Blog 01: Composition

 Blog 01: Composition

  January 16th, 2022

Introduction

Greetings Blog Readers, I would like to introduce you to my COM-1113 Graphic Software Packages Blog! This blog is where I will be displaying my shots over my semester, and publishing my work. For this post, my Professor assigned us to take a series of photos utilizing composition techniques, whilst working on the shot. Working the shot is a pivotal technique while taking photos, this strategy is used to find the best shot. 

Choosing a Theme

For this assignment, our main requirement was to select a theme to work with. The theme that I have chosen to work with was an avocado plant. Perusing the different types of Composition techniques such as Rule of Thirds, Balancing Elements, and Viewpoint, I had found it was best to select the avocado plant to work with. 

I tend to have an interest in plants and felt that my avocado plant would be great for this theme. It is a beautiful sight in my living room and loved that I had the opportunity to experiment with composition elements on this object. 

For each shot of my selected elements of composition, I took five pictures to work with. This strategy offer me the advantage in the event I did not like one photo, I had an additional number of shots to work with. 

Choosing the Avocado Plant

With selecting the plant, I had picked the best object in my apartment that did not have distractions that take away from the main focus on the image. I was considering doing the TV in my living room for my theme, but there were too many objects on the wall that were creating a distraction of the image, and it would not give my shots the full effect for the viewer. 

This plant sits calmly on my small table and worked great with my shots.  

Rule of Thirds 

To offer a more intriguing shot for the viewer, I have incorporated the composition technique of Rule of Thirds. With this technique, the Rule of Thirds is when you position the most important elements along these lines, the lines are 9 equal segments by 2 vertical lines and 2 horizontal lines, you then place the focused object where those lines intersect (Photography Mad, n.d.).

This Compositional element creates a different effect for the viewer. In that, it creates visual flow from one object to the other. Your eye notices the doorknob, along with the lock, but then drifts to the plant.

Balancing Elements

For this element, I had implemented another "object" in my shot to help balance out the composition in the photo. I placed my cat adjacent to the plant, giving the viewer equal visual weight and making the shot aesthetically pleasing. Including another object of lesser importance to fill the space (Photography Mad, n.d.), is important for a shot that includes negative space.  

By adding an object (the cat) that obtains less importance, it completes the function of filling the empty space. This image allows the viewer to acknowledge the outside object, but still be able to draw their eyes to the main focus of the shot, which is the avocado plant.

Viewpoint & Angles

Rather than just shooting from eye level, consider photographing from high above, down at ground level, from the side, from the back, from a long way away, from very close up, and so on (Photography Mad, n.d.). Which is the exact approach I took here.  

Instead of taking a majority of the eye-level only, I decided to switch it up. I implemented shots from ground-level, birds-eye-view, close-ups, and photos from different angles. By adding different angles and different views to a shot, pushes the effect of creativity and explores new perspectives. These next few photos demonstrate how I captured these shots with different angles and viewpoints.

Conclusion

After taking a series of shots for this assignment, I can openly say that I had learned a lot. I learned a plethora of composition techniques, along with the strategies on how to properly work the shot. It was intriguing to analyze each composition technique and observe the effect it has on the viewer. There is also more than we think that goes into getting the "perfect shot". This was an interesting assignment to take part in and I hope to work on more assignments like this in the future!

Final Three Images