FRAME

By cropping the picture vertically, horizontally and square format, i an attempting to see which one best captures the essence of the picture. The vertical crop emphasizes the the wall while the horizontal crop depicts that setting of the picture. The square crop takes into account only the dimensions of the frame.  Most subjects tend to be ill  suited to square arrangements.



Square crop



Horizontal Crop



Vertical crop



Fig 4: Shutter speed 1/4s,Aperture F11, Focal length 110mm, Auto.

 This fianl image was at 110mm. The wall is shown clearly without the curtains and the archway. Its obvious the the picture is resting on a wall.


Fig 3:  Shutter speed 1/4s, Aperture F11, Focal length 195mm, Auto mode

  For this shot I zoomed in to 195mm using the same shutter speed and aperture and closed in on the subject. There isnt any sign of the immdeiate surroundings in this picture. To a person seeing it for the first time, he/she will know that its a painting but does not know the environment surrounding it.  The eye is fixed on the big tree and thereafter its sorrounding, not moving randomly across the picture. For this painting , emphasis is placed on the tree and how it relates to the adjoining areas.

Did some more reading 25/09/2011 going through frame shapes in Micheal Freemans The photographers eye. Getting to undertsand the 3:2 frame . Horizontal frames tend to be natural . It influences the composition of an image but not in an insistent outstanding way.
For naturally vertical subjects , the elongation of a 2:3 frame is an advantage. (P12)

To the painter, placing the tree in the center was more appropriate rather than using the rule of thirds. Sometimes it works out well if you need to accentuate the view with nearby features;example in this case the road path and the stream.

Fig 2: Shutter speed 1/4s Aperture F11, Focal length 122mm, auto mode

For the Fig 2, i zoomed in a little bit to 122mm and took the picture bwith other settings being the same. Though the sides of the painting is n ot properly aligned with the frame, it still gives a more pristine look than Fig 1. Having gone through the first few pages of Michael freemans book "The Photographers eye, composition and design for better pictures, i can say a better job can be done with the framing in Fig 2.  He talks about the horizontal frame format 3:2 being the most used in photography.

Fig 1: Shutter speed 1/4s Aperture F11, Focal length 70mm, auto mode


For this picture, i used auto mode with flash due to the poor light in my living room. I seldom shoot in auto mode because i don,t think it  will help my creativity. But i had to in this case. The 5 day training i attended at the London school of photography in april 2011 emphasised the need to always shoot in manual mode if you want to improve your photography. I have stuck to that advice. Anyway, as can be seen, part of my curtain and archway are captured in the frame which tends to draw part of the attention away from the painting on the wall.