Composition #5 - Creating Depth

Theory
Depth can be emphasised with good lead-in lines.

Also, make sure there is something of interest in the three areas of your picture:

• Foreground [rocks]
• Middle distance [sheep]
• Background [hills]

It's those thirds again…

Examples

[Beached Lobster Pot - getting up close to the lobster pot (with a wide-angle lens) made it appear bigger in the frame; the rocks lead through the middle ground to the background hills]

[Heavy Traffic - the huskies in the foreground lead to skiers (middle ground) and hills beyond]

[Twilight Expedition - foreground interest is provided by the figures and dinghy, mid-ground is the tethered boat and more hills in the background]

[My Imaginary Friend - foreground girl is reflected to give some middle-distance interest; the background is not so significant in this shot]

Composition #6 - Using Repetition

Theory
Repetition can be appealing, but too much of the same thing can be boring.

Instead, take subjects which show repetition but with a slight difference:

• Similar objects, of different sizes or focus
• Similar objects, of different colours
• Similar objects, in different positions
  

Examples

[Pencils I - the variation here is colour, size and position - the ends of the pencils were all lined up, and the difference in their lengths was entirely down to how much they had been used in the past]

[Windows Within Windows - foreground windows repeat uniformly, their reflected counterparts all suffer from different distortions in the glass]

[The Table Setting - a simple found still-life shot - the wine glasses, condiment set and red gerbera, each of different sizes and gradually getting less sharp as they get further back]

[Floral Details II - the blooms repeat in different positions and gradually less focussed further back in the picture]

Composition #7 - Fill The Frame, Or Not?

Theory
Nobody wants to play "hunt the interesting bit" with your photos! So get in close, and fill the frame. Remember:

"If it's not good enough, you're not close enough"

[Good advice for all except war photographers and wild animal specialists]

Or, make a point of not filling the frame, but giving the picture some "positive space" - a tricky thing to define, but examples should make things clearer. The skill is knowing which to go for under what circumstances!

Examples

[It Takes Allsorts - get in close, fill the frame]

[Lovely Bubbly Aero - get in close, then fill your tum after the photo shoot!]

[The Racing Line - most of the frame is empty track, but having the car so far off to the right does give an impression it's struggling to stay on the tarmac]

[The Red Roof - most of the picture is sky, but the gull and hut balance each other well]

Composition #8 - Using Triangles

Theory
The humble triangle can be a useful compositional device to improve your pictures.

Upright or inverted, they act as extra lead-in lines or can encapsulate the subject being photographed.

The triangle can be formed by tangible straight lines, or objects at each virtual corner.

Placing three objects in triangular formation is much stronger than the eye "bouncing" between two subjects - odd number repetition is best if possible.

Examples

[Bringing In The Catch - three boats in the harbour form the corners of a flattish triangle, also main interest in the picture is restricted to the middle third strip]

[Fungi and Treestump - here, the main content of the picture forms a natural inverted triangle, albeit made from circular objects (repetition with different sizes). I was careful to line up the top "side" with the edge of the frame]

[Overthrow - the players make up most of this upright triangle with their lineout jump - but it is capped off by the all-important ball. Neither of them caught it!]

[Louvre Geometry - this one is a special case, with two triangles (outlined). The lower, inverted one is very obvious, but the upper part is just as important]

Texture & Tone in Monochrome

Theory
The right lighting is vital for conveying the texture and defining the tone in monochrome pictures.

Strong side lighting on the subject will create the best emphasis of light and shadow.

Soft lighting will lead to a more subdued image with smaller tonal range:

• Images with lots of dark tones are said to be "low-key"
• Images with lots of light tones are said to be "high-key"

Examples

[Cycle Lane - with a predominance of dark tones in the picture, this is definitely a low-key image]

[Mist Over The Farm - even though this has a very bright sky, the images is more low-key than high-key, with the dark silhouettes in the foreground dominating the image]

[Grey Horizons - this is probably more high-key than low-key - there is a predominance of paler tones, with only a few darker shapes]

[And Let Thy Feet… with only one small area of black in the frame, this is a high-key image]

Subdued Or Single-Colour Images

Theory
Selecting subjects with subdued colours, or all from one end of the spectrum, can evoke a particular mood.

It can be particularly effective in showing shapes and textures

Examples

[Smokey Shed - this is actually a colour image, showing the merest hint of grey/green in the shafts of light and pale pink and blue in the skylights]

[The Rusty Cog - a combination of browns and oranges show this scene in a very limited colour palette. The differentiation between foreground and background is largely through focus]

[Autumn Vines - the vines show leaves of green and pale yellow, with a bit of brown at their feet. Notice also the strong lead-in lines and "stop" (the darker green fir tree) at the back]

[Question Mark - just a few shades of cream and brown give a calm atmosphere and clean lines]

Vibrant Colour

Theory
Subjects with vivid colours have immediate impact.

Again, this can be one single colour or perhaps two complimentary colours from opposite ends of the specrum - eg. blue and yellow.

For the most vibrant colours, you need good strong lighting - plenty of sun or perhaps flash, depending on the subject.

