فن التصوير .. المباديء والمنهاج الدرس -٢٥- المحتوى وعين المصور -١-

art of photography . . Principles and Curriculum Lesson -25- Content and Photographer's Eye -1-

In our talk about - the photographer's eye - we put you in front of three main guiding lines:
1- A good photographic image should be distinguished by the presence of a subject - a general objective - that connects it to the viewer.
2- A good photograph should focus attention on a main subject of interest.
3- The photograph must simplify the subject - that is, it must contain only what is necessary, and it must remove or reduce to a minimum what is obstructive.

In the lessons that followed, we put you in front of specific photographic techniques, and showed you how professionals use these methods to produce beautiful and powerful photographs that are consistent with these guidelines. From here, you will now be familiar with all the basic methods of how to use and adjust your camera mechanics. However, as we stressed throughout the course, your images will not be better than your ability to - see - that is, use your photographic eye, to recognize the opportunities that open up to realizing powerful images in the world around you, and then to form these images with maximum efficiency within the viewfinder before you press a button The shutter. In this lesson, we will focus on methods by which you can shape the images you see with sufficient force.

The tradition in most photography seminars is to present a lesson on content.
And the regulations on the content are enshrined by the passage of time and came to us from the beautiful world of oil painting. As for us, the experience we have gained has taught us that these laws only lead to confusion. These laws have very little to do with the success or failure of any particular photograph, and the only law all photographers agree to is breaking the rules.

In this lesson, then, we will address the content in terms of its appropriateness and meaning only, and we will direct your attention towards a very easy method, a method based on expanding your use of the second guideline that was previously discussed.

Focusing attention on the main topic:
We express this method by the expression of stress, and in this lesson we will show you different ways to produce stress in your photos - and you will see that all these different methods are based on methods that you learned in advance, and you can apply them the very next time when you look into the viewfinder from your camera.

What are these methods that produce emphasizing? ..
It involves bringing the viewer's attention to the main subject by placing that subject within the four walls of the picture frame, by linking other subjects in the picture with it, by focusing on it, by enlightening it, and by other simple methods.
The picture here is a good example of the many styles - Picture No. -1 -.

Emphasis on status:
It has been said that the biggest difference between the real world and the picture of the real world is the four walls that put up
Borders for the picture.
While the real world is infinite and continuous, and the viewer can turn his attention to any part of the panorama that surrounds it, the image confines a sector of that world within strictly defined boundaries, at the top and bottom, right and left. How the photographer signs subjects within those limits makes or breaks his image.
The first and most important decision is where to place the main subject of interest. The subject is emphasized by placing it close to the center of the frame usually, but how close is it to the center? .. The traditional law in the field of content formation is to divide the image into three vertical parts, and put your subject on one of the two dividing lines approximately as shown in the figure: No. 2.
And in the image achieved by René Burri for the architect Le Corbizier, we see this kind of division of one-third and two-thirds, as it provides a pleasant balance with an informal relaxation that you would not feel if the subject was completely in the middle. This is the type of signature that you will find in photo #3.
Does this mean that you should never put the subject completely in the middle... It is enough to take a look at photo number 4 by photographer Peter B. Kaylan, the law books say that the signature of the confrontation in the middle is exactly like the aforementioned picture. It is rigid and insensitive and lacks the element of imagination.
For our part, we agree to the books of the law only if the subject is rigid and insensitive and lacks the element of imagination.
In this picture, Kaplan strongly emphasized the uprightness and dignity of the young girl, by placing her in the center of the rectangle, but the picture is far from static because of the slope and irregular lines of her abaya.

Does the subject always have to be near the center of the frame? ..
Look at Woody Now #5 by Maureen Lampray.
Why did Lampray place her famous subject in front of the left edge of the frame? ..
What does this situation tell you about? ..
Does it mean that Woody is a powerful person who controls the world around him? ..
Or is he a terrified spirit forced into a corner by a world he can't control? ..

