photo-comps



=Photo Compositions=

Put your images on a wiki page as shown on this Sample Page

Background
Cropping, what's //in// the picture, and what isn't, is a deceptively simple, yet hugely powerful tool in photography. Every photo you've ever taken is "cropped in the camera," or "framed" or "composed." You point the camera one way instead of the other; maybe you step or zoom in our out; maybe you step on a chair or crouch low.

All of these factors affect what we //see...// and what we //say.// For example, height often corresponds to power: when the camera looks down on someone... it's, well... looking //down// on them. When the camera looks up to someone... we're //looking up// to them! It's so simple it sounds silly, but all of the millions of images you've seen in magazines, on TV, on billboards, in your home, use these tools to convey attitudes, opinions, and values. Our visual culture is composed of, among other things, millions of tiny creative choices that accrete to create style, value, and culture.

In photography, painting, and other visual media, simple laws of physics affect how we compose an image. Imagine a log, or a person: physics tells us that they're the most stable when they're horizontal: it's hard to get a log on the ground or a person lying down to budge, they're just a big lump on the floor. Standing vertically, the log or person is much easier to topple over with a push. A diagonal is so unstable you probably don't have to do anything to make the log/person fall, they're already in the act of falling.

These simple physics ideas translate directly into the dynamics of composition: Horizontal elements have great stability, but they can be boring. Vertical elements are less stable and sometimes more interesting. Diagonal elements are highly unstable but they also carry a lot of energy and excitement.

Think about pictures of American Presidents and Presidential Candidates. They can't really be horizontal because they'd look silly, but what about Vertical vs Diagonal? First think about a President in office: this person already has the job, and all they want now is your confidence. A lot of images of presidents in office are vertical - it's more stable, it says, trust me: your life and our world are safe in my hands. But a Presidential //Candidate// wants to say, "the person that's there now is not helping you, I can create change, I can make your life better. And often they "say" this with a dynamic, diagonal image, maybe one where the candidate is reaching out to shake someone's hand. The diagonal says energy and maybe their shirt sleeves will be rolled up to "say" that they're not afraid of getting dirty or doing hard work. American Presidents rarely pick up shovels and move dirt, but a composition like this still says that to us.

The Project

 * Use your teammates as part of your photo composition project.
 * What and where the image is of is up to you.
 * Make 1 Wiki Page for the whole team
 * Links: make links from each person **to** the page, and put everyone's name at the top of the page with links **back** to their home pages.

1a Crop Later
Take one somewhat wide "master" photo. Then at home use Picasa, iPhoto, Gimp, Photoshop, or any image editing software you like to make 3 different Croppings of this master image. Try to say 3 different things in your crops. Put all 4 images, the master & 3 crops, on your wiki page.

You can crop "in on the action," but you can also use cropping to focus attention: maybe you ignore part of the image and focus on one element or another. You might keep the aspect ratio of the original image, or you might change the aspect ratio a little or a lot: a tall or wide image. Sometimes we call vertical images "portraits" and horizontal images "landscapes."

1b In-Camera Composition
This time you will compose in the camera. You'll find and shape your image in the viewfinder and present it without any additional cropping. Shoot the scene in 4 different ways. You might move closer or further - around or behind - higher or lower - "Dutch" angle - etc etc... be creative, see what you can find. Of course, you can shoot many more than 4 images... and then just turn in the 4 most successful ones.

PC #2 - Day & Nite
Photography is about light. Literally! //Photos-graphos// - light-writing. You can't make an image without some kind of light... and how you arrange or choose the light will have a **big** impact on the nature and quality of your image. So, for all those birthday parties to come, whether yours //or your kids!,// let's spend a little while figuring out stuff about lighting when it's bright... and lighting when it's dark.

It turns out you almost always want your flash on! In daylight we call it //**Daylight Fill-In Flash,**// and it can really make images more pleasing. Glenn will discuss in class how sun-angle and fill-in flash can interact.

At night, you'll likely use flash to see your peeps, but here you often want //**Slow-Sync**// flash so we not only see your peeps, but we have a background that isn't just a black hole. Glenn will discuss this in class too, and you can check out the examples and descriptions linked below.

2a. Photos in Bright Sun 2a1 - Take a //backlit// photo of your teammate(s) with the sun behind them and no flash 2a2 - Take a //backlit// photo of your teammate(s) with the sun behind them and fill-in flash 2a3 - Take a photo of your teammates(s) with the sun modeling //across// them 2a4 - Take a photo of your teammate(s) - sun composition of your choice!
 * Backlight
 * Daylight Fill Examples

2b. Slow-Sync Photos 2b1 - Take a photo of your teammates(s) with available night light 2b2 - Take a photo of your teammates(s) with normal flash at night 2b3 - Take a photo of your teammates(s) with slow sync 2b4 - Take a photo of your teammates(s) with slow sync
 * Slow Sync
 * Slow Sync Samples

2c. Candlelight Photos 2c - - Take 4 photos of your teammates(s) doing "Light Drawing!"
 * Light Drawing / Light Painting
 * Light Drawing Video

PC #3 - Visual Storytelling
Photography has always felt "real" or "true" in a fundamental way that painting perhaps never did. Photography seems to have a 1:1 relationship to the physical world. Even today when we're so very aware of the ubiquity of Photoshop, there still is a, at least small, lingering feeling of photography as an index of the true.
 * Exactly one century ago [|Lewis Hine's] photographs of child labor changed the laws of this nation. What he documented had already been described in words, but it was the power of photography that spoke loudest.
 * 14 years ago [|Time Magazine's] darkening of OJ Simpson's skin caused a national furor and the only reissue of a cover in Time's history.
 * Five years ago LA Times photographer [|Brian Walski] was fired for combining 2 Iraq war images taken a second or two apart. Did the Times fire **//him//** for his small graphic distortion, or did they fire him in a desperate attempt to convince **//us//** that every other image in the Times is somehow absolute truth. (even though Photoshop is only one tool for altering meaning: camera angle, cropping, shutter timing, shot selection and more are all "legal" distortions of "truth."

So photography has told powerful truths as well as various lies. Perhaps sometimes, even both at the same time. All the examples above are "editorial" images, but the images we encounter most often are advertising images which almost certainly contain more "lie" than "truth." In advertising fear, greed, ego, power, and, of course, sex, are all paired with products to convince us we need them. We discussed many of these ideas when we spoke of Photo Composition #1: Cropping & Composing, as well as our discussion of Visual Language. Our discussion of Beauty & Truth also figures in here.

Now it's your turn! 3a. Create an image that //**Lies**// 3b. Create an image that tries to tell some //**Truth**//
 * These images could be as simple as advertising images utilizing "sex sells," or you could consider other emotional and social ideas.

In the second part of PC3 - Visual Storytelling, you consider the aspect of time in still photography: 3c. Time Series: Stationary
 * Here you pick a place: a street intersection, your dorm room, UT-108, the place you work, etc, and photograph the same spot over a series of times. It might be the same hour of the day every day for a week or it might be the different hours of a single day - the interval is up to you - but try to find a situation and time interval that lets your viewers experience some change of situation or variation of circumstances.

3d. Time Series: Moving (body or vehicle)
 * Finally, instead of the same spot at different times, create a series of time & place. Create a series of images as you walk, drive, or ride from point A to point B. Let us experience your journey and the people / places / events you encounter along the way.