Rectangles are the new Triangles.

It has now been 45 days since my wide lens broke and was then deemed “too costly to repair” this while rather annoying has forced me to adapt to new methods of shooting for some time now and the “me shots” described here which are dominated by a triangular structure  have given way to shots like the ones seen below, which are often dominated by a linear flow drawing the eye along the picture on a pre-determined path with a strong rhythm.

Going into this shot taken at a St Patrick’s Day parade in more detail (more shots here and here)shows the interest in composition along strong lines which I have now undertaken.  The eye is first drawn to eye contact, in this case the centre of the formation, but lingers only for a second as the mind quickly picks up the pattern of faces, and isolates the man and dog as a break in the pattern and a point of interest. Once finding these figures the eye then follows their gaze along the pattern before ending naturally at another break in the pattern, the last figure in the line and the only black face in a sea of white.

Other elements within the shot help define the framing and composition, the tree on the left reinforces the man and dog as the start of the pattern essentially cutting the figures on the left from the frame.  The speaker is positioned at around 1/3 distance from the right (despite how much I hate that concept as a “rule”) and located between the figures,  essentially keeping the rhythm while adding another point of interest, the second tree also follows this theme, it helps create a frame for the image though its main job is to balance the frame which may have been uneven due to te left hand tree. All these aspects contribute to what is actually a rather simple shot, one of several similar images taken over the course of five minutes.

Another example of this style of composition from a shoot taken last year (other shots here and here)   This shot was used in part of a talk on my photography and photographic style at St Leonards Camera Club in Stafford.  A member of the club asked why I chose to have the figure facing right to left instead of the other way round which would be the more common orientation.  Various suggestions were put forward as to why this was the case, but as I work fairly fast and loose with my composition, not relying on rules but on what feels natural at the time I was unable to provide a solid reason on the spot.

Having been asked this raised my curiosity somewhat and I set about having a closer look at the  image and its structure. The first thing noticable about this image is the black and white format.  This was deliberately chosen to increase the ambiguity of the location of the image further highlighted by a shallow depth of field, I wanted the image to look like it could have been taken anywhere in the world as such losing any distinguishing colours or features was important.

The picture I was looking for was one of the subject looking towards a morning sun (in this case provided by a flash bounced off a reflector) therefore the environment was important to the shot, adding  an extra layer of interest. The wide format is also needed  to give an indication of where the subject is looking, it is expected that the subject of a photograph will look at the camera, having them looking out of the frame demands an indication of where the subject is looking, or what they are looking at otherwise the picture may become unbalanced.

In this instance i had a picture of a man in an environment in which I wanted an indication of space and a hint of where he was looking. When you look at a picture like this you are inclined to read it left to right like a page in a book. In this case the eye will naturally go straight to the subject then follow his gaze to the edge of the frame, before finally scrolling back across to the subject. If the picture was flipped so the subject was looking left to right, you gaze would naturally follow his out of the frame, this is not always a bad thing but it does also have the effect of increasing the importance of the background, something which I wanted to avoid as it is simply just a lot of empty space, something that is needed but only something to hint at but not draw attention to.

I wanted the opposite effect from this picture, one of a normally very happy little toddler looking a little uncertain. It was taken in a fairly bright room but a combination of short exporures and high apeture allowed me to kill the natural light and rely on off camera flash.

The image highlights the effect given by placing negative space to the right of the subject and the way its importance is increased in comparison to the previous shot.

for more images, including several taken along the theme of a strong linear composition click here