John Armstrong wrote in The Secret Power of Beauty that: “Seeing beauty isn’t a matter of looking at one thing intently; it is a matter of looking at a lot of things together…. When we seek to explain the beauty of an object, we are actually trying to see its details, to grasp more fully its extent and character. The immediate impression is just of the most obvious aspect of beauty.”
I agree completely, but generally, I think it’s a dumb idea for an artist himself to discuss his work in any detail. However, given the nature of the appreciation of beauty sometimes certain ideas merit a bit of discussion to orient the viewer to things he might consider. In my case composition can get a little more complex than normal in a photograph, so let me discuss two examples.
First, look at “Still Life” in the “Warm” section of the Portfolios. Still life is a common enough genre for painters and photographers, so I thought I’d try my hand at one. The effect is better seen in the print, but I think it still works on a computer screen. The subject is a bowl of fruit, but the problem was how to make it interesting; I decided that composition was the key. First, I bought fruit at the store that was fresh and had as much hue contrast as possible (red, yellow and blue did the trick). Second, sharp focus increases the importance of any element because photographically, if it is in focus the custom is that it is a subject. In this case I made no object more important than the others by putting all the fruit is sharp focus. Third, I wanted a strong sense of three-dimensionality as part of the composition. To accomplish this I put the very round peach in what is traditionally the most prominent position, right-center, with the blue berries in the back-left and the banana at the bottom. This arrangement exploits color to increase the apparent depth of the image. Science teaches that every color represents a different wavelength of light and that each wavelength is effected somewhat differently by the curve of any lens it passes through as all photographers know, e.g., chromatic aberration. The lens in the human eye is no exception to this property of light; because the red, blue and yellow wavelengths are spread out a bit differently by the lens, they strike the retina at slightly different positions, which shifts the viewer’s perception: the effect moves the reds forward, the blues backward and leaves the yellow neutral in space. Thus, the peach moves forward not just because it is round, pushing out towards the viewer, not just because its right-center, and not just because it is physically placed on top of the blue berries, but because its redness accentuates the impression of being forward while the blue of the blue berries pushes them into the back ground. Take it all together and the effect is nearly 3-D.
Second, look in the “Cool” section of the Portfolio and select “Sunset Beach.” Compositionally, I am using the normative rules of composition that say put the subject up front and in focus to stop the viewer from simply noting a pretty beach scene; in this image, most folks react by first wondering what the thing in the middle of the image is (it’s a lava rock) because it’s the first thing they notice (as they have been taught). The second thing they notice after being stopped by the rock is the real subject, which is the color of the water contrasted against the neutral browns at the bottom of the image. A careful study of the print shows the full range of blues and greens, with lavenders and golds in the beach foam. The striking colors are enhanced further by the use of a high shutter speed (1/2000), which froze the water giving the illusion of brush strokes. Thus, the composition of the image produces a tension between what the cultural rules of composition subconsciously tell us should be the subject and what our eye is drawn to by the pleasure principle, i.e., looking at those gorgeous colors feels good!
Visual art should give intellectual and visceral pleasure; something worth enjoying and worth thinking about. I work hard to achieve these effects, and I hope that this brief explanation of the compositional aspects of two images was helpful. Whether I succeed in creating such work is of course up to you.
No. 28: OK. I’ll discuss two photographs
John Armstrong wrote in The Secret Power of Beauty that: “Seeing beauty isn’t a matter of looking at one thing intently; it is a matter of looking at a lot of things together…. When we seek to explain the beauty of an object, we are actually trying to see its details, to grasp more fully its extent and character. The immediate impression is just of the most obvious aspect of beauty.”
I agree completely, but generally, I think it’s a dumb idea for an artist himself to discuss his work in any detail. However, given the nature of the appreciation of beauty sometimes certain ideas merit a bit of discussion to orient the viewer to things he might consider. In my case composition can get a little more complex than normal in a photograph, so let me discuss two examples.
First, look at “Still Life” in the “Warm” section of the Portfolios. Still life is a common enough genre for painters and photographers, so I thought I’d try my hand at one. The effect is better seen in the print, but I think it still works on a computer screen. The subject is a bowl of fruit, but the problem was how to make it interesting; I decided that composition was the key. First, I bought fruit at the store that was fresh and had as much hue contrast as possible (red, yellow and blue did the trick). Second, sharp focus increases the importance of any element because photographically, if it is in focus the custom is that it is a subject. In this case I made no object more important than the others by putting all the fruit is sharp focus. Third, I wanted a strong sense of three-dimensionality as part of the composition. To accomplish this I put the very round peach in what is traditionally the most prominent position, right-center, with the blue berries in the back-left and the banana at the bottom. This arrangement exploits color to increase the apparent depth of the image. Science teaches that every color represents a different wavelength of light and that each wavelength is effected somewhat differently by the curve of any lens it passes through as all photographers know, e.g., chromatic aberration. The lens in the human eye is no exception to this property of light; because the red, blue and yellow wavelengths are spread out a bit differently by the lens, they strike the retina at slightly different positions, which shifts the viewer’s perception: the effect moves the reds forward, the blues backward and leaves the yellow neutral in space. Thus, the peach moves forward not just because it is round, pushing out towards the viewer, not just because its right-center, and not just because it is physically placed on top of the blue berries, but because its redness accentuates the impression of being forward while the blue of the blue berries pushes them into the back ground. Take it all together and the effect is nearly 3-D.
Second, look in the “Cool” section of the Portfolio and select “Sunset Beach.” Compositionally, I am using the normative rules of composition that say put the subject up front and in focus to stop the viewer from simply noting a pretty beach scene; in this image, most folks react by first wondering what the thing in the middle of the image is (it’s a lava rock) because it’s the first thing they notice (as they have been taught). The second thing they notice after being stopped by the rock is the real subject, which is the color of the water contrasted against the neutral browns at the bottom of the image. A careful study of the print shows the full range of blues and greens, with lavenders and golds in the beach foam. The striking colors are enhanced further by the use of a high shutter speed (1/2000), which froze the water giving the illusion of brush strokes. Thus, the composition of the image produces a tension between what the cultural rules of composition subconsciously tell us should be the subject and what our eye is drawn to by the pleasure principle, i.e., looking at those gorgeous colors feels good!
Visual art should give intellectual and visceral pleasure; something worth enjoying and worth thinking about. I work hard to achieve these effects, and I hope that this brief explanation of the compositional aspects of two images was helpful. Whether I succeed in creating such work is of course up to you.