Basic Composition in Charleston

[Amy]

Here is my submission for lesson 6. I feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful city! That being said, this lesson took me a while because I was on sensory overload! Charleston is known for it’s civil war history, so I decided to go to one of our civil war era cemeteries. The first shot was through a wrought iron fence at a fountain across the street from the cemetery. Looking forward to your feedback! Amy

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Hi Amy,

Thanks for submitting another assignment. There are nice images here.

The nature of the environment you we’re shooting in was relatively organized with fences, fountains, and tombstones in alignment. So there wasn’t much chaos being organized here. That said it doesn’t really matter. You have ensured that there are no elements in the frame that aren’t meant to be there.

You’ve gone out and you’ve come back with some nice symmetrical and well composed images.

In your first image you’ve used a frame within a frame to compose the photograph. It certainly adds something to the image but I’m not sure what it is? You have to ask yourself that question all the time. Does this work? Does it enhance the image?

One way to find out is to just try it both ways. With the fence in the foreground and without it and then compare the two.

Your second image of the the fence with shallow depth is really nice. You’ve clearly photographed the interesting shape on the top of this fence. You’ve focused the viewer’s eye on this item and it is interesting to look at.

On your final image there is somewhat of a compressed look to the image. Meaning, the foreground fence looks very close to the tombstones behind it. This is because your focal length was 82, meaning you’ve zoomed in a little. You’ll note that this tends to happen when you zoom in. Everything in the frame becomes somewhat compressed. The classic example of this is in the movies when the actor is running in front of a train this is bearing down on him. It looks like it’s right behind him but it’s just a trick. It’s VERY far back but since the filmakers used a very large telephoto lens it appears like it’s very close. This is usually referred to as perspective distortion.

You can use this to your advantage. If you want something to feel crowded and have things on top of each other you can use a telephoto lens. On the other hand if you want to add depth and more of a 3d type look where elements are clearly close and far apart you use a wider angle lens.

Whatever the case, you’ve done well here.

In future when shooting non moving/static scenes like this lower your ISO.

Also don’t forget to set your white balance manually.

See you on the next assignment.

Thanks!

[Author]

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