Positioning a point

I found the exercise relating to positioning a point very similar to the previous one about the object in different parts of the frame.  I tried to think of various situations where you might place a point in different positions in the frame, for example, a boat or duck on a lake, a single animal in a field, a single flower against a background, the eye of a person or animal, or a section of something mechanical maybe.  In most cases, central placement would be too static, however there a situations where that might be justified, particularly if square format is used.

The brief was to take three photographs of a single point in different parts of the frame, justifying the reasons why considering the graphic relationship the points have within the frame.  To approach this task, I found various subjects in which I took a several images of the subject in different positions, and also looked for points in photographs I had taken since completing assignment one.  I then reviewed them to find three different ones where the position in each case "works" and also considered the effect that converting the image to black and white would have on the position of the point (the introduction to the chapter suggested that studying form and tone is clearer in monochrome).

Central Position

In this picture of my dog Freddie running across the park, the point (the dog) is virtually central.  I tried cropping it to see if another placement was better and the central position looked best.  I think this is because with the central composition, there is the suggestion that the dog is running towards its owner (i.e. the person taking the photo), which is lost once the position is changed.  Although the photograph lacks a horizon, the image is anchored by the dogs shadow, and a sense of perspective is created by the shade at the top of the image.

However, when I coverted the image to black and white, to see what effect that would have on the placement of the point, there was too much grey of the same tone due to the grass.  Whereas this is pleasing with the green contrasting against the black and white of the animal and the flecks of daisy, this is too much in monochrome.  So I cropped it to try to regain some movement in the photo.  In this situation, the point is now to the left of the image, and the sense of the dog running to towards the owner is lost.  It looks more like he is jumping mid-air!

So for this image, central positioning whilst retaining colour is the better position for the point.

When I looked at the graphical representation, I was surprised; I took the nose as the main point, (as this is what is closest to and is rapidly moving towards the photographer), and divided the image on that basis.  This showed that although I had thought that the position was central, the nose creates an artificial horizon in the top third of the image.  So the image is divided centrally through the vertical line, but through the top third with the horizontal line.   So the composition is less static than it would have been had the nose been bang on centre.  I also remembered at this point that with portraits, it is recommended that the eyes are in the top half of the image, so this contributes to the composition of image.

Top Right Corner

The point in this image is the seagull against a background of the blue sky.  Because the bird is flying away from the photographer the placement of the point in the top right corner works well as it gives a sense of space for the bird to fly in to.  Had the image been cropped to square format, the bird that sense of space would have been lost.  Central positioning in this case would have been too static and placement in any other corner would have looked strange with the direction the bird is flying in.

I then converted the image to black and white to investigate the effect this would have on the point; again, because of the neutrality of the background, which in this case lacks even more tone than the grass above, the image lacks interest.  I cropped the image to square format to relieve some of the blandness of the background, but the sense of space is lost.

In this case, and as above, the combination of colour and positioning is essential.







Taking the beak as the point, the image can be graphically divided on the third lines, similar to a Golden Section, although the large balancing element is an expanse of sky.








Right of Frame

This image was taken from a train window as the train passed through the station (and from right to left through the frame).  The placement of the point, i.e. the person, on the right-side of the frame is essential to convey the movement of the train.  The girl is also very striking against the neutral background.  If the point had been placed anywhere else in the frame, the movement would have been lost, and the blurring would have looked like an error rather than a sense of movement.



On converting to black and white, I was expecting the same results as the two images above: that the background was too neutral for the conversion to work.  However, I don't think this was the case: the tones in the image are quite interesting in black and white and the deliberate blurring helps offset the neutral background.  In addition, there are some tonal differences in the background that assist.  Overall though, I prefer the colour image, because of the subdued hues, but the positioning works in either image.

Graphically, the image can again be divided on the third lines, taking her left eye as the main point, and placing the girl on the intersecting line.  This achieves a similar effect as the seagull picture above.








Learning Points

This was an interesting exercise; I found that none of images I had deliberately taken for the exercise were finally presented here; this was because when they were taken, I was not thinking about anything else other than the position, and did not consider other elements that are important; e.g. in one photo I shot a boat on a lake, but the position that worked best compositionally with the background showed the boat leaving the frame - it would have been better had the position been on the other side with the boat entering the frame.  This is a problem I have encountered before, so I still need to work on this; achieving the exercise in hand, but not forgetting everything else that matters!