Assignment #6 – Basic Photography Composition

[100169]

I tried to simplify the composition by using shallow depth of the field and blurring out secondary elements, which are not as important but still provide context. I also tried to make a railing serve as a leading line.

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Beautiful photograph!

You seem to have a good eye for strong landscape photographs. This assignment (as well as your 4th assignment) are great examples showcasing different ways of choosing a few design elements and incorporating them into a large geographic space.

The design elements that jump out at me for this photograph are:

1. Leading line
2. Strong sense of depth (foreground, middle-ground, background)
3. Cold color palette of gradients of grays, greens and blues

However, there are less obvious design elements to this photograph as well. For example, the time of day and direction of lighting coupled with the wetness of the pavement have lead to the display of a lot of texture in your secondary elements (most noticeably in your cement and your railing).

The most important feature of this photograph is the movement in the foreground. This is your primary area of action and it draws the viewer’s eyes to that side of the composition. Without that movement, this photograph would have lacked a “stopper” (something for the audience’s eyes to rest on while they are not exploring the rest of the photograph). However, seeing the movement in the birds gives your audience an immediate point of focus.

The only thing I might change is the angle the railing is coming out of the frame at. What you’ve done isn’t wrong, but it’s enjoyable to experiment with small details such as where the leading line starts. Right now, it starts close to the bottom-left corner. However, this composition may have been more dramatic if you placed the railing at exactly the point where the bottom frame and left frame meet.

Overall, great work on this assignment!

[Author]

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