Photography reboot

Time to pick up photography again! I have reactivated the OCA course I enrolled on. I have a new camera on it's way, a new bag and a new lens too! All systems go!

Deferred

I have opted to defer my course. I will continue once my wife's health is under control and I have more time to spend on the course.

Exercise: Positioning the horizon

A frame can be divided in to multiple areas. This division can be due to a number of characteristics such as colour, or light and shade. In this exercise I used the horizon as a dividing factor. I placed the horizon at a number of positions within the frame and captured images.

Horizon at bottom of frame

With the horizon at the bottom of the frame the sky becomes the dominating element of the composition. This composition feel extremely unbalanced and I do not feel it is a successful image.

Horizon at bottom third of frame

With the horizon placed at the bottom third of the frame the sky maintains its position as the most dominant element in the image. However, as more of the foreground is visible the image does work and has a dynamic feel about it.

Horizon in middle of frame

In the frame above the horizon is placed centrally within the frame. The ground and the sky are equally balanced and the frame is relatively static. In this particular image there is still a slightly dynamic feel as the hill in the foreground is sloped. However, this slope is overcome by the general balance in the picture which gives it a much more static feel than any of the other compositions in this exercise.

Horizon at top third of frame

With the horizon placed at the top third of the frame the image produced is dynamic in nature and interesting. The eye is drawn across the foreground and then on to the sky. In my opinion this image is successful and interesting. I prefer to this image to the other horizon placements (which have no foreground interest) due to the interesting nature of the ground in the scene.

Horizon at top of frame

With the horizon placed at the top of the frame the ground becomes the dominating element within this composition. Since such little of the sky is visible the image produced is less interesting than the compositions where there is more sky visible. This image is dynamic as the eye is drawn along the ground from the bottom of the frame towards the horizon. However, the images with more sky visible were preferable and I do not feel this image really works.

Horizon in middle of frame with foreground element

In this final image the horizon is placed centrally. However, while this previously produced a static image the presence of foreground interest overpowers the central horizon giving depth to the image and creating an interesting image. In my opinion this was the most successful image taken in this series. The eye is drawn to the flowers in the foreground and then discovers the horizon, the ground, and the sky afterwards.

Exercise: Balance

In this exercise I identified the dominant parts of a sample of my images. I noted these dominant parts by drawing rectangles around them. Following this I explored the balance in the photographs by looking at the rectangles on scales. The results of this exercise are below.

While this picture of my daughters playing in their paddling pool seems unbalanced I still feel it works well. The eye goes from my daughter in the foreground diagonally to my daughter in the background who occupies less of the space. This movement gives a dynamic nature to the picture.

This photograph of a skateboarder in mid-air is well balanced in my opinion. The skater himself is centrally placed. The large column to his right is balanced by the much smaller dark coloured area to his right. I feel the dark colour adds weight to that area so a much smaller area is required to balance the large column to the left of the skateboarder.

The more central placement of the houses of parliament helps to balance out the larger area covered by Big Ben and the railing on the bridge.

In the portrait above my brother is centrally placed and my daughters are placed on either side of him symmetrically. The picture is therefore balanced.

This photography of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is completely symmetrical and in my opinion is perfectly balanced.

My daughter forms one element in this composition and is clearly one dominant part of the image. However, I feel the mass of the backdrop also forms a point of interest. While my daughter is much more dominant than the background, the greater area of the background helps to balance out this image.

I found during this exercise that when there were very few dominant components on a simple background that the dominant components were very easy to identify. However, in more complex images such as that of the skateboarder it was much harder to identify the dominant components within the image.

In this exercise I have learned that I have tended to have a good sense of balance in my images. However, balance is not completely necessary to create a good image as is shown in the picture of my daughters in their paddling pool.

Exercise: Focal lengths and different viewpoints

In this exercise I explored the differences in the image captured when a subject fills the frame when a long focal length is used and when a subject fills the frame when a short focal length is used. To carry out this exercise I found a subject with some depth to it. I attached my 70-200mm lens to my Canon 50d camera and set the lens to 121mm, the longest focal length I could use to capture my chosen subject. I composed the scene such that my chosen subject filled the frame. This involved me walking away from my subject first. I then attached my 10-22mm lens and setting the lens to 10mm I walked towards my subject until it once again filled the frame. The results can be found below.

Focal length: 121mm

Focal length: 10mm

You may be wondering why I set my telephoto lens to 121mm rather than 200mm in the first image. The reason for this is that the subject was on top of a hill and were I to walk any further away than where I was when I captured the first image the ground would have obscured the subject.

The two images captured are dramatically different even though the field of view has been maintained by changing viewpoint. In the first image, taken at a relatively long focal length, the image seems flat. The back wall of the hut does not seem too far from the columns at the front. The columns are parallel and even and the proportions of the hut seem even and as they were observed with the eye. The image captured at this longer focal length feels clean, orderly and in proportion.

In the second image, taken at the shortest focal length available to me, the hut feels much deeper. The back wall of the hut is clearly some distance from the columns at the front. The columns themselves are no longer parallel. Instead the columns form diagonals, sprouting out from the ground and exploding away from the centre. The roof appears to be far flatter than in the first image. The diagonals formed by the columns give the second image a more dynamic feel than the first image.

Exercise: Focal lengths

In this exercise I explored the effect of the field of view when the focal length is changed. My camera was mounted on a tripod and I attached my 70-200 telephoto zoom lens to it. Starting with the lens set to 200mm I took a series of images reducing the focal length of the lens for each shot. When I reached the minimum focal length of the lens I replaced it with my 17-55mm lens, being careful not to move my camera during the process. I then repeated the process with this lens.  My results are shown below.

Focal length: 200mm

Focal length: 165mm

Focal length: 127mm

Focal length: 93mm

Focal length: 75mm

Focal length: 55mm

Focal length: 46mm

Focal length: 35mm

Focal length: 23mm

Focal length 23mm, cropped to have similar field of view as 200mm

I observed that as the focal length was reduced the field of view was increased. I noticed that the centre of the wide angle image shot at 23mm is simply a reduced version of the image taken at 200mm. I have shown this by cropping out the centre of the 23mm image and placing it above.

Calibrating My Computer Monitor

I went out to shoot for some more exercises today but the incessant rain drove me in to a fantastic camera shop by the name of Park Cameras. This place has a large internet based business so the prices are always keen. I ended up buying a device to calibrate my computer monitor. The difference post calibration is really quite astounding. My images which I have dutifully been processing in Lightroom and underexposing a little as they seemed too bright all look too dark now.

I am not going to go back and edit photographs I have already submitted. However, there should be a big difference in future uploads. I am guessing that on uncalibrated pictures my future pictures will look too bright. However, I will be happy in the knowledge that my prints will come out as they look on my screen.