Multiple Points

When using several points the relationship between the points is not so certain. When arranging several objects in a photograph it becomes more difficult deciding on the placement of the objects. The difficulty lies in trying to make an attractive composition which is not static.

In the Photographer's Eye the author mentions that the American Photographer Frederick Sommer stated that "Things come to our awareness in ways that are much more complex than we could arrange" i.e. throwing five pebbles to see how they fall.

I used monopoly pieces to form a still life and removed and added pieces until I got a composition I liked. The composition seemed to work best with the dice in the centre. The objects form a loose circle round the dice. I did find this exercise quite difficult to do maybe because I prefer taking landscapes as opposed to still life photographs.

The relationship between points

I have learnt that adding a second point to an image changes the dynamics of a photograph and the simplicity of the image is lost. The relationship between the two points and which point is dominant then becomes important.

In the first image I have taken I would say that the man in the photograph is definitely more dominant because of his size.

I would say in the second image of the two chairs that neither dominates the image.

In the third image the front weight obviously dominates the image because of its size and position and the eye is also drawn to the blue rope.

Positioning a point

I have taken three photographs in which where is a single point, a haystack, has been placed in different parts of the frame.

I thought I would try the three classes of position mentioned in the exercise, placing a point off centre, to the edge of the frame and in the centre. I like the off centre one best particularly as the point is a haystack which looks like it could roll down the hill. As mentioned in The Photographer's Eye placing a point in the centre of the frame can seem static and therefore a decision has to be made how far off the centre of the frame and in what direction you place the point. This might also be dictated by what else is in the photograph as it is rare to find a completely plain or even background. I think the photograph in the middle doesn't work well as the trees in the background are distracting.

Points

I think the following would make a clear photograph of a point:- a single flower, tree, haystack, building, boat, bird, animal, vehicle, person etc set against a plain background.

I looked through past photographs I have taken and realise that not many of them contain obvious points! The two above however do. I will try in the future to look out for more situations where this applies.