by Brenda Tharp
high dynamic range
If you have scenes in which the range of contrast is extreme in any area of the picture, you can now solve that problem using a technique called High Dynamic Range (HDR). This computer process takes the different exposures you’ve made and combines them into one file that, with just a few manual adjustments, gives you a natural-looking, well-exposed picture from a high-contrast situation. This technique works best when there is little or no movement between exposures, as it “stacks” the pictures together when it does its computing, and movement can cause blurring in that area in the final picture.
Photoshop has a built-in HDR feature, but I prefer Photomatix, which is both a Photoshop plug-in and an external software application.
For this scene from Zion National Park, I made three exposures. I made my first exposure as dark as I needed, just to where highlights were no longer clipping. Then, I exposed +1 and +2 stops for the other two exposures, not caring about the overexposed highlights in those, but wanting to bring in shadow detail. (You can do as many as six exposures, if you need to, on a scene with a lot of exposure range.) I then combined them using Photomatix and, with a few adjustments to the combined file, created the finished natural-looking result.
KOLOB CANYON, ZION NATIONAL PARK, UTAH. First: 24–105mm lens at 24mm, f/ 11 at 1/15 sec. Second: 24–105mm lens at 24mm, f/ 11 at 1/8 sec. Third: 24–105mm lens at 24mm, f/ 11 at 1/4 sec. Fourth: Merged file; no exposure available.
{CHAPTER THREE}
VISUAL DESIGN
“If you think of effective visual expression as your goal … then good visual design is the craft that makes it possible.”
—FREEMAN PATTERSON
THE SUCCESS OF A PLAY DEPENDS IN PART UPON A WELL-DESIGNED set that creates a pathway for the movement of the actors and establishes a tone, or mood. Photographs also need a well-designed “set,” where line, shape, form, pattern, texture, and perspective are the essential elements that come together to create an appealing image. Each element carries a symbolic value and has unique attributes. For example, lines can be aggressive or passive; patterns can be dizzying or organized. This symbolism comes from our deep association with objects.
Most photographers haven’t really thought about the elements of design in their pictures. They consider the objects simply as objects, not as lines or shapes or patterns. You must have a deeper perception to see visual design elements in the world. After reading this chapter, I hope you’ll look at the world around you differently. If you incorporate some of these design elements in your photographs, your images will have more visual impact, whether they are close-up details, landscapes, or action images. Remember, each element contributes to building your “set,” so every one of them is important.
SAND DUNE, DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA. The curved line of this dune’s crisp edge and the play of light and shadow drew my attention. I framed it vertically to emphasize the line and let it draw the viewer through the scene. 24–105mm lens at 50mm, f/20 at 1/5 sec.
LINE
Lines are the most prevalent design element, defining shapes, clarifying divisions between areas, and visually leading us places. Lines bring structure to a photograph and possess visual strength. There are really only two types of lines: straight and curving. Straight lines have a sense of purpose, taking you directly to and from areas in the scene. Curving lines create a more relaxed trip through a photograph, like taking a drive on a winding road.
Like all design elements, lines contain powerful symbolism. Smooth, curving lines can be sensual or tranquil. Jagged, zigzag lines suggest tension and can represent danger. Straight lines convey rigidity and structure (and are usually man-made). Straight lines can be horizontal, vertical, or oblique, and each direction evokes an emotional response. Lines also carry visual weight—a thin line has less impact than a thick line.
Lines powerfully direct the eye. Magazine and book designers often use this fact, consciously positioning images with lines to visually move you toward the edge of the page and onto the next one. Lines can be a great addition to a photograph, but they can also divide an image or take the viewer places you don’t want them to go. It’s important to recognize the significance of lines and to learn how to use them well in a photograph.
FREDERICK SOUND, ALASKA. When clouds are this interesting, I like to place my horizon low in the frame and accentuate them. I chose a vertical orientation to help keep the horizon line, with distant details, from being too boring, as it might have been in a more drawn-out horizontal framing. 24–105mm lens at 24mm, f/11 at 1/100 sec.
