Assignment 1: Contrasts

Contrast - the state of being strikingly different from something else in juxtaposition or close association.

Contrast in a photograph can be portrayed in many different ways; the levels of brightness or colours with in a picture, the juxtaposition between subject matters such as  hot/cold, sweet/sour or graphic differences in the photograph eg transparent/ opaque, straight/curved.

Pre assignment photographs:
Finding contrasts in images i had already taken
To begin with, i looked at photographs i had previously taken and tried to group them into four pairs of different contrasts.
I was quite lucky to have traveled to quite a few different places whilst undertaking these projects and so have taken many different photographs of various places in different temperatures, many contrasting. And so have not found it too difficult to group my photographs into contrasting pairs

The first contrasting pair i chose was small/large:

A small apple i had photographed hiding within blades of grass.

A tall building. The angle this photograph is taken at appears to make the building look larger; you're almost looking straight up the side of the building. The tree in the foreground, which looks small in comparison, aids to the large connotations of the building. You cannot see the ground in the picture which makes the building feel like its going on forever.

 Another contrasting pair i found was curved/straight;

This spherical sculpture is curved. Its circular shape, details in the central part, shadow and reflection all contain curved lines. If you look closely, you can even see curved lines in the pavement

The opposite of curved is straight and so this large tower is the perfect juxtaposition.

 Perhaps the most obvious contrasting pictures i have chosen, hot/cold;

The snow covered crisp dead leaves are a good representation of winter and the freezing weather. White is also quite a cold colour, and there is a good deal of white within this photograph

The clear blue sky with the suns rays creeping in the top of this photograph scream warmth and sunshine. The palm trees in this photograph are related to tropical climates and make one think of beaches, summer, holidays, hot weather.
Very different to the previous picture.

The final contrasting pair i chose; few/many

A single collar found hanging off a leafless branch.
This to me has a very empty, lonely feel to it. Which could all be connotations of the word few.

Many cacti and purple flowers.

Assignment photographs
After grouping these contrasting photographs, i went on to take 8 pairs of new contrasting photographs.
I set out with 8 contrasts i mind,  although realising that this might not necessarily work in my favour and i could end up with completely different contrasts.
I made rough notes on possible subjects for each contrasts before i took any photographs, just to give myself some sort of idea of what i wanted for my outcome. These were:
Long/short: buildings, plants, roads
Smooth/rough: tree bark, plants, marble, ball, fruit.

Many/few: plants, trees, people.

Light/heavy: feather, brick, dark object.

Black/white: dark/light objects.

Large/small: tall building, zoom, wide angle.

Straight/curved: trees, roads, circular.Liquid/solid: brick, door, wall, water, drink.
I then also needed to take one photograph containing more than one contrast. For this i figured some sort of landscape with depth would be good.
The following photographs are the results to the contrasting pairs i decided to photograph;Large/small

Originally, i didn't plan on including this photograph, i was simply playing with lenses but quite like the outcome.
The simple background gives a true sense of size, the wasp doesn't get lost or appear smaller/ larger due to its surroundings. The fact that the photograph is also taken from quite a distance, the wasp only occupying a small section of the frame, also makes it appear very small.

Large is a synonym of tall and so in this photograph, i tried to capture the sheer height of some trees in the woods. I took the photograph vertically, as that can add a sense of height to a photograph. I took the photo at an angle, looking up at the trees to add to this effect, as opposed to photographing a tree straight on.

 Black/white

For my black photograph, i wanted something that was quite dark, or black. I couldn't find any objects that  i thought would do this contrast justice and so i took to photographing at night, under a dark sky. I wasnt quite sure whether to take pictures of cars driving at night with a very slow shutter speed so only their lights were streaked across the image or whether to play with sunsets. Whilst strolling out at night, i managed to catch a plane flying across the sky just after the set set, leaving a single red streak behind it, in the dark sky. I instantly fell inlove with this picture, ad tweaked the contrast ad saturation levels only slightly just to make the photograph that bit darker, and slightly more eerie. Giving me a photograph that represented the colour black.

I wasn't really sure what i could photograph to represent white in my contrasts, a white feather maybe, some snow, but i didn't see snowfall likely in my town at this point again or would i just play with the light/ contrast levels of a photograph to give the effect of something white.
However luckily, by chance half way through doing this project i got invited out to America where it was snowing and so managed to capture a perfect, wintery, very white photograph.

 Straight/curved

For my curved photograph, i planned on taking some photographs of twisted/ curved tree branches. I didn't want anything to busy though, as i wanted the curve to be obvious, one of the first things you would notice. Instead of just assuming it was there between all the leaves/ branches somewhere.
I then noticed this dying house plant, with one single curved branch. I like the quite abstract look of this plant. The plain background i think helps this, as it doesn't distract any attention away from the plant. I hightened the contrast in this photograph a little, and put it in black and white as i feel this adds to the slight artsy/ abstract look of the photograph.

For my straight photograph, i wanted to try and do something a bit different and so i took a picture of the strings on a bass guitar, looking down the neck. The attention is drawn down the neck, into the center of the photograph where a small section of the strings/ body are in focus. I didn't want the background beyond the guitar to be in focus, ad i wanted the strings to be the only thing in the photograph that really grabbed your attention ad so i played with the field of depth when taking this photograph, until i was happy

Heavy/light

I tired to pick an object that looked quite heavy, and the first object that comes to mind when i think heavy is a brick. I chose a single brick on its own, not only so you can get a full view of the object, but i also didn't want to distract away from what i was trying to convey. I enhanced the shadows in this photograph, and added a slight vignette to help aid the heavy tone to the photograph. Dark colours can be associated with heaviness.

For my light picture, I chose object which was light in weight, and visibly so. I kept the background plain as not to distract from this. I feel the simplicity and the small size of the object also add to the 'light' feel.

Liquid/solid

Add caption

When i thought of the word solid, the first thing that came to mind was a wall. A dead end. I found this gate down a narrow alley, the gaps under the gate blocked off with bricks and wood. Making this gate truly solid. I added a black and white effect and make the picture quite dark