What we mean by these questions is that the place where you sign your topic helps to determine what you say about the topic.
Where should you put the subject in your pictures? ..
If you do not have a good reason to place it away from the center - No. 5 - or in the middle completely - No. 4 - it becomes better to act according to the law established by time, so you put your subject away from the center a little only, to the left or right - No. 3 -.
Emphasis on a relative scale:
An obvious way to emphasize your topic is to make it appear more in the topics surrounding it.
In the picture - No. 6 - achieved by Rene Bury for a group of horses, you notice that the noble animal occupies the foreground because of its scale, while the other horses are dwarfed compared to it.
This is also the case with the photo - No. 7 - of the world champion - ski, Karl Skrez, using a lens
Wide angle, emphasized by photographer Horst Ebersberg on the Schraeze scale compared to all the other people in the photo and even bigger than the Alps!
This, and one of the common mistakes made by beginners when taking hidden pictures of their families and acquaintances is that they stand so far from them that the subject of the facial image becomes just one out of many things in the picture from here, and when you take a picture like this, get closer, and leave the subject of your picture Take control of the frame, unless you have good reason to act differently.

Take the picture - No. 8 - of a hidden model, in the middle of a crowded street. Of course, this is not like your daily hidden snapshots. However, it is no different than the many pictures you can take of an attractive friend or relative. Although there are people all around, your attention is firmly focused on the model. Because it fills the frame, and it's clearly the center of gravity.

The subjects were not surrounded by a charged background that competed with them. However, this photo, because of the background, showed the strong, exciting and independent spirit of the model, all expressed by the model standing defiantly against its crowded and charged surroundings. If this photo had been taken in the studio with an empty background behind the model, it would not have had the same effect.
So, when you're staring through the viewfinder, get closer—or use a longer lens—to bring your subject into larger scale, unless you have reason to take a picture with a smaller subject.

- Emphasis by making the frame:
Here you see an interesting winter scene - No. 9 - by photographer George Forse.
Where does your eye immediately attract? ..
To the person who walks alone. So the tree makes a frame for his little picture.
This attracts attention to it, although it represents only a very small part of the image area.
When you choose to display your main subject as a very small image within a large frame, you have to adopt a method to make it more prominent. One of these methods, as shown here, is to create a frame for the main subject from the contents of the image, so that it becomes a center of gravity.

- cordon...
A dramatic enclosure of a different kind can be seen in the images of theatrical experiences. So that my body and the arms of the dancers form a dramatic and strong frame, and the sense of the theatrical element
It increases more with backlighting.
- This beautiful picture - No. 10 - of Julie Christie using two vertical iron bars to frame her face - an unusual but effective method adopted by David Hearn to encircle the frame across vertical lines.
So encircling is a method that can be used to improve many external images that capture large and relatively distant subjects, such as mountains, memorials, or buildings. Common frames include branches in close-up trees, as in the picture of Ansel Adams - No. 11 -
The tangled branches give a sense of the distance god in the picture, and the branches are therefore as if to say I am here and the subject is there, and you can know the distance between us through our relative measures.
It is a technique frequently used in architectural photography and during travel.
In the picture - No. 12 - we see that the water flowers in the foreground give a strong sense of nearness and distance in this picture achieved by Elliott Erwitt.

Do not think of encircling as only around the edges and top of the subject, as it often refers to including something at the bottom of the image to secure a solid base. See photo No. 13 of the landscape, achieved by Fritz Heil. The wooden screen in the front serves as a frame over the base. It is clear that it gives a sense of the near and far dimensions by which the viewer can estimate the distance.
Cover the barrier with a sheet of paper and see how faint the image becomes.
Encircling can be achieved in many ways. With the picture - No. 14 - and surrounding these two children with out-of-focus flowers, Doug Wilson succeeded in encircling them effectively within a fictional world that suits their temperament. Here we have a cordon on four sides that draws our attention to the two children.
The bottom line is that when the subject does not dominate the image because of its relative size - or because it is far away and you want to give a sense of space - one of the methods you adopt is to focus attention on it by encircling it ⏹

Next lesson Content ... - 2 -
Emphasis with selected lighting