Formal Qualities Formal Qualities of Compositionof Composition

LIGHTING

Jonathan Worth

Cynthia Cortes.

Photographing Intimacy.

Nigel Parry

Imogen Cunningham

Pierre Gonnord

FOCUSING

COMPOSITION

Photographic Composition

Generally the term composition means “putting together”.

Photographic composition is simply the selection and arrangement of subjects (elements) within the picture area.

Effective photo composition is made by:

1. Placing objects in appropriate positions.2. Choosing an appropriate point of view. 3. Waiting for the opportune moment.

Photographic CompositionSome rules of composition

• Rule of thirds• Framing• Visual cropping• Vantage Point, where the photographer stands• Balance• Perspective (scale)• Moving in close• Action• Leading lines• Converging lines

• This is more a guideline then a rule.• The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or

along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally.

Consider your foreground and background

View Point – try new things and challenge yourself.

Get in close

Trying different angles

CompositionDramatic Perspective

Create impact by photographing your subjects from unexpected angles. Imagine yourself as an electron

spinning around the subject, which is the nucleus of an atom

CompositionUse of frames, lines & diagonals

Create impact by using frames and real or inferred lines that lead the viewer's eye into and around the picture

Converging Lines

Converging lines are two or more lines coming from different parts of the frame, and meeting at a single point.

Framing – use what’s around you to frame your images.

Symmetrical compositionsSome images appear almost symmetrical about either the vertical or horizontal axis. This can lead to a very calm, balanced effect. However, there is often more to this than meets the eye.

Andreas Gursky - 99 Cent, 1999, chomogenic colour print, 6 ft. 9 1/2 in. x

11 ft. 5/8 in.

The composition of this massive image, nearly 12 feet in length, appears almost symmetrical – ordered, balanced and unemotional. It suggests that the photographer is taking an entirely objective view. However, people seem to be relatively insignificant in this temple to commerce and the dizzying quantity and variety of products on display is quite disconcerting.

Order and chaos co-exist

A symmetrically arranged environment is disordered in William Eggleston’s exposed interior of a freezer.

Together and apart?

Evidence of domestic harmony or the site of conflict? Nan Goldin’s beds are mute witnesses.

Differences contained

Robert Frank’s use of a grid-like composition in this famous image serves to highlight the racial, class, age and gender differences which the photographer observed in the compartmentalised society of 1950s USA.

The GridInfluenced by abstract art and industrial design, photographers sometimes create grid-like compositions. Pattern and repetition are often important concerns, and often the grid is comprised of more than one photograph.

Lewis Baltz - Park City Interior #94

Ray Metzker - Untitled, 1966-7

Ray Metzker’s large composite grid is constructed from 63 individual photographs of a Chicago street scene. From a distance, the viewer sees only an abstract pattern. Closer up, the multiple elements become legible.

Asymmetrical compositionsPhotographers often choose dramatic angles and off-kilter compositions to create a sense of dynamism.

Jaroslav Rossler Untitled. Petrin Tower 1924-6

Berenice Abbott - El at Columbus Avenue and Broadway c. 1935-39

Abbott utilises a high viewpoint in order to emphasise the dynamic rhythms of city life. Thrusting diagonals and an asymmetrical arrangement of forms suggest energy and flux.

Compare and contrast

Harry Callahan – Eleanor, Chicago 1953 Garry Winogrand – New York Zoo, 1964

Symmetrical

Horizontals and verticals

Order and logic

Calm

Asymmetrical

Diagonals

Dynamism and energy

Tense

Surreally symmetrical

Jerry Uelsmann - Untitled, 1965

All over compositionsSometimes, photographers attempt to describe scenes which are so complex that the eye struggles to perceive a pattern to the arrangement of forms. These photographs are similar in effect to looking at an abstract painting by Jackson Pollock.

Garry Winogrand - The American Legion Convention, Dallas, Texas 1964

Jackson Pollock - Untitled. (c. 1950). Ink on paper