Sunday 29 January 2012

Pt 2, Exercise 6 Curves

1/800, f11, 27mm

Curves.  I took the image above when out looking for curves, of which there are certainly many in the resulting image, but the overall dominance is of complete circles, rather than curves.  I do like this photo, but as the exercise is for curves I have discounted it for the exercise.

All the photos for this exercise are in this Flickr set

The first image showing curves is of some fountains in Lincolns Inn Fields, London.
1/60, f11, 200mm
When I took the photo, the weather was poor and the raw image lacked contrast as there was quite a haze visible.  I wanted to make sure that the movement of the water was the feature of the image and ensure that the bows of the tree formed a natural frame to the water.  By enhancing the contrast and saturation as well as adjusting the curves, I believe that I have managed to do this.  The photograph as a slightly surreal, unnatural look to it, but the curves made by the water are strong, so the image works.

The next photograph is of a seeming abandoned boat on the mud at Maldon in Essex.
1/125, f20, 95mm
The original image had more of the foreground in view and some other channels formed in the mud by the water.  I made various crops, settling on this as the final version.  The large 'S' formed in the mud draws the eye along it towards the old decaying boat, and indeed back from the boat as well.  Black and White lends itself well to this picture adding to the sense of decay.

10 secs, f22, 14mm
This is a long exposure of a dual carriageway at night.  Although the majority of the lines painted by the passing traffic is straight, the eye is drawn to the curve and this forms the focal point of the image.  The static orange lights also help draw the eye to the curve as well.  The image gives the sense of movement, almost of water flowing, even though there is nothing in the picture that can be seen to be moving.

The fourth image is of the roof at the British Museum.  A very impressive construction, made of nothing but straight lines, but, viewed with a wide lens, projects a very pronounced curve.
1/500, f18, 18mm
The eye is drawn in towards the tightening curve, which radiates out to dominate the picture.  The curved wall on the right of the picture reinforces this, providing a graceful lead into the tightening focal point where all the lines of the roof appear to converge.

Pt 2, Exercise 5 Diagonals

Diagonal Lines.  That's anything that isn't curved, vertical or horizontal and off I went searching for them.  I quickly found myself drawn towards architecture.  Selected images from my shooting are in this Flickr set.

First up is a photo of some steps which form a right angle

1/320, f3.8, 24mm
This image has strong diagonals, formed by the sharp edges of the steps.  Using Black & White and boosting the contrast a bit accentuates the shadows and hence lines that form the diagonals.


The next image shows the pattern in the brickwork at Lincons Inn Fields in London

1/40, f25, 80mm
The bricks have been laid to form a pattern of diagonals, which dominate this picture.  Interestingly, the red bricks, although horizontal at the bottom of the image, have diagonal sides due to the angle from which the photo was taken.  This in turn makes the entire picture seem as if it is full of diagonals, even though the horizontal lines are mostly parallel with the bottom of the frame.

The third photo is of a wider shot of the image above and shows one of the towers and Lincolns Inn Fields.

1/40, f29, 40mm
Whilst the brick work pattern is still visible, the picture is dominated by the strong diagonals of the octagonal tower and these draw the viewers eyes from the bottom to the top of the image, almost through the top of the tower into the sky beyond.

The fourth photograph depicts the roof of the British Museum.  This is a geodesic construction, formed of triangular elements, each one providing three diagonal lines.

1/640, f18, 48mm
The angle at which the photo was taken ensured that the wall was also at a diagonal to the frame.  The shadow created by the roof provided continuation of the diagonals throughout the frame and this tends to draw the eye from top right to bottom left when viewing.