Formal Elements

Line

Lines are a great starting point when thinking about formal elements, as they are almost everywhere. Start by looking for lines in your composition that can guide the viewer through your shot or to a specific focal point. These are known as leading lines.

Shape

Effectively representing shape and form in your compositions can turn objects, landscapes and figures into defined, striking focal points. Using various lighting techniques, such as backlighting, silhouettes, and paying attention to shadows, will help elevate the shapes and forms in your shot.

Space

Building space into your compositions creates a sense of scale and brings added depth to your shot. It can also provide breathing room for your image’s main subject, allowing the viewer to focus on the scene’s primary features.

Repetition

This can involve the repeated use of lines, shapes, colors, textures, or other visual elements that create a sense of consistency and uniformity. The repetition photography examples could be anything—a row of trees, a series of arches, a field of sunflowers, or even a group of people dressed similarly.

Texture

Texture is a visual representation of how something feels, whether it is rough or smooth or soft or prickly. The cues we use to determine texture as we look at a subject (or scene) are variations in colour, shadow, line, shape, and depth.

Colour

A prominent colour in your image – whether it’s a concrete colour block or a set of similar colours that form a palette can make a bold statement in your shot.

Colours can also convey a mood to your image that will be emotive to the viewer. And you could also single out one particular colour to make a striking statement and have it ‘pop out’ of your shot.

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Value/Tone

Focusing on tone in your image means using variables of contrast and light and dark areas to bring depth to your image.

The tone is fundamental in black-and-white photography, where it should be used to guide the viewer through your image where there is no colour present to focus their attention.

Practice makes perfect when it comes to tone, and we recommend trying different lighting scenarios and contrast levels for your preferred aesthetic.

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Francis Bruguière

Francis Bruguière (1879–1945) was an American photographer and avant-garde artist known for his pioneering work in abstract photography. Initially a portrait and commercial photographer, Bruguière became famous for his experimental use of light and shadow, creating abstract images through techniques like multiple exposures and cut-paper compositions. His work was influential in pushing photography beyond its traditional documentary role into the realm of fine art. Bruguière also worked in film and design, collaborating with prominent figures in the early 20th-century modernist movement.

Francis Bruguier inspires me as he uses unique styles and cut outs of paper. He also intelligently configures light by using cut-outs held against un-natural light to get shadows.

Photoshoot

I put all of my pictures from the photo shoot into

My Chosen Images

Using Lightroom I picked out and made a folder regarding my best pictures from the Photo Shoot. I then proceeded to compare my images and pick the top 20.

Using the colour-coding method on lightroom i picked out my favourites and marked them in green. This made it easier for me to then go on to organize them into a set folder

Editing

Final Image:

What is Lightroom?

Well, Lightroom is many things but what Lightroom is actually used for is to enhance and sharpen pictures. it is commonly used as using certain methods (I will go into further along this post) it is easy to identify the ones with bad quality and good quality and eliminate the ones you don’t want to work on.

To start actually putting pictures into Lightroom, you have to import them. In the bottom left of your screen you will see the import button.

Once you have pressed this a screen will come up and on the left hand-side you can choose where the images come from and what images you would like.

Here is where you can uncheck and check images to choose which ones you would like to import into your Lightroom library. Once you have selected them in the bottom right of your screen you will see this button.

If you press import, these images you have selected will appear into your library. Furthermore this will unlock multiple different features that can improve your photos and make them easier to navigate to.

By going through your images and pressing in the top right corner of each image you can flag the images. This aids you further as you can prioritise the pictures that have certain features

Diptych

What is a Diptych?

A Diptych is a creative format that combines two images side by side. This approach allows photographers to explore relationships between the images, whether through contrasting themes or the monitoring and comparing of the two images. By pairing two photos it is easier to identify and pick out more final details. For instance, one image could focus on texture and detail, while the other provides context or a broader view, encouraging viewers to make connections between the two. Diptychs are an effective way to engage the audience and invite deeper interpretation of the photographic narrative.

This is my Diptych and it easily shows my original picture and the final product.

The aperture helps the photographer decide what they want to be in focus. It also links with the depth of field. For example the wider the aperture the smaller the depth of field. This means that the foreground is in focus and the background is blurry.

The F stop is what is used to measure the aperture

The image below has an aperture of 22. This means that the lens gets smaller and everything becomes in focus.

 

This image has an Aperture of 5 so the plane is in focus and the pencils in front and the toys behind. The lens expands in comparison to 22. This means there is a Medium level of: depth of view.

What is ISO…

ISO is a number that represents how sensitive your camera sensor is to light. The higher the ISO number, the higher your camera’s sensitivity, and the less light you need to take a picture. The trade-off is that higher ISOs can lead to degraded image quality and cause your photos to be grainy or “noisy.”

When might you use High ISO?

High ISO is generally well suited to low-light situations, especially when a fast shutter speed or a narrow lens aperture is essential to achieving a creative goal. For example, using a higher ISO setting for hand-held street photography at night allows one to use fast shutter speeds to create bright, sharp images.

My Own Photo using high ISO

This is an example of me using high ISO in a dark room setting.

As you can clearly see this picture has become very grainy. I used an ISO of 6400