Assignment 2: Elements of Design

The idea for this assignment was to incorporate the insights I had learned so far on the course into a set of photographs directed toward a single subject.  The groups of subjects suggested by the course notes were:

• Flowers and Plants
• Landscapes
• Street detail
• The raw materials of food
• Your own subject of choice 

I chose flowers and plants and spent a day shooting at Cambridge Botanical Gardens and have included some of these within this assignment.  I also wanted to use flowers and plants within an environment not usually associated with horticulture.  Therefore, I purchased a bunch of flowers and proceeded to the local car breakers yard.  I hope these images accompanied by the more traditional shot flowers and plants help portray the following effects.

Photograph 1: Single point dominating the composition

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 35mm, 1/40s, f/18, ISO400 (sharpening and editing in Adobe lightroom)

I hope this image of a tree in the car breakers yard is strong enough to dominate the composition.  I did make it fill a large part of the frame and hope the car and scrap metal don't distract from the main subject.

Tutors comments:

I like the arrangement of the car, tree and scrap on the right; they merge at one point around a third of the way up the frame. Shooting the tree from this side is facing the light, creating a semi-silhouette. The striking part of the image is the bright sky and the nearest branches and leaves silhouetted against it, as they are the darkest. Would a colour shot have made the tree stand out, as it is in leaf? That depends on the colour of the car.



Photograph 2: Two points

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 85mm, 1/13s, f/22, ISO400 (sharpening and crop in Adobe lightroom)

I shot this image of two stinging nettles in the car breakers yard.  I like the idea that plants can survive in even the most inhospitable of environments.  The two points don't really dominate the subject but I hope still work as two points.

Tutors comments:

The plants aren't the brightest part of the image, nor the most eyecatching colour, so it is only the 'framing' by the car doorway that highlights them. A closer crop would have excluded the messy area above and the bright objects to the lower right corner. Some extra light on the nettles alone (sun or flash) would highlight them better against their darker background.

Photograph 3: Several points in a deliberate shape

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 105mm, 1/250s, f/5.6, ISO400 (sharpening and edited in Adobe lightroom) 

This image of a group of agapanthus creates a tight triangular shape.  Shot at a large aperture creates a nice bokeh to the background.

Tutors comments:

The blooms are all touching, producing a continuous mass. The centres form a triangle (an implied triangle) that is small in relation to the overall frame. The colour combination and focusing both help to isolate the flowers and focus attention on the subjects.

Photograph 4: A combination of vertical and horizontal lines

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 105mm, 1/50s, f/22, ISO400 (sharpening and edited in Adobe lightroom) 

I really struggled to find a scene with both horizontal and vertical in the same image.  I hope this shot of a group of fly traps works in combination with the vertical lines of the greenhouse and the horizontal logs in the centre of frame.

Tutors comments:

We're back again to complicated arrangement without a clear focal point. The eye goes around the frame looking for some salient point or structural form to latch on to. Here the foreground verticals and horizontals are irregularly formed with barely a straight line. The background does have this structure, taking the eye off into the distance from the foreground subjects that have more colour, contrast and sharper focus.

Photograph 5: Diagonals

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 24mm, 1/30s, f/22, ISO400 (sharpening and edited in Adobe lightroom) 

I think this image of a palm works well as diagonal.  I moved in close so the leaves filled the frame and used a wide angle.  In hind sight I should have shot it at a larger aperture to blur the back ground a little more.

Tutors comments:

The radiating leaves of this palm produce mainly straight lines at all angles. Many of these are diagonal and the simplicity of the forms are a strong compositional element. I would suggest either a tighter crop, or moving closer to select just part of one frond with radiating diagonals coming from a central core. Another aid to making the forms more stiking would be to have some light across the leaves, creating light and shaded stripes, or to photograph the leaf from below, with the light coming through the leaf from above.

Photograph 6: Curves

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 55mm, 1/20s, f/22, ISO400 (sharpening and editing in Adobe lightroom)

I shot these fungi on a tree in the botanical gardens and think the shape portrays curved well and adds a sense of softness.

