Photography 1: The Art of Photography

Project: Looking through the viewfinder.
Exercise: Fitting the frame to the subject.

For the exercise I chose to photograph an old clock that was sitting on a mantelpiece over a fireplace.  Four photographs were taken with the subject taking up different amounts of space within the frame.  Finally I tried different crops of the fourth photograph to experiment with the placement of the subject within the frame.

7109 Quick shot without too much time on composition

This photograph was taken quickly without much care for the composition.

7110 The subject fits the frame

With this photograph I moved in close so that the subject precisely fitted the frame.  I took the photograph in portrait because this fitted the overall shape of the clock.

7117 Close up on the clock's dial

When taking this photograph I moved in close so as to fit just the clock face into the frame.  This eliminated the case of the clock from the photograph.

7116 Placing the subject within its surroundings

For this photograph I moved further away from the subject so as to show it within its surroundings.  This type of framing stresses the surroundings where the subject is found rather than the subject itself.  It also gives more information about the function of the subject, in this case a mantelpiece clock.

Using the above photograph, I experimented with other crops of the photograph.  Each was designed to place the subject in different positions within the frame.

7116A Wide crop.

7116B Subject at the bottom of the frame.

7116C Subject at the top of the frame

Of the three crops of photograph 7116, I prefer number 7116A as this shows the subject arranged with objects of a similar size.

What have I learned from this exercise ?

Manipulating the position of the frame of the image can significantly alter the composition of the photograph.