The brief

Investigations

I am intrigued by this exercise, mostly as i have recently been reacquainted with the term “Gestalt”. I have been spending some time lately listening to a number of audio books covering various topics; science, history, philosophy. Gestalt has come up in both science and philosophy as an explanation of sorts for some form of activity within our mind helping to create our perception of reality. Coffee! what does that make me think of; a bean, a steaming cup, starbucks, one of those cofficianados. It is of course all of these things.

I toyed with the idea of creating the sequence around simply the idea of coffee. However I decided there was more scope and interest for this exercise in the area around where I work. The sequence was created from shots taken on a waterside walk i enjoy often at lunchtime around the area of Leith in Edinburgh.

Technical details

Sony II with 28..70mm lens

I set the grid view which splits the frame into 9 segments on the viewfinder and used the spot focus function to set the focus area in each of the 9 segments as I strolled around the area taking shots of anything i found of interest, paying all attention on the segment in focus and ignoring completely the rest of the frame. To emphasise this set aperture wide open ( 4.5 or 5 ) to take focus away from the rest of the frame. I used aperture priority so the camera was doing the rest of the work to set exposure. In post processing i used auto balance and vivid presets only and employed only very little crop and alignment. I then imported the chosen shots into photoshop and created the combination. I used the position of focus in each shot to dictate that shots position in a 3 X 3 grid eg shot with focus on top right is placed top right in the grid.

Assessment

After taking a number of shots all were loaded into Lightroom and i selected the 9 I thought were of most interest and complimented one another. I rejected a number of shots which themselves are perhaps more interesting and pleasing on the eye because they worked against the whole, for instance in my first selected 9 I found once i had organised them that too many shots had leading lines created by path and river. This introduced a confusion in the purpose of the series – was it about a walk along a river or about lines created by nature? In a second attempt at the series there appeared too many man made signs so again I re-thought and selected others. My plan was to deliver a Gestalt of ‘A lunchtime walk along a river’ so wanted to include the many different elements you might find along the way; fauna, river, buildings, walkways, signs and the like. In this way I hoped to create an holistic image for the observer. I am pleased with the outcome. Not one of these shots would I consider individually to be of much merit however collectively I really like the clarity of purpose and images they evoke which I interpret as a Gestalt. The “term greater than the sum of the parts” springs to mind here.

A lunchtime walk for lucky people.

The brief

Investigation

The rule, as stated in this exercise, ‘leading lines should lead to somewhere in the frame’ is clear from the first 2 shots here. The first shot has the lines ending more or less on the intersection of top left third, on the horizon. The second is feels clipped with the leading lines leaving the frame on the left.

Why should this rule be the way it is? My theory on this …

The leading lines below accentuate the 3 dimensionality of the scene and take the observer on a journey into the frame. For us, our journeys need to have a destination so without some end point for the line the observer can’t see the journeys end, has no closure and is left frustrated. We live our lives with horizons and all lines tend towards those horizons, we typically either see the horizon or it is blocked from our view by some structure ( building, hill, trees etc ). Our lines then typically end at the horizon or at the blocking structure. To have the line end by exiting the frame therefore feels unnatural and constrained.

Wide angle 18mm focal length extending the leading lines, ending on the horizon. A strong image which leads the observer on the journey to the end of the road.

 

Leading lines leave the frame directly and the observer is left to wonder what this image is trying to portray. Is the fence itself the point?

 

The next two shots provide another example of the same concept of journey into the frame following the lines ( this time curved ). Observers eye is drawn into the frame, resting where the line disappears into the woods. There is a strong sense again of 3 dimensions in the frame and of a journey to be taken by the observer.

 

Here in contrast with the path clipped, most of the sense of 3 dimensions and journey is lost and the observer must search for the subject, which now becomes the plant pot in the top centre third.

 

To contrast this the next shots have strong lines but are intentionally flat with no sense of 3 dimensions at all in the frame. I used the high view point looking directly down (as referred to in the brief from László Moholy-Nagy ) to a carpet here .The lines serve no purpose other than to exist as an image for their own sake. There is no journey so no frustration with the lines not ending in the frame. This for me delivers a strong sense of purpose but without a narrative, the purpose is pure and aesthetic. To experiment with this theme the next 3 shots show lines in the frame in different directions, each has the same effect and impact.

Testing the theory of journey and horizon, the next two shots repeat the theme of leading lines which end in the frame and exit the frame. However this time there is no horizon per se as the lines lead straight into the sky. Again though the sense of completeness and closure where the lines end within the frame, present a far stronger intent to the observer. In the second image where the lines exit the frame, the observer is more likely to consider the centre of the frame and the tendency is to see these lines as pure and aesthetic and not a narrative or a journey to be had.

