal changes across the subject can give illusion of depthTwo or more objects invite comparison of their shapes

Man Ray Dennis Stock

Multiple spot, lines, or shapes can create a pattern that add interest and unites the elements in a scene

Alexander Rodchenko

Alexander Rodchenko

Man Ray

Objects that are close together can be seen as a single shape

Contrast attracts attention

Man Ray

Try to emphasize subjects with camera angle, use scene to reinforce emphasis-Set tension! Remember! A centered symmetrical arrangement can be boring.

Annie Leibovitz

People look first at the sharpest part of a photograph --your point of view can have a strong influence

Shape of light and dark

Flor Garduno

Composition -- the rule of thirdThe basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontallyand vertically) so that you have 9 parts. With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four importantparts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

Not only this - but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomesmore balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shownthat when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally ratherthan the center of the shot - using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image ratherthan working against it.

Arno Rafael Minkinnen

The relative distance of objects from the lens and from each other affects perspective = the illusionof 3D in a flat 2D photograph

Toshio Shibata

Think Space! Overlapping of objects create depth

Suyeon Yun, Birthday Card

Unifying principles of design (a successful art is called the gestalt of a work)1. Repetition

Fred R. Conrad

Annie Leibovitz

2. Variety

James Hill

3. Similarity

James Hill

4. Rhythm

Margaret Bourke-White, contour plowing

Timothy O'Sullivan

5. Balance

Pancho Gonzales, 1972

6. Emphasis

Andrew Biraj

7. Economy

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Edward Weston

7. Continuation

Fred R. Conrad

Observe & express texture

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/12/18/nyregion/1194817121773/lens-world-express.html?scp=1&sq=Todd%20Heisler&st=cse

Edward Burtynsky

Seeing beauty in unlikely place

My neighborhood