Elements of art and Principles of Design in Photography

Lines are marks made by a pointed tool: brush, pencil, pen, etc. Lines can vary in width, direction, curvature, length, or color.

I chose this piece because of the lines showed by the tikis.

I chose this photograph because of the distinct lines made by the railing, side and the floor.

Shapes are formed wherever the ends of a continuous line meet. Geometric shapes such as circles, triangles or squares have perfect. Organic shapes are associated with things from the natural world

I chose this painting because of all the same shapes of soup cans.

I chose this photograph because of the more geometric shape on the organic shape.

Color is the light reflected off an object and you see it as a color. Black and white may be thought of as colors but, in fact, they are not. White light is the presence of all color; black is the absence of reflected light and therefore the absence of color.

I chose this because it uses similar colors throughout

I chose this because the colors gradually change as the distance increases. 

Value, or tone, refers to dark and light; the value scale refers to black and white with all gradations of gray in between. 

I chose this because it shows the value going from dark to light.

I chose this because of the subtle slow differences in value

Form describes objects that are three-dimensional, having length, width, and height.

I chose this because it is easy to see width, length, and height of the bar.

This I chose to show width, length, and height of the cube.

Texture refers to the surface quality, both simulated and actual, of artwork.

I chose this to show texture of the cave

This shows the texture of rock face very well.

Space refers to distances or areas around, between, or within components of a piece. 

This shows space between each of the three major parts of the picture

This shows space between the ice cream

Balance is the comfortable or pleasing arrangement of things in art. There are three different types of balance: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial. 

This shows asymmetrical balance, and symmetrical balance vertically.

This shows symmetrical balance, horizontally and vertically.

Contrast is created by using elements that conflict with one another. Often, contrast is created using complementary colors or extremely light and dark values. Contrast creates interest in a piece and often draws the eye to certain areas. 

This contrasts a bright sunset to a darkened cityscape

This contrasts the light colored water to dark colored rocks

Emphasis in the focal area of an artwork gives it importance. An artist may stress some elements of the design over others. The eye of the viewer will focus on the area of emphasis or center of interest first, then take in the rest of the composition.

This emphasizes the blue sky in the picture.

This emphasizes the flowers in his hands, because its colored.

Movement in an artwork means the artist is taking viewers on a trip through the work by means of lines, edges, shapes, and colors often leading to the focal area. Movement is a visual flow through the composition.

This shows the movement of the wave

This shows water movement

Patterns are made in art when the same shapes or elements are repeated again and again. Pattern uses the elements of art in planned or random repetitions to enhance surfaces of paintings or sculptures.

There are patterns on the people

The wall is a pattern

Rhythm is the repetition of shapes, lines, and forms. Rhythm is a movement in which some elements recurs regularly. Like a dance, it will have a flow of objects that will seem to be like the beat of music.

The elephants lining the picture show rhythm

The rays of light show rhythm on the bottom

Unity means that all elements in an artwork are in harmony. Unity brings together a composition with similar units.

Unity happens in this picture because it is all less bright colors and there isn't drastic changes

This picture has unity because it has the yellow signs all the way across the screen.

Framing

I chose this because the people, or the subject of the framing, are being framed by the missing posters.

Balance

The Empire State Building balances out the twin towers in the background to make this picture a good example for balance.

Avoid Mergers

This is a merger because the black building merges into the twin towers and blocks off the explosion.

Lines

I picked this photo because there are lines going down the building that shows the man's motion, and pointing too the man. Also, there are diagonal lines that are reflections going along the side of the building.

Rule Of Thirds

The buildings were put on the far right and left sides while the person was put on the left center, to show perspective of the city fading to ash

Example of Simplicity

This photo shows simplicity by having the main part of the picture the American flag. The plain background of a building also helps it's simplicity.

Photo Editing

Photoshop is a useful tool when used right. Using it wrong is not just unethical, but it can be illegal and get reporters of journalists fired. Using photoshop can end up in lying and then you will lose your credibility. 

This picture is an example of unethical use of photoshop. It has been altered to change where the man was and where the gun was pointed. Altering photos of war are usually a bad idea.

This photo had the pyramids moved closer to accommodate for the spacing vertically of the picture. This was not going to offend anyone and cannot be taken wrong in any way.

