There are two main variabes in composition; the view point refers to the position we take to photograph from. there are many view points for example,

• high viewpoint
• low viewpoint
• birds eye-view
• worms eye-view

the viewpoint can dramatically change the feel/mood of a photograph

Alexander Rodchenko

 

Rodchenko was a Russian photographer who used odd view points and angles in his work for example he mainly uses low and high viewpoints.

 

Both of these pictures are made of three triangles that split up the image and are also taken at a low view-point. the main focus of these two images is the man on the ladder and the Eiffel tower which both lead your eye up the photograph. these two pictures give me a sense of insecurity because the viewpoint emphasizes the height of the objects.

after looking at these pieces i felt inspired to make works of my own;

 

 

Adam fuss is a British photographer who is best known for his life size photographs of water. he used contemporary photographic techniques to capture a broad set of emotion laden subject matter.

 

 

Francesca Woodman was an American photographer born in 1958 and ended her life in 1980, age 22, due to depression after being rejected by the National Endowment for the Arts.

She mainly photographed naked or clothed women. Some photos contain blurred images due to long exposure and movement. she used different types of cameras to create her work, she mostly used medium format cameras.

In most of Woodman’s solo self-portraits, or pictures with friends, she experiments with more extreme obstructions, from mirrors to wallpaper and the blurring resulting from movement in front of the lens.

 

 

   

Francesca  was inspired by Gothic fiction, she identifies with Victorian heroines. Many of the stories feature a female figure that is often forced into solitude, then they turn mad.

She studied surrealism immensely and studied the workings of Duane Michals, who makes innovative of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy.

What do i think of her work?

In my opinion i really like to look at Francesca’s work. I find it very interesting to look at mainly because most of her work is unnamed and up to interpretation. I also like how most of her pictures are blurred using shutter speed. My favorite photograph is “Eel Series” 1977,

I like how the composition of the body leads your eye through the photograph from the bottom to the top. Shutter speed has been used to blur the body and to create a sharp background. i have noticed through looking at here work that she works with different tones of monochrome which in my opinion prevents the viewer from getting distracted, so they can focus more on the focal point of her photographs.

Shutter, aperture and ISO are the main feature of a camera that control brightness and sharpness of images.

What are Shutter Speeds?

Shutter speeds is a length of time a camera shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor. a camera shutter is like a window hat opens and closes to let light in for a certain amount of time. slow shutter speeds allow more light into the camera sensor by keeping the shutter window open for longer. slow shutter speeds are usually used for low-light and might photographs. Fast shutter speeds help to freeze motion by opening the shutter window for a millionth of a second letting light hit the camera sensor really quickly.

in this image the photographer has used a wide camera aperture f/2 to freeze the image, they then used a shallow depth of field to isolate the bird from the background.

 

Examples – 1  1/2  1/4  1/8  1/ 15  1/30  1/60  1/125  1/250  1/500  1/1000

What are Aperture Settings?

An aperture is an opening within the lens which light ravels into the camera. the longer the aperture is open the more light passes into the camera sponsor. aperture controls the depth of field, which is a portion of a scene/ photograph that is sharp. if the aperture is very small the depth of field id large, if the aperture is large the depth of field is small. Aperture is expressed in “f” .

Example – F/1.4     F/2.0     F/2.8    F/4.0

Depth of Field

In this image the photographer has used a shallow depth of field

 

What is ISO?

ISO is a way to brighten your photos if you cant use a wide aperture or a longer shutter speed. raising your ISO can also increase the graininess and noise in your images. ISO is measures in numbers. lower numbers representing a darker image  and higher numbers representing an a brighter image.

Example – 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600

 

These are some photographs that i took using Aperture, shutter speed and ISO.