Tutors comments:

Photograph 7: Distinct, even if irregular, shapes

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 70mm, 1/10s, f/18, ISO400 (sharpening and editing in Adobe lightroom)

I tried to mirror the shape of the grids in the background with the flowers in the foreground. I hope I have made a distinct square shape.

Tutors comments:
The grids and the square described by the flowers are regular shapes but not entirely dominant. The lamp in the foreground right corner and the cross-shaped fan behind capture my attention more so. Adding flowers to a complicated scene won't bring attention to them as subjects as they are difficult to spot, but will add to the myriad lines around the frame.

Photograph 8: At least two kinds of implied triangle

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 105mm, 1/200s, f/22, ISO3200 (sharpening and editing in Adobe lightroom)

I think this shot has a couple of implied triangles the first is the flowers in the foreground and the second the fountains in the mid ground.  I wasn't particularly happy with this image as I would have liked the water in the fountain to look a little more 'dreamy'.  However, it was a bright sunny day and I couldn't achieve the necessary slow shutter speed without over exposure, to achieve the effect.  I still have a great deal to learn on correct exposure and controlling light.

Tutors comments:

I can see four or five (possibly six) fountains, all of which draw attention due to the white water. The flowers also draw attention due to the colours and the fact that they are in focus, whereas the fountains are not. Again there are more than three included in the frame, so the eye is taken around all of them. The problem of the shutter speed being too fast to blur the water can be cured without altering the aperture at all; simply lower the iso speed to 100. That would make the shutter speed 1/6th of a second with the same exposure.

Photograph 9: At least two kinds of implied triangle



Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 28mm, 1/10s, f/18, ISO400 (sharpening and editing in Adobe lightroom)



I positioned the flowers around an implied triangle on the boot of this car and shot the image at an angle to emphasise the shape.  I like the stark contrast of the rusting, fading car and engine parts with the clean white of the flowers.

Tutors comments:

The flowers are making a real triangle, not an implied one. Three points to draw attention within the frame would produce an implied triangle. The scene is a simpler one than the previous scrapyard shots, where the blue boot of the Jaguar has potential for 'curves', 'single point' etc

Photograph 10: Rhythm

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 40mm, 1/200s, f/5.6, ISO400 (sharpening and editing in Adobe lightroom)

I'm still not sure I fully comprehend how to achieve rhythm within a photograph.  It is something I will try and work on in future images.  I think the fine needles of this plant help move the eye toward the top of the frame and therefore hopefully portray rhythm.

Tutors Comments:

The needles of this pine have been isolated using a close-up position and a shallow depth of field. The needles are not really regular enough to have the obvious impact of a linear pattern (rhythm); maybe a simpler series of leaves along a stalk would provide the natural repetition you were looking for.

Photograph 11: Pattern

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens, 84mm, 1/8s, f/20, ISO400 (sharpening and editing in Adobe lightroom)

I did notice quite a lot of patterns within flowers and plants and wanted to try and capture something slightly different. I noticed these petals on the ground and thought they made an interesting pattern in combination with the textured soil.

Tutors comments:

The petals are a good colour to stand out against the slightly blue gravel. The leaves add a contrast that helps to increase the interest in the shot too. This is a more creatively conceived shot than other garden shots here, yet also a more thoughtful study of a quiet area than other shots in this series (e.g. the scrapyard). The arrangement of the petals would need to be a regular repetition (in both directions) to be a 'pattern' in the sense of the assignment's brief.

I have again really struggled with this assignment and have had trouble comprehending lines and shapes within images and to incorporate these in composition.  I'm still learning all the features of my camera and trying hard to not only work on what the course notes suggest but also improve my technical ability, especially around exposure and controlling light.  I have just finished reading 'Basics Photography 02 Lighting' by David Prakel as suggested by my tutor and after reviewing these images think I need to read it again!  I think I might also invest in a Neutral density filter and perhaps a Polarising filter as I can only seem to find the time to go out and shoot during the middle of the day and the strong sun.

I still have a great deal to learn but I hope with time I will comprehend more and the composition and quality of my photographs will improve.