Post Shoot Reflection

Jennifer has a nice blog at http://jenniferphotojournalism.blogspot.com/. I really like what she takes pictures of and how she sets up the picture. I think if she took a bit more time she could get the blur out of the picture, which would make them much better.

Favorite Photo

This photo is my favorite because I love lightning storms. If I were to become a photographer, I would photograph lightning. Having a picture of something hotter than the surface of the sun sounds like fun to me.
A photo that would sum up my life would have to be a picture of it raining, with lightning in the background and a rainbow in the foreground. Or vice versa. But that would show the organized chaos that is my life. 

Best Photos of all time

This was taken by William Anders on the Apollo 8 mission. I picked this photo because I like how the perspective is backwards. Having a bit of the surface of the moon in the photo made it stand out to me. I think it made the top 40 because its original.

 

This was taken by Terril Jones. I like it because it shows courage of one man to stand up to literally an army of tanks. It stands out because the image is not full of things, it only has a few things in the picture. I believe it made the top 40 because it shows such courage.

This photo was taken by Mark Pardew. I like it because it shows how we need to protect our animal species around the world. It stands out because it focuses on a bright color in a dark charred forest. I think it made the top 40 pictures because it helps us remember that we must be there helping whenever we can.

Great black and white photographers Part 2

Clarence John Laughlin

He lived from 1905 to January 2nd, 1985. He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He dropped out of high school his freshman year, but later became a much more educated man through reading. He taught himself how to use a camera, and started out working for the government. After he realized that he didn't like the government constrains, he quit and worked on his own projects. He has developed over 17,000 negatives and he had a library of over 30,000 volumes. LSU owns this library now.

Two photos of his

 

Red Metal Happy

Red

Metal

Happy

Camera Parts

An aperture is an opening, hole or gap. A shutter is a device that opens and closes to expose the film in a camera. Exposure is the action of exposing a photographic film to light or other radiation. Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that give an image judged to be in focus in a camera. An F-stop is a camera setting corresponding to a particular f-number. Focal length is the distance between the center of a lens or curved mirror and its focus.

The buttons on the top and back of a camera are the mode dial, to change the mode, the power switch, to turn it on and off, the flash button, to change the flash settings, main dial, to dial the film, the shutter button, to shoot the picture, delete button, to delete pictures, aperture button, to change the aperture settings, exposure compensation button, to compensate for different levels of exposure, movie shooting button, to record a video, quick control button, easy access to settings, menu button, to go to menu, settings button, to go to settings, arrow keys, to move or change settings, display button, to display picture on LED screen, AE/FE lock, to lock AE/FE, magnify button, to zoom in, playback button, to playback pictures or videos.

Camera History!

1. Inside a completely dark room, a tiny hole is created in one wall. Through the hole light is focused, and the outside scene is projected (upside down) on the opposite wall.
2. Lenses created in the 17th century help modernize the camera.
3. A glass lens, a dark box and film were the first pieces of a modern camera.
4. Digital camera's have the same basic concepts as the first camera. Light passes through the lens and exposes the film.
5. Digital camera's use electronic sensors called CCD's and save the photos on there.
6. Auto mode on a camera controls everything itself, while program lets you control flash and a few other functions
7. Portrait mode is used to attempt to blur out the background by using the fastest aperture.
8. Sports mode is to freeze motion, using the highest shutter speed.
9. Only half pressing the shutter button will focus the shot before you take it, to help it not be blurred.
10. The flash off symbol shows that the flash will not happen. When you have good lighting you don't need flash.
11. The auto flash icon show that depending on the lighting, the camera will decide whether or not to use flash. This is good if you do not want to worry about the flash.
12. With too much light a picture becomes washed out.
13. With not enough light a picture becomes too dark.
14. A "stop" is a relative term of light.
15. 1 sun + 1 sun = 1 spot
16. 2 sun + 2 sun = 1 spot (spot = relative to original)
17. Longer shutter speed = more light
18. Shorter shutter speed = less light
19. The aperture also controls the amount of light.
20. The smaller "F-stop" number, the more light shows in the picture.

Great black and white photographers

John Gutmann

Clarence John Laughlin

Margaret Bourke-White

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