PROJECT 2 -
EXERCISE 1.4: Frame
"The final exercise of this project makes use of the viewfinder grid display of a digital camera. This function projects a grid onto the viewfinder screen to help align vertical and horizontal lines, such as the horizon or the edge of a building, with the edge of the frame.
Take a good number of shots, composing each shot within a single section of the viewfinder grid. Don't bother about the rest of the frame! Use any combination of grid section. Subject and viewpoint you choose.
When you review the shots evaluate the whole frame not just the part you've composed. Looking at a frame calmly and without hurry may eventually reveal a visual coalescence, a 'gestalt'.
Gestalt: an organised whole perceived as more than a sum of its parts."
So I spent some time trying to work out how to access the viewfinder grid on my DSLR - no luck, it doesn't have one. I had to use my imagination for this one and chose to use the rule of thirds grid. I picked up my camera and just went walking one evening.
It was interesting to shoot focusing on just one part of the viewfinder. It took some of the worry away from composing the whole shot in one go and I found that I was looking for more engrossing items to shoot, that I wouldn't necessarily find of interest before.
Below are a mixture of the shots I captured with an Evaluation of the whole shot - not just the part composed....
I composed this shot around the sign of the Lorry, Placing it in the top right part of the viewfinder grid. Looking at the whole shot, a contrasting landscape has been created with shades of dark and light and a pretty view of the sky over the river.
My eyes are lead from the sign over to the pink and oranges in the background.
I placed the orange bird in the centre of the grid in this shot as I felt there was a lot more happening around it that could distract the eye away from my chosen composition - I didn't want it to become lost in the shot.
As a whole this shot creates a scene of a lonely playground, all the children have gone home for the night and the orange bird sits waiting for its next visitor.
This shot was composed around the street lamp in the background but the street name sign also could be seen as a focal point. I chose not to crop out the street name sign as I feel it gives the shot a bit more purpose. It is almost setting the scene for the shot.
The street lamp is too far away and gets somewhat lost in the distance.
A fairly close up image compared to my first three. I wanted to focus on the dropped Burger King cup in the bottom centre grid..
Looking at the shot as a whole, I enjoy the way the cup is sitting in between parallel lines and just on the edge of the drain with opposing lines. I imagine that whoever did the littering of the cup was aiming for the drain .
Another one for the top right part of the grid. For me there is too much concrete in this shot. The letter box gets a little bit lost and feels small. If I was to take this shot again I would want to think more about the angle I would shoot it from and maybe be a little closer to the letter box.
A lonely abandoned shopping trolley from the nearby Asda that was probably used for ten minutes of fun by a group of kids.
The eye is drawn to the trolley and the mind wonders how it got where it is but then you move along to the playground in the right hand side of the shot and you start to think that a new distraction is the reason why said trolley was left where it is now.
I quite like how this shot looks as a whole, its simple and calm and your eye is automatically drawn to the yellow of the daffodil. The shadowing in the left side of the shot is a nice contrast to the brightness of the flower and compliments it.
It is a shame however, that the background is not a little nicer, maybe of a pretty landscape or woodland area.
More daffodils and focus on the yellow flower, although I feel that they somewhat get lost amongst all the green in this shot. Your eye searches the image for more to look at but you are left feeling disappointed.
This shot was composed around the village information board. Your gaze can go two ways looking at this image, you either start at the board and your eyes move over to the playground or you start at the playground and move across to the board.
With the bushes in the foreground out of focus, this shot gives you the impression of someone standing on their tip toes trying to see what lies behind.
This is probably my favourite shot. I like simplicity and don't like to overcrowd a photo. The sun was slowly going down as I was getting the shots for this exercise and I walked through two houses towards the river. They were pretty much in shadow apart from the orange hue that was being cast on the red bricks from this street lamp.
The light in the left hand side of this shot feels like a safe place but as your eyes move across to the right, the image gets darker and you start to feel uneasy about what lies further ahead so your gaze draws back to the safe amber street lamp.
This shot was composed around the red open box. Unlike the shot above of the red letter box where I thought there was too much pavement in view, I like how in this shot, the pavement is a lead into the focus point of the photo. This is probably because it is at a better angle to the focus point.
This is a fairly busy shot in the background but the foreground is quite a vast open space with the eye drawn to the black post and then moving past it to explore the background.
The shadow in the bottom edges of this shot create a nice distinctive difference in colour to the yellowy sky and there is a good use of depth with the houses and railing on the right.
"Select six or eight images that you feel work both individually and as a set and present them as a single composite image. Add to your learning log together with technical information such as camera settings and two or three lines containing your thoughts and observations"
Above is my first attempt at creating a single composite image out of six images. I feel they work well as a set. They all have a common theme running through them. You can see that the sun is beginning to set and that they are all near the river and the street lamp features heavily in three of the images.
Technical info
Orange bird - Lorry sign - High Street -
ISO 400 ~ 18mm ~ f/4.0 ~ 1/250sec ISO 400 ~ 18mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/250sec ISO 400 ~ 18mm ~ f/5.0 ~ 1/250sec
Street lamp - /3.5 Black post/street - Red box -
ISO 640 ~ 32mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/250sec ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/125sec ISO 1100 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/125sec
I wanted to show a second composite image as I feel that out of all the shots I took there was two differing themes and colour variations. The above works well as they each share greens and greys as their main colours and you can tell that they were all shot in the same small area.
Technical info
Red letter box - Burger King cup - Village info board -
ISO 1100 ~ 40mm ~ f/5.0 ~ 1/125sec ISO 1600 ~ 40mm ~ f/5.0 ~ 1/125sec ISO 1000 ~ 40mm ~ f/5.0 ~ 1/125sec
Single Daffodil - Shopping trolley - Daffodils -
ISO 3200 ~ 40mm ~ f/5.0 1/125sec ISO 1000 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/125sec ISO 1250 ~ 28mm ~ f/4.2 ~ 1/125sec
I enjoyed shooting this exercise. Focusing on one single focal point within the frame made this seem easy. It was then interesting to discover what else was within the frame and explore it when reflecting on the images.