HORIZONTAL LINES
A straight horizontal line, such as the line defining the horizon where the ocean or a wheat field meets the sky, imparts a calm, stable feeling and can convey the breadth of a place if unbroken. The shoreline of a lake or pond, the line of trees at the base of a mountain range, and the rows of flowers in a commercial farm can all be considered horizontal lines.
You can deliberately use horizontal lines to create photographs that express a calm, pastoral mood. However, a horizon or strong horizontal line running through the middle of the frame can divide the photograph too equally, and the resulting visual stasis can make the photograph overly calm. Try placing any horizontal lines just above or below the section of the scene you want to emphasize. And consider framing your scene vertically to reduce the eye’s travel along the line. This can make it more dynamic.
REFLECTIONS AT DAWN, BIRCH POINT, MAINE. Since the mud patterns reflecting the colors of dawn were my subject, I chose to keep the horizon and distant trees out of the frame—except in the reflection. The dark line of trees creates a slight horizon line, but placed high in the frame, it keeps this picture dynamic. 24–105mm lens at 70mm, f/ 16 at 1/2 sec.
ROWS OF LAVENDER IN PROVENCE, FRANCE. The lavender region of Provence is a visual design paradise, with lines, textures, and patterns everywhere. Positioning myself at a slight angle to the rows, I used the lines of this field to gently draw the viewer across the frame and into the background. 70–200mm lens at 200mm, f/ 22 at 1/20 sec.
VERTICAL LINES
Vertical lines possess more energy than horizontal lines. A person usually seems more energetic when standing up than when lying down, and for that matter, so does a grizzly bear. Nature doesn’t create truly vertical lines all that often, but trees, cattails, flower stalks, and waterfalls, are some vertical lines that can add impact to a composition. Man-made vertical lines—those of columns, bridge towers, lighthouses, and flagpoles, for example—exist everywhere and can add energy and strength to a picture.
Vertical lines are assertive and direct. They impart a sense of height to a composition, which we interpret as power, order, and strength. An orderly line-up of people often suggests power. A towering redwood tree certainly imparts a sense of strength, as can a slender blade of grass—provided you compose your image to emphasize the blade’s vertical orientation. Like a horizontal line, a vertical line will produce visual stasis if it divides a photograph too uniformly. For a more interesting photograph, try composing an image so a vertical subject is off-center.
DESERT VARNISH, CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK, UTAH. The strong vertical lines of the desert varnish on this wall attracted me. I framed it horizontally to emphasize the repetition of the stain lines. 70–200mm lens at 130mm, f/ 16 at 1/8 sec.
BIRCH TREES IN STORM LIGHT, MAINE. Vertical lines, when repeated, work well in a horizontal framing if the repetition fills the frame. The lines become a pattern that leads the eye across the scene. 24–105mm lens at 85mm, f/ 16 at 1/125 sec.
OBLIQUE AND DIAGONAL LINES
Oblique lines express more energy than horizontal or vertical lines, and they move the eye through a scene more rapidly. They represent movement because they look like vertical lines that are falling over. Visual tension develops because the line has been “knocked” out of a balanced state. The resulting instability stimulates the eye and brain. All of this can translate into a more exciting photogr
aph. The steep switchbacks on a hillside create strong oblique lines in a landscape, giving the scene a more dynamic energy. The slope of a dune possesses more tension than a flat sea of sand. The angles in architecture make a building appear strong and powerful. Even the letter Z has an energy to it, and it is the oblique line connecting the two short horizontal lines that creates that energy.
MUD FLATS, MAINE. The strong oblique lines repeatedly lead us from top left to bottom right. In the process, we see the bright green seaweed as an accent and an anchor point for the composition. 70–200mm lens at 97mm, f/ 18 at 1/10 sec.
