I have looked back over the photographs that I have taken in the previous exercises, comparing the various contrasts, and looking for contrasts that I may not have already seen or been aware of. The most obvious of contrast that I find, is that of colour, I feel at this time, colour is the first contrast that I am aware of. Blacks and whites of the cars, the red tractor against the green grass. Vivid blue skies, golden autumn leaves, Black dog against the grass, red letter box on green foliage.. to name but a few.
I have to look further for textures and shapes, and the more you take photographs and look for subjects, the more textures and shapes you find.
Below are eight pairs of pictures showing my contrasts. The first is :
MANY / FEW
MANY : 1/15 f2.8 AV ISO 200 with Flash. Macro lens.
FEW : 1/25 f2.8 AV ISO 200 with flash. Macro lens.
MANY / FEW
The main problem I had with these photographs, was the lighting. I had shadows on the black background, from light coming through windows. Another time I had the light from the flash catch the jar. I tried various different shots, daylight, artificial light and flash light. I liked the darker shots, but it was a slower shutter speed so had to be careful not to smudge the Smartie.
With the single Smartie I took shots from above but it look a bit flat. I preferred the side shot. With a little shadow beneath and the Smartie just catching the light. The final jar shot I had to close all the blinds as the exterior light was catching on the jar.
SWEET / SOUR
SWEET : 1/60 f2.8 AV ISO 200 with flash.
SOUR : 1/60 f2.8 AV ISO 200 with flash.
SWEET / SOUR
After a few attempts at various different angles I settled on the first picture of the 'sweet' fairy cake. Its well balanced, fitting the frame, and highlights the fairy cake well.
For the sour, I was drawn to lemons, and I feel this picture makes your mouth water, you can taste the sharpness of the juice. I tried a number of shots with a selection of lemons, this was the one i felt gave the best effect, of the effect I wanted.
THICK / THIN
THICK : 1/25 f2.8 AV ISO 200
THIN : 1/25 f2.8 AV ISO 200
THICK / THIN
The first idea I had was of a man reading a 'thick' book, but when I looked at the shots they looked as if the camera had gone off in my hand. Also the book against the clothing didn't stand out enough, and it all looked bland and uninteresting. The photo wasn't saying anything to me.
My final choice I was happy with, and after changing my focus to make sure it was exactly on the book spine, it gave the effect I wanted.
The 'thin' idea was exactly what I had in mind it was just a case of moving things about to get the final shot. Also, initially I had the focus on the glasses, so changed this to the book spine and that then took your eye to the thin book.
STRAIGHT / CURVED
STRAIGHT : Canon Ixus 200
CURVED : Canon Ixus 200
STRAIGHT / CURVED
The treelined driveway is very straight leading to the farm. The same driveway in the opposite direction, bears to the left, showing the curve. These pictures show the beautiful autumn colours..
MUCH / LITTLE
MUCH : Canon Ixus 200
LITTLE : Canon Ixus 200
MUCH / LITTLE
These two adjacent trees are very contrasting, one having many leaves and the other just a few. Also in colour, the first being bright yellow and the second dark and lifeless.
DIAGONAL / ROUNDED
DIAGONAL : Canon Ixus 200
ROUNDED : Canon Ixus 200
DIAGONAL / ROUNDED
After looking for diagonals I settled on this gate picture, with the view through. I have cropped the picture to emphasise the diagonal. For the rounded, I had been tempted by the round haystacks which were also stacked in a diagonal way, but I thought this wheel was perfect. I took the picture peeping through the twigs, and this is exactly how I was seeing the wheel - peeping through the trees.
LONG / SHORT
LONG : Canon Ixus 200
SHORT : Canon Ixus 200
LONG / SHORT
Firstly I tried the camera low in the long grass but it looked muddled and messy. The final picture of the long grass is more uniform and i cropped the picture to be portrait as I felt this accentuated the length of the grass. However I liked the photo of the camera low in the grass for the short grass picture. The short grass is green and luscious unlike the dry, pale, long grass.
LARGE / SMALL
LARGE : 1/80 f2.8 AV ISO 200
SMALL : 1/40 f5.6 AV ISO 200
LARGE / SMALL
These Wellington boot shots were influenced by a sweet Birthday card which I bought. That was taken on a hot sunny day, there was a sprinkling of mud and a sunflower to add effect, and it was a lovely picture.
When I took these shots the weather was murky but I think that suited the Wellingtons, with the ground being wet. I used the flash gun, along with my zoom and macro lenses.
The large Wellington picture is softened by the foliage and the glimpse of the smaller boots shows the small / large contrast. The small Wellingtons, the picture is cute, plain and simple. The design and colour show that they are a child's boot and although they stand alone without a comparison you know they are small.
Taking shots from various angles, gave me my final favourite shots.
CONTRASTS IN ONE PICTURE
Various colour contrasts : Canon Ixus 200
This photograph has many contrasts of both texture and colour. The dried crop in the foreground, leads onto the lime green fir trees, their colour highlighted by the sun. Beyond them a darker shade of green fir tree, and behind them various trees just beginning to lose their leaves, with many shapes and shades of autumn. Finally, a colourless, cloudy sky, which is completely flat with no interest at all, a stark contrast to the foreground.
Taking these pictures has made me much more aware of my surroundings, views like the photos above are sometimes taken for granted. There is so much beauty around and looking for subjects makes you very aware. I also have learned that you need to take many more photos than you need and eventually you get the shot you want - which is fine with digital. You sometimes have an idea in your mind and when you use the camera and take the shot you find that this isn't possible and then you need to rethink. One area I would like to perfect is backgrounds and lighting, as I notice room for improvement here.
Once you start looking for shapes and different ideas you find you look all the time. This project in particular I felt that you were looking for the contrast to take a photo, whereas before, you found the subject to practise the camera function. I found that I had lots of ideas of contrasts but they wasn't always easy to put into practise, but once I got started I was happy with the results.