Examples

[The Mini Crevass - anything red has an immediate impact, and this macro shot of frost patterns on my car is no exception]

[The Green Lens - still striking, but grabs the attention a little bit less than it's red brother. The lighthouse lens is lit from behind by a shaft of sun]

[The Stamping Ground - stage lighting gives this shot a dramatic feel. I liked the contrast between red and yellow gels]

[Blue Luzzu - strong Mediterranean sun (and a polarising filter) brought out the depth of the colours in this Maltese fishing boat. I liked the complimentary blues and yellows]

Vista Destroys Photo Metadata

I read with interest that Windows Vista has a bit of trouble with editing digital photo's EXIF data.

Basically, if you edit the metadata with the built-in Photo Info tool, such as adding a tag, it destroys the data used by other programmes such as Photoshop. Of particular problem are RAW files from Nikons, which become unreadable after Vista's intervention.

Many comments on the aforementioned blog defend Vista, pointing out it's actually the fault of the camera manufacturers using proprietory formats for the data. However, I believe it's just as much Microsoft's fault for letting you do it without giving you a warning that it might trash the original information.

Walk On The White Side

Yesterday we had about 3" of snow down my way, and since I was able to take some time out, I went on a six mile trek with the camera. Here are three of the best images I got from the expedition:

[A Transient Visitor - snowman and the cricket pavillion]

[Heavy Droplets - melting snow on a teasel]

[Grey Horizons - my favourite shot of the day]

You can see some more on my website in the Colour Gallery #10 and Mono Selection #5.

A New Purchase
One thing I have been thinking about buying for a while is a decent digital compact. I started my digital career with a Minolta S304, but it was terribly slow and I got very frustrated with it. When I got the EOS 300D, the Minolta soon went out the window. But of late, I've come back full circle and feel I'd like a better spec compact to take to do's like PubStandards and BarCamp, rather than having to lug the SLR everywhere.

Trouble is, I've been wanting a compact that has quite a high tech spec - and I've only just recently found one I like. Its the Canon Ixus 850 IS:

The things that most attracted me to it were:

• 7Mb sensor
• 3.8x optical zoom (I don't go near digital zoom with a barge pole)
• 28-105mm equivalent zoom range (since I'll be using it most for indoors snaps, the 28mm wins over the usual 35mm at the wide end)
• 2.5" LCD and optical viewfinder (essential if you're using it in bright sunlight)
• ISO speeds up to 1600, and built-in Image Stabilisation - means better shooting in low light conditions without the need to use flash.

It should arrive tomorrow, so I'll be giving it a road test over the coming week. Watch this space!

Taking A Dim View

We're approaching the shortest day of the year, and so the dark days of winter are well and truely upon us. However, providing you get a bit of sun, winter is often a great time for photography. The low light and long shadows can produce amazing views from the most mundane of subjects.

This was taken on Tower Bridge on Sunday, during a photographic day out with some friends. I had to wait for a bit to make sure there were no random roaming tourists in the shot, but I quite like the overall effect. You can see more mono shots from the day in my Mono Selection 4 Gallery.

If you've never been, take the opportunity to go to the Tower Bridge Exhibition - for just over a fiver you get to go up to the two high-level walkways above the bridge and see the Victorian pumping engines which were used to elevate the road decks when it was first built.

We were pretty jammy with the weather on Sunday, bearing in mind that we'd picked the date well in advance and it had been chucking with rain for most of the previous week. Here's a view from the walkways, looking towards the Isle of Dogs:

The original idea for going out on a trip was to visit the Volume exhibition at the V&A, billed as an interactive sound and light show. We thought dusk would be a good time to hit the show, before all the colour has gone out of the sky. The exhibit itself was slightly disappointing, in that it was mute for our visit - no music at all, no matter how hard you flapped your arms! But I was quite pleased with the pictures I managed to get - this is one of the last I took:

My EOS300D isn't bad in low-light conditions, especially when you wind the ISO setting up to 1600. I was also using my Canon 17-85mm IS [Image Stabilised] lens, which means you can hand-hold shots down to 1/15s or sometimes slower, without everything going blurred. Other folks in my group were using a tripod, which the V&A staff seemed not to mind (you have to be careful where you use a tripod these days) when we were outside. I rarely use a tripod (but do take a monopod with me to the rugby, to support my stupidly-heavy Sigma 135-400mm "pap" lens). It's just me being lazy, but I seem to work better that way. You can see more colour images from our day out in my General Colour - 9 Gallery.

If you only have access to a compact camera, it doesn't necessarily mean you will get bad pictures in low light, but you do need to be able to take some control of the camera, rather than just leaving it to get on with it. If you can, select the highest ISO rating the camera will cope with. Turn off the flash. Try and point the focus/exposure centre spot not at the brightest thing in the scene (you will end up with a very dark image) but at some mid-tones. This way, you should get a reasonable balance to the exposure. Shutter speeds are likely to be quite slow, so any way of supporting the camera is a good idea - tripod, monopod, brace against a wall/lamp-post/friend's shoulder. And don't breathe in while you press the shutter!

Here's a few more low-light and festive images I took this time last year.