Project 8 - using perspective to help composition

The course notes contain wide ranging and useful information on perspective. Consciously I had tended to think of perspective solely in terms of linear perspective. Having considered the course notes I am now much more aware of the variety of ways in which an image can be given depth.

Leading lines converging towards the horizon is the most obvious. But the use of diminishing scale, receding colours, reducing sharpness, lightening tones and diminishing colour saturation are now all aspects which I will consciously think of when considering how to make my images appear more three dimensional.

I have included three images in this post. The first shot in the wine are of La Geria in Lanzarote makes use of linear perspective in a very obvious way but diminishing scale  and lightening of tone also add to the images depth. The second is an obvious use of diminishing scale with a row of trees at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire. This latter image is however not one I consider to be strong. The composition is unbalance with the trees to the left overwhelming the distant County House on the right. The third image was taken from Watlington Hill near Henley in Oxfordshire. This uses atmospheric, tonal and colour perspective to create depth. I am happy with the perspective within this image but not so with the way the centre of the frame is cluttered - I think I was seduced by the hot air baloon in the background - the old impatience coming through!!

La Geria, Lanzarote Canary Islands

Cliveden House, Buckinghamshire UK

View from Watlington Hill, Oxfordshire UK

The key lesson I have taken from this is to consider all options for creating depth through use of perspective and not to just go for the obvious linear and diminishing scale approaches.

Project 7 - figures in a landscape

My trip to Lanzarote was successful from both sporting and photographic perspectives. I managed to complete work on projects seven to nine.

In project nine the aim was to capture several images with figures in them. Figures in the landscape are intended to add balance to the composition, create a focal point, or to establish scale. The images I shot are shown below- the first was taken on the Thames walk at Cliveden Reach, the third and fourth on the slopes of the volcano Tifanmaya in Lanzarote and the final one at Studland in Dorset.

Cliveden Reach, Bucks UK

Timanfaya, Lanzarote

Timanfaya, Lanzarote

Studland, Dorset UK

In all cases the figures provide a focal point and a sense of scale to the images. I am less convinced that they add to the compositional balance. What came clear to me during this work is that there is a fine line between figures simply adding to the landscape photograph or alternatively taking over the image as the main subject matter. In the second Timanfaya photograph it seems to me that the subject has moved from being a view of the desolate red landscape more to that of a photograph of a camel train set in that landscape. The lesson is to be clear what the image is meant to depict and if it is intended as a landscape to take care that figures merely provide context, scale and a point of interest and do not become the main subject in themselves.

Project Four - Collage

This is a project I will return to during the course. The idea of the project was to create a collage of photographs in a panoramic format. The first stage was to produce an image using a small number of photos.  This is an example of my work:

View from Cliveden towards Cookham

The next stage was to produce a larger panorama of from at least 12 images. This is my first attempt.

Hambleden Village Oxfordshire

The two photographs are a creditable first effort but they are not great images. I found visualising the composition to be very difficult. Whilst the normal rules of good composition apply, the wider perspective makes pre-visualisation problematic. Neither photograph has a strong composition.

In the first image, I was attracted by the range of textures and variations on the single colour  - green. In the final result I feel that the composition lacks a point of focus. Also chopping off the top of the trees close to their tops doesn't seem to work.

In the second larger  panorama of Hambleden I was disappointed that I did not accurately estimate the depth of focus so parts of the village are not sharply in focus. But the bigger issue is the composition. The image is unbalanced with horizon on the right much higher than on the left. Also the horizon is set too low, with too much sky. The key point of interest is the village not the sky! I think I should have moved closer into the village bringing the cows closer to provide foreground interest and reducing the amount of sky in the frame. Again I need to create a clear point of interest - perhaps the church tower.

My key learning point is to carefully pre-visualise the composition before shooting and hoping for the best. I will try to use  a panoramic viewing card to assist with this. Also when using a telephoto lens, I must be careful with the focus depth of field.