Part 2 Elements of Design; Project: Points, the relationship between points

Exercise: The relationship between points.

Objective: To show how the relationship between two points effects or dominates the composition of an image.I was asked to find and compose two images containing two points against a neutral background. I have included two extra to record more of what I learned from the exercise.

I decided to follow the examples in the course notes by using vessels at sea. Unfortunately the day was bright but hazy and I wasn't able to choose an even, consistent background. However the haze makes  it  fairly neutral. The forts off Spithead are very useful. You just have to wait for a ship to sail into the frame. All of the frames are divided by the horizon line. I have adjusted the levels and tweaked the saturation and warmth where necessary. These are my images taken with a 18-200mm VR zoom lens:

4700: 1/100s f5.6 150mm

These points are close to the horizon line and are in static balance, the larger, dominant object is coser  to the edge of the frame, the smaller vessel is closer to the centre. The horizonal bands of tone and texture below the vessels provide a static base as does the horizon placed below the centre line.

4708 1/1250s f5.6 150mm

These points are equidistant from the frame edges, however there is some tension here; the difference in the contrast of  the fort compared to the catamaran indicates that there is distance between them and you know the fort is larger and therefore dominant. The implied movement of the vessel would be in front of the fort to the frame edge following the wake of a vessel that has just passed.

4664 1/800s f7.1 105mm

I've included a third image just to show a really dominant point. Again, the tension is unresolved because of the relative sizes and positions of the points. The movement is from the hovercraft to the distant fort but the majority of the tension is contained at, and to the left of centre. I also removed all of  the channel markers from the image to make it clearer. (there were about 6 in this frame)

4723 1/1600s f5.6 170mm

These two gulls just happened to be in the right place - a static balanced image.

4740 1/100s f5.6 170mm

Apart from the unresolved nature of this image, I have learned that although we probably look back at ourselves from a mirror a dozen or so times a day, how much of the detail of our own faces do we recognise?