The Rules of CompositionElizabeth Carlos

Educ 514

Torry Temple

Rule of Thirds

In this photograph, I wanted to capture many elements, the gnome; Mr. Bojangles, the orchards, and the ceiling from the Botanical garden. I also wanted to focus on the background elements more than the front subject; Mr. Bojangles. As you can see he is not in focused, the background is, and that was intentional. I wanted to place Mr. Bojangles in the lower right hand corner, which gave me the maximum space to shoot all the other elements. I also wanted Mr. Bojangles to seem as if he was surprisingly popping into the shot at the last minute.

This photograph was harder to compose, I was up in a hill, next to cars going 40 mph, I had to park my car on the side of the road with my emergency lights on. In this photograph my main subject was the flower, which is in focused unlike the background. I also placed this subject in the lower right hand corner, because there was so many environmental elements that I wanted to show, a river, a running trail, and a freeway bridge. Overall, I wanted to add a “beauty” element in a place that might otherwise be overlooked at as a dumpster.

I took the longest to take this shot, probably 7 times, but it was definitely the most fun shooting. My main subject was my dachshund, Daisy. She moved so much, that I had to train her with food to stay in that position. I had to lie down with my stomach to the floor, for the shot. I wanted to place Daisy in the upper right hand corner, in order to capture the grass, and hopefully make the viewer feel as if they are being hunted or watched by this dog. I wanted Daisy to hold a level of authority and make her seem, larger than life.

LayeringLayeringLayering

. For this shot, I wanted to stand behind a tree and capture various front, middle, and back elements, such as the eno, which is a plant called old man’s beard in Mexico, Daisy, the plants in the background, and the clothes line that lay in the upper left hand corner. I wanted to make my subject seem lost within all the other elements. I wanted Daisy to be within the middle layer range of the photograph.

In this photograph, I wanted my subject, Peluche to lie within the last layer of the photograph. I wanted the subject to not be aware that I was taking a picture. In the first layer of the photograph you can see, plastic cups, and soda cans. In the second layer, a glass of wine, and on the last layer, you see Peluche and a woman’s upper torso that is holding him. I decided to add effects to the photograph to emphasize the subject, and the layers of the photograph, without having all the red cups or soda cans take away attention from the main subject.

The murals served as my foundation for the layers in this shot. I wanted to emphasize their greatness by shooting down from below, (on my knees). In the first layer of the photo you see a street lamp, in the second, the first two sets of murals, in the third, a water fountain, then the second set of murals, and in the fourth, a distant green trashcan and another mural in the background.

Reflection

For the last set of shots, I decided to do reflection from the book, which is suppose to give the viewer a sense of distorted reality when viewed from another lens. In this case I used a Christmas ornament. I placed myself in a position where I could be seen along with all the elements in the background, the sky, trees, and roses. I also wanted to capture the blue from the pool in front, to give a neutral color for the background.

In this photograph I wanted to create a mystical, and fantasy filled environment. A place where royal ponds lay within castle walls in a far away land. I waited probably for over 10 minutes, for only one red fish to pass by the pond in front of me. I stood from above the bridge to shoot my shadow, the pool, the reflection it created, and this brightly colored fish. I was very pleased with how the shadows of the bridge created a majestic element to the photograph.

I imagined this shot would make my viewers seem as if something unexplained, bizarre, and eerie was happening from a far. I purposely positioned my car in the emergency lane in a semi busy road, in order to capture one car passing by. After many practice shots, I managed to conceal my position and the camera, so that I wouldn’t show up in the shot. With the help of Photoshop, I added an effect to the clouds so that it tunneled the eye to the reflection of the car rear view mirror, and not the background image on the left corner.