The aim of this exercise was to find a viewpoint that had a reasonably interesting landscape in which there was an unbroken and clear horizon (this is a difficult thing to do in Belfast.). I figured my best option was heading down to the docks and using the dark as an artificial horizon.
I took two sequences of photographs placing the horizon at different positions within the photograph. The first sequence is shown below.
Photograph one – this is my preferred image of the three I like the tones in the water in the foreground. This large area of water gives a feeling of distance to the horizon.
Photograph two – here the horizon bisects the photograph centrally but doesn’t have the drama of the water in the foreground, drawing the eye up to the horizon. Also there is the difficulty of the very bland blue sky in the top third of the photograph.
Photograph three – this is the weakest image in the sequence we know have over half a photograph taken up by a sky full of nothing. Anything of interest is crammed into the bottom third making for a crowded and unbalanced image.
I decided to try a different cityscape to see if the results would be the same. That sequence of photographs can be seen below
Photograph four – in this photograph the foreground water doesn’t seem to be drawing us into the detail of the cityscape in the same way it did in photograph one. The buildings and Clyde seem one-stop the top of the photograph and the dark side showing in the bottom left-hand corner is unpleasant distraction to the rest of the photograph.
Photograph five – back to central composition with the horizon bisecting the image. It’s a pretty dull photograph of some water, some clouds and some buildings. There seems to be too much water it and therefore doesn’t feel balanced
photograph six – although it is by no means perfect this is the best of the three images. It seems more natural to the eye than photographs four and five on the curb Clyde line makes it a little bit more interesting. The occurrence of the small wispy cloud in the otherwise empty sky makes this composition work were image three did not.
Reflection
I have been taking photographs since I was a kid and it would never have occurred to me to place the horizon anywhere other than in the middle of the photograph, yet in the two sequences above that type of central composition didn’t work. It is really surprised me that something that simple can affect the look of a photograph that drastically.
This exercise has shown me that there is no set recipe for a photograph, what works in one situation may be dreadful in another, and composition is not a set of rules to be followed but a learned understanding of how to create photographs to either please or challenge the viewer.
A few years ago, in a bid to teach myself composition, I bought “The Photographers Eye” by Michael Freeman. I had a brief flick through the book and give the idea up as a bad job. I am now discovering that using Michael Freeman's book as a text to accompany the exercises on the course is teaching me the elements of designing photograph and also teaching me how to see in a different way.