العناصر الأساسية للصورة .. كيف تنظر إلى أجمل الصور .. كتاب التصوير الضوئي

The basic elements of a photograph .. How to look at the most beautiful pictures .. The book of photography

The basic elements of a photograph

When we isolate the three basic elements of a photograph, we understand its value better. The first element is the shape, followed by the color gradations and finally the color. We can coordinate these elements to give them three additional qualities: first the rhythm, then the composition and finally the size. Whatever the subject presented, the photograph must contain one of these qualities and you may choose to emphasize one of them without the other, so the result of this choice is an image that expresses your personality as a photographer, that is, your own way of seeing things.

The illustrations in the next chapter, starting on the next page, are arranged in such a way that you can examine each of its elements separately and examine its advantages. When we take a photograph, we strive to capture the effect of a three-dimensional world, translating it into two dimensions on a normal photograph or on a color positive (slide). The shape more than any other element helps us determine the quality of the subject: when color and its shades are removed, and when the shape is excluded, what remains is a subject that is difficult to recognize.

Hue is a term used to indicate the degree of contrast between the light and dark parts of an object and the different values ​​in between. Colour can also give contrast: for example, a sharp orange stands out against a dark blue. Colour is the element of a picture that evokes an immediate reaction: everyone can say I like or I don't like a colour. Our reaction to colour tones is the same as our reaction to colours, especially to gradation and to the relationships between the different values ​​of grey that start from white to black. These elements give us an atmosphere before we begin to notice and get to know the object.

Amateur photographers are usually more successful with color photographs than with black and white photographs because black and white requires a more exclusive approach and a sharper view.

We see many colored objects and we improve on the changes in color shades and the intensity of this color and its relationship with neighboring colors. Color limits our perception and imagination and confines our viewing, unlike abstraction in black and white.

Black and white is (abstract) and this is a real element that color neglects. In photography, the use of black and white requires careful attention to the composition and juxtaposition of the rest of the main elements in order to obtain a good image. Many professional photographers prefer black and white, considering that obtaining an image with good artistic value is a difficult art worthy of appreciation and praise.

By adding color and tone to a shape, you try to explain size, this element that we cannot describe as we have described other basic features of the image. Color tone defines size and gives it its texture by creating the appearance of fullness, roundness, or depth. Size is very important to explain the effect of the third dimension. For example, the milk carton on the opposite page is immediately recognizable by its shape even though it has no color or size. But the light coming from the side has given gradations of color tones and generates the idea of ​​volume. Our subject, thanks to the size, resembles a real milk carton.

The shape, supported by the size, gives the feeling of reality to the thing represented on the two-dimensional piece of paper. We can now increase this feeling by adding composition, which gives the image the tangible concepts that are the same thing. Composition is necessary for all objects, whether they are raw, shiny, granular or pointed.

The effect is also heightened by experience and by the memory of the observer, who knows that the coarse fabric has a rough texture - and so the piece of cloth in front of the carton has a real appearance - and this is immediately apparent in the fibrous texture of the raw wood. The main elements and essential qualities of the image, except one, have merged together and emerged in (the atmosphere or the surroundings).

But the last quality (weight or rhythm) has the power to destroy or magnify the careful construction of the image.
Rhythm is the repetition and emphasis of forms, whether organized or unexpected (coincidence). Forms do not have to be similar to generate rhythm and meter, but the latter coordinates the motive.

As we will see in the coming chapters, rhythm can bring disorder and confusion to volume: it can deceive and distort our sight by fixing our attention
and destroy the concept of volume by emphasizing the flatness of spaces.

Light reveals all elements and features. The element (form) is related to light from bright sun to dim light and also to the point of view chosen to obtain the most effective lighting.

To show all these advantages, it is necessary to be able to record the smallest details of the subject: this is a feature of the photographic style. The clarity of the image is a feature of the powerful instrument and explains part of its comprehensiveness.

Main elements of the image

In this very simple still life, the main elements of the image and their qualities are combined: color, tones, shape, sizes, composition and rhythm. In this image, other additional factors are added: color contrast, composition, drawing and atmosphere.