Object in different positions in the frame

In this exercise the requirement was to find a subject that is clear and set within a large even background.

Living in the middle of Jakarta does not really five me very good options for this so I had to manufacture my subject and so I used some of the flowers from the garden.

Picture 1:  This image certainly puts the subject right in your line of sight.  However as this is not a picture detailing symmetry or patterns, it seems that it is a little boring, and doesn't require the viewer to do anything.  It is easy to look quickly and dismiss it.

Picture 2:  In this one, I moved it slightly off centre.  Here there is now a question that the viewer can ask.  Why is the subject not in the centre?



Picture 3:  Here I decided to try moving it off centre in a different direction to see if it created a different feeling than Pic 2.   Personally, I feel that it doesn't change the relationship with the background.



Picture 4: This is my preferred positioning.  The photo feels balanced even though there is a large area of empty space.  I have used this positioning before when cropping one of my images from safari in Tanzania in 2007.

Little Bee Eater - Tanzania 2007

Copyright Julian Adams

Exercise: Fitting the frame to the subject

The first exercise for "Part 1: The Frame" is about fitting the frame to the subject.

For me it is an introduction to the need for thinking about composition.

As a subject I decided to use the bizarre statue in our garden - it belongs to the landlady, and as you can see it is a statue of two frogs hugging!.

For the first image, I just walked up to it and took the photo.  The statue is positioned in the middle of the image, and the angle is looking down on it which makes it look small and unrealistic.

This shot reminds me of how most holiday photos are taken - no consideration to the subject.  You don't really get a sense of the size of the statue and with its central positioning there is nothing really to draw in the audience.










I tried various angles and views to try and make this fit better in the frame.  Due to its shape I could only put it on the top and bottom edges of the frame leaving a fair amount of space around the statue.

With this subject I think that the close up picture is the best, although this isn't the point of this exercise.  the lichens growing on the statue give a lot of details and contrast that you don't really see when looking at the last image.

This image gives a better idea of the positioning of the staute in the garden, with a much better viewing angle than the first picture in this series.  However I feel that the cropped image below is better.  There is much better balance, and more depth to the image.