 

Although the image has infinite 3rd dimension into the frame, the angle flattens all lines and the image is pure and aesthetic. In this case the image here is reminiscent of https://www.theartstory.org/artist-moholy-nagy-laszlo-artworks.htm#pnt_6  László Moholy-Nagy first abstract painting in shape at least.

 

Summarising above

Leading lines take the observer into the frame and deliver a strong sense of 3 dimensions, of journey and narrative. This can help create a clear intent and purpose for the image. If however the lines have this intent but exit the frame, the narrative and purpose can quickly be lost and the observer is left to work out the purpose for themselves. Conversely where the image has a strong linear content where there is no 3rd dimension or journey accentuated, then those lines can become strong and pure with an aesthetic value in their own right, outside of any narrative.

References

https://www.theartstory.org – László Moholy-Nagy

After a very useful chat with my tutor I am now better prepared for addressing this exercise. I at first, was confounded in how to approach this.

In considering a spot and it’s place in the frame I look at the picture in the course notes for the exercise; the cup under chair. This leads me to think that there is a narrative at play here which adds a dimension to the composition. Someone has sat on that chair and drunk from that cup, lazily leaving it lying there, it makes sense, so the position of the cup in the frame makes sense and it works regardless of any rule of third’s etc. My idea was to take a football in a field placed at various points in the frame around a set of goals. I can see the narrative in just about every position, which has nothing to do with where the ball is in the frame but more where the ball is in relation to the goals. As an example, every watcher of football knows what a ball slightly right of centre and 20 yards out from goal means – A good chance of imminent excitement. Having talked this through with my tutor I have decided to try to try at least at first to avoid a narrative dimension by creating pictures that are more abstract.

My spot is a Christmas decoration.

Here my eye is drawn to the bauble and immediately to the back of the frame and round to the left observing the empty space.

Centre of frame. Subject is obvious and the image is balanced but lacks any intent or imperative for the eye to go anywhere other than the subject which then appears small and insignificant.

There is some intent here, suggesting a journey to or from the top right by the bauble. My eye tends to bounce between the bauble bottom left and top right.

Open space at the bottom of the frame seems wasteful, my eye is drawn over only once and I then discount the space.

Again in this image there is a sense of journey had or to be taken by the bauble, my eye is drawn between the bauble and top right where the draft excluder creates some haven or end / beginning.

Bauble as subject is less obvious but a sense of movement to be is evident. In this case though the movement follows the line straight up the centre of the frame.

Journeys end. This image, although there is much empty space, still has an internal balance to me and the large amount of empty space does not seem pointless. My eye follows an imagined journey from bottom left in an anti-clockwise arc towards it’s destination top right.

Here both the bauble as subject and sense of journey are less clear and the empty space in the centre of the frame remains empty and wasteful.

Bringing in some sense of narrative with a decorated Christmas tree using up the top 3rd of the frame. My eye is immediately drawn to the bauble and then round clockwise through the frame, helped by the shape of the tree and light on right hand side.

Bauble as subject is all but lost here. Eventually my eye rests on the bauble after observing the frame for a while. Once there though there is an interesting subtlety that allows me to rest here and contemplate the baubles journey.

In this case centre bottom 3rd intersection, the sense of journey feels clipped, limited to a direct fall from the tree, however I like the centrality and sense of symmetry this provides. It makes for a strong message that this is about “a bauble that has fallen off this tree” and thats it clear and concise.

For this project i have taken 18 shots, 9 outdoors and hand held and 9 indoors and using tripod. For each series of 9 I have taken a sub series of 3 shots with the same settings and varied aperture and ISO across the 3 series in the 9.

The objective of this project is really to notice the histogram and how this changes in perhaps subtle ways even when the image is the same ( or so the photographer may think ).

I can seen across series of pictures that the histogram is different in all cases.

Of course there is a clear difference between the two series of 9 shots given the different composition and lighting.

My approach to this was to see for myself if different apertures or ISO levels had any noticeable effect on differences in histogram across the shots. On this series it is inconclusive, which probably means no. However i think there is a difference between series 10 .. 12 and 13 .. 15 which may be attributed to the change in aperture from f4.5 to f8.0, all else remains unchanged.

Loaded all shots into lightroom and took a screenshot along with the histogram

 

 

The series

Aperture Priority
ISO100 f4.5

1

2

3

 

ISO200 f4.5

4

5

6

 

ISO200 f8.0

7

8

9

ISO200 f4.5

10

11

12

ISO200 f8.0

13

14

15

ISO1250 f8.0

16

17

18