03.02.2012

TAOP Level 4.

Part 1. The Frame.

Vertical and horizontal frames.

Equipment: Olympus E3. 7-14mm lens.

Object of exercise: To compare the effect on a subject of an horizontal or a vertical format.

I took a walk round Deal taking shots of various street and beach scenes.  The sky was heavily overcast and threatening snow.

I already take the axis of a shot into consideration before I take it but I found this a useful exercise as it focused my thoughts on this aspect above other considerations.

By using a particular axis the picture can be given height, width, or depth.  The eye of the viewer can be drawn towards a particular part of the picture by excluding unwanted clutter.  By getting the axis right at the point of pressing the button less cropping will be needed latter.

I found that, generally, street scenes suited the horizontal format as streets are linear structures with little interest high up or low down.  This is demonstrated in the picture of the three brightly painted cottages.  When shot with a vertical axis over half the available print area is taken up by the road and sky.  When shot in an horizontal axis the cottages fill the frame and the viewers eye is drawn to the subject of the picture, namely, the cottages

An exception to the above was when I took a picture of one of Deal’s narrow, older, streets.  Because I wanted to draw the viewers eye through the street towards the far end it was the side edges that were not needed.  The dark door to the left and the blank wall to the right are both unwanted distractions.  By using a vertical format the road  became the means to draw the eye through the picture. 

The last pair of pictures feature a set of broken groynes on the beach.  When shot in the vertical the strong dark line that forms by the top rail of the groyne cuts the picture in two in an unpleasing way.  By turning the camera to the horizontal the same line now draws the eye from left to right and down to the sea.  A far more pleasing picture.