It seems that many of the recent color photographs are sliding back in to an earlier state of mind. You seem to be forgetting the tools you learned during the initial shooting in Black & White- all the aspects of Framing and Composition that were laid out in the document of the same name. Many photographs now up on the Blog are too simple and only present a single object in a limited space that does not contribute to its meaning. It is just, “Here it is” and that's it. Rather than constructing photos by setting up the angle of view (that could only been seen by you) and getting close enough to cut out unwanted pieces of the background (so the viewer has a better understanding of just what you want them to see), photos are being shot straight on of things that happen to have color. That is a much too limited interpretation of this Topic.
One important rule is: If the subject of the photo can be easily identified, the viewer will not look very long. This is why Mystery is so important. It is preferred to have your viewer respond to your photo by saying, “What the heck is that?” As soon as they do that, you have engaged them in a conversation Then the photo continues to feed them clues about what is going on and maybe the subject becomes more clear or maybe it says unclear in such a way the the viewer has to complete the photo (by adding their own experience to that of the photographer’s).
What you have to do now is add Color on top of the Mysterious photos you were shooting to increase the sense of Passion.
SPACE
Another important step is to take those two important tools and extrapolate on them.
Angle of View: The way to increase the personal angle of view is to include more than one subject in the frame. Present your viewer with a main topic and then a secondary topic. Their eye should move between these two focus points. If you can add a third and a fourth the photo gets even deeper. But don’t have so many that the viewer does not know what you really want them to look at. There has to be a hierarchy of relevance. You have to establish what is the most important subject, and what is the next most important, and so on. This is all done by how you position things in the frame.
Closeness: Now that you have learned to get close to eliminate all distractions for the frame, it is now time to step back and include more of the environment of the subject. This provides context for the content. When you do this, always check all four corners of the frame and make sure there is something interesting happening there. It is possible to take very interesting photographs even if most of the frame is blank- as long as the corners have interesting content!
TIME
The complimentary aspect of Space is Time. [Einstein enlightened us that these are two aspects of the same thing.] It is important to include a sense of time in your photographs. By this I mean that they should have a history to them, some indication of what happened before you clicked the shutter, and what may happen after the shot is taken. Photographs that reach back into the past deal with memory. Photos that imply what else may happen are employing the imagination. These are two key aspects that are taken further in the third topic of Memory = Vintage, so we will delve into this more in the semester.
Reminder about Photo Clichés
Please avoid photos of pets, or drooling babies or cute kids. Please do not pose for the camera (pretentious = snapshot) Avoid shooting on TU campus (too easy, unless we really can't tell...) Do not take photos of sculpture or iconic Center City buildings (someone else has already made the art). Do not document sporting events or concerts, musicians or dancers. This is documentation, objective not subjective. Remember to also avoid the new Smartphone photo clichés: selfies, pictures of food, lights and sunsets.
I’m not telling you totally what not to do. I’m just trying to steer you clear of things that will almost automatically become generic and therefore mediocre photographs.
Pictures of your feet are NOT self portraits! Pictures that look like snapshots are not self-portraits. They are snapshots. If you are posing for the photo it will probably look like a snap-shot.
All photographs have to be taken during the current semester. This proves they are in response to the current topics being taught.
Photo Hunting
Get out of your apartment and stalk the streets for good photos. And please, get out of your car to shoot! Work at getting the best shot of the scene at hand. See what you are drawn to intuitively. Collect those pictures, organize them into sets, and then go hunting for more pictures to fill out or expand the set.
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