Camera Use - Week 4 - Line and Pattern

1. During my Self Directed time, I chose the found the following patterns while standing in the middle of my living room. I decided to photograph these patterns and experimented a little with the angles of the photographs.

I found these patterns on my front door.

I found these rectangle patterns in the photo frame.

I found these patterns in my curtains.

And, I found this grid pattern on my patio door.

2. I then took 3 photographs of these patterns so that they filled the frame

3. I then took wider shots so that there is negative space within the frame.

The negative space in this frame is to the left where there is no pillow in that area of the frame. I like the pale/bright colour contrast between the two areas. It brings the image together but also pulls my eye to the pattern and its imagery.

The same sort of applies to this image; the colouring really creates a nice contrast between the negative space and the pattern/subject of the image. I also like how the leading lines of the curtains remain the main subject of the image and how the negative space doesn't draw the viewers attention away from that too much.

4. I then found a pattern that was disrupted in some way. So , in this instance, my poorly designed and now broken curtain.

I like  how this image shows that not the entire curtain is broken but the let edge that is leads your eyes towards that end of the photograph. I would say that the curtain is a leading line in itself.

5. The following are my three photographs of leading lines.

The first one is of my pathway that leads to my gate, a perfect and rather classic example of a leading line. I tried to perfectly align this image using the grid on my camera, however I didn't quite get there. I like that the pathway is surrounded by plants that also help the leading line effect direct your attention to where the path is leading (the gate).

This second one is of my guitar, I like how the top of the guitar is in focus but also then how the lines of the strings fade out to a blur the further down the guitar your eyes travel. I like this example of leading lines as it isn't completely obvious where the viewer should be paying the most attention.

This final one is of the side walk outside my house (please don't stalk me). I quite like how the bottom of the side walk is almost directly in line with the frame of the image and it then leads off to the left of the frame and disappears out of sight. 

6. In this photograph, I used my subjects gaze to lead the viewers eye to a secondary subject in the frame. 

In this case, my subjects gaze leads to the water pipe that covers up nearly half of my photograph. This provides the image with a negative space. I also like how the lines of the window are parallel to my subjects placement; I think this really ties the image together.

7. For these photographs, I used evaluative metering mode and then spot metering mode to take these photographs.

For this task, I found that the shutter speed reduced after changing from evaluative metering mode to spot metering mode. This made the second photograph that I took a little blurrier and the clarity of the image was reduced. I do like spot metering better when taking photos of still subjects as it really helps me focus on the subject while simultaneously providing me with a better quality depth of field. I then prefer the evaluative metering mode when photographing things like action shots or other shots that require a fast shutter speed.

Self Directed:

I found a piece of architecture and then photographed it. 

The image was inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher; their work consists of flat light, front on view point - vantage point, wide depth of field and straight lines. I feel as though I achieved this look with this photograph and I admire the patterns and texture on the building as well.

Additional Self Directed Editing:

Gate Path:

I was never very happy with this image's layout, even after I took it. Ofcourse, it didn't look as exaggerated on the camera screen as it did in post editing. I was pleased with the leading lines aspect of the photograph but it was never really straight down the centre of the image; so I opened the straightening tool and immediately got to fixing that issue and I think it looks much more balanced and is a lot more pleasing to the eye now than it was originally.

After the image layout was "fixed" per say, I wanted to make it look a little colder. I feel as though the gravel has a  very harsh and course texture, just as it feels, and the gate has the spikes that fit that harsh motif. The plants are also just growing all over the place; so it was a rather messy area with thorns on the roses and if you fall on the gravel or hit your arm on the gate there would surely be injury. This pathway is very perilous and I really wanted that to be portrayed trough the tone and colouring of the image just to give it that extra sense of risk and danger.

Architecture:

For this image, I managed to get the lines of the building straight in the frame the first time because I used the grid on my camera screen when taking the image so straightening the image was never a problem. Instead, I felt as though the sky and the building were too close in colour so I really wanted to adjust that and add some distance between those two aspects. I also wanted to make the image a little colder because when I was out there shooting it, I was very cold. Others may find this to be a minor and futile detail but I think it is important for an image to show the climate it was in during the time of shooting. I did this through the basics panel, which is actually a very powerful panel, to adjust the temperature and the other basics to portray this feeling and theme.