Because oblique lines are so aggressive, they can dominate or even interfere with your composition. An oblique line that touches the top or bottom of the frame and one side of it can slice off a section of the image. And an oblique line that cuts through from corner to corner, known as the only true diagonal line in the frame, divides the frame into equal parts and imparts the same static result you get when you equally divide a photograph vertically or horizontally. Oblique lines can be fantastic design elements in your photograph, but like any line, they demand thoughtful incorporation.
CURVING LINES
Mother Nature didn’t make too many straight lines, at least not perfectly straight ones. A curved branch, a meandering river, the shapes of flower blossoms, and the human form are all examples of objects that contain curving lines. These curves convey gentleness and sensuality. We move through an image easily when traveling along a line that curves. The movement is peaceful and unhurried, evoking a feeling of going with the flow. When architects want to emulate nature, and soften the overall look, they incorporate curving lines into their design.
WINDING ROAD, TUSCANY, ITALY. This undulating and curving road invites you to meander slowly through the countryside. 70–200mm lens at 200mm, f/ 16 at 1/30 sec.
If you want to create images that are restful, and yet have movement, try incorporating curving lines. To make a curving line effective in your photograph, allow enough space for the curve to unfold, to swing back from one direction to another, and possibly to undulate through your scene. Cropping too tightly can prevent the curve of a line from developing, and cutting off the curve of the line with the frame’s edge can interrupt the fluid movement of the line.
Here’s an assignment to try: Spend a day looking for lines in the world around you. You can choose one type of line, or look for all types. Whichever you select, create interesting compositions in which the line is the subject, making full use of the attributes of that type of line. Finally, photograph images that use lines to lead the eye to your subject or through the scene. In the process, you’ll learn to see lines everywhere and to incorporate them to create dynamic photographs, and you’ll come to understand the power of lines as an important design element.
SWIRLING SANDSTONE, ARIZONA. The angles and curving lines in the foreground pull you in to the scene, and the lines in the background pull you in from left to right. 24–70mm lens at 30mm, f/ 16 at 1/100 sec.
SHAPE
We identify many objects by their shapes alone, long before we’ve seen their color, texture, or other details. Shape is a fundamental element of design. Yet when it comes to making a photograph, it’s surprising how photographers often forget to take the importance of shape into account, even when many shapes are present in a scene.
Shapes possess strong symbolism, and the shapes that dominate your photographs will dictate their tone or feeling. Squares and rectangles represent stability and structure. We don’t often see a square or rectangular object in the natural world, except, perhaps, in crystal and rock formations. In the man-made world, however, squares and rectangles are ubiquitous, in office buildings, packing boxes, tractor-trailers, and barns—they’re everywhere. When a photographer includes a square or a rectangular shape in an image, the photograph can express a sense of structure.
VINEYARDS AND OLIVE GROVES, PROVENCE, FRANCE. Aerial views often give you a wonderful study of the landscape. The view from the high road was a fascinating grouping of shapes in the fields below, defined by the lines of the dirt roads. 70–200mm lens at 176mm, f/ 9 at 1/50 sec.
Triangles represent strength and endurance. A mountain is one of the few natural structures that has a triangular shape. Wide at the base and pointing heavenward, it represents stability and focused energy. Steeply angled sand dunes can appear as triangles, too.
Circles, composed of single, unbroken lines, represent wholeness. The earth is surrounded by its circular atmospheric boundaries, and a pond is a circle retaining water within its edges. The planets, the sun, and the moon are the most powerful circular shapes in nature, but sand dollars, dewdrops, berries, and flower blossoms are circles, too.
TREE SHADOW, ITALY. As I threw open my windows in my third-floor room, I saw below me this incredible shape of tree shadows! Though jet-lagged, I could not pass up the opportunity to compose a picture. The next two days were cloudy, so I was very glad I made the picture when I did! 24–70mm lens at 55mm, f/14 at 1/100 sec.
Shapes become visible when you frame a composition. These shapes may be rectangular, triangular, or something more organic. All the sky that sits at the top of your image of a landscape is a shape once it’s defined by the edges of the frame. The green field below the sky is another shape, as is the barn in the scene. You can modify them by altering your position or the angle of the camera. When making a landscape photograph, try tilting the camera down, and the shapes of the sky and land will change, with the shape of the land becoming dominant. Tilt the camera up, and the shapes will change again, with the shape of the sky now becoming dominant. The negative and positive spaces of your pictures are actually shapes, too, just as important as the shape of your subject. Even the implied shapes created by the way the eye moves between objects in the frame are significant to the impact of the picture. To see shapes, you must get beyond what they are literally. A pond is more than just a pond, it’s an organic, rounded shape, for example. When you learn to see shapes, you can control the balance between them, creating a stronger composition.
Remember, backlighting will define the shape of objects and allow you to produce a graphic study of their shape, perhaps even in silhouette.
SAILBOAT, MAINE. I love to photograph around harbors, and I especially like boats. With very little form showing in this picture, what jumps out are the various shapes made by the boat, the rope dividing the water area, and the reflection. The frame edge further defines these shapes. 70–200mm lens at 170mm, f/11 at 1/15 sec.
FORM
How do you know the form of an object? The light defines it. For example, the light illuminating a tree from the side defines its round form. The gradual shift of tones from highlight to shadow gives dimension to the tree. Without that gradation of light, or shading, the tree might appear to be nothing more than a flat cardboard cutout of a tree. This is why front light is usually not very desirable in a photograph. It renders things too “nondimensional.”
SLOT CANYON, NORTHERN ARIZONA. The diffused bounce light illuminated the form in the swirling folds of these sculpted rock walls. 24–105mm at 85mm, f/22 at 2 seconds.
Strong sidelight is usually best for illuminating form, but even in diffuse light, you can show enough shading to define form. When the light is very low in contrast, shadows and shading can disappear, however, and with them the suggestion of the form of an object. As an exercise to learn how to see shape and form more readily, select something like a tree or large boulder and photograph it under specular and then diffuse light, using all three directions of light (see here). The next time you head outdoors to photograph, make it a point to notice different shapes and forms in what you are photographing.
SANDSTONE FORMATION, ARIZONA. Strong afternoon sidelight defined the form of this unusual rock formation. By taking a low position, I increased the sense of its height. 17–40mm lens at 24mm, f/16 at 1/15 sec.
PATTERN
Pattern is everywhere in the natural and man-made world. Take a moment an
d look around you. How many patterns do you see right now? Probably many.
Pattern forms when such elements as shapes, lines, or colors repeat, amplifying the significance of each individual element. By definition, when you have three or more similar elements in your image, a pattern emerges. But I’ve never found that just three of any object creates a strong pattern, even if they are identical. By the same token, an image filled with a variety of different patterns can lose impact. But an image of, say, autumn leaves on the ground with similar shapes and colors repeated in your frame can be a very strong pattern.
A pattern grows in visual strength when it fills the frame, as the mind’s eye assumes that it continues beyond the edges. If I photograph a small area of leaves on the ground in a desert wash, I compose it so that the leaves extend beyond the frame, implying there is more than meets the eye, to make it more powerful. I am less concerned about extending a pattern beyond the frame for a landscape image—one that may include some pattern—as the pattern is not the subject.
Any focal length lens will work to photograph patterns. I use everything from a wide-angle to a macro lens. When I want a pattern that is part of a distant scene, such as a hillside of trees, I’ll even use a telephoto lens.
WILDFLOWERS, TUSCANY, ITALY. Pattern exists on a large scale, not just in details. A frame completely filled with red poppies and white wildflowers appears as a never-ending “sea” of pattern and has a strong visual impact. 100–400mm lens at 310mm, f/ 18 at 1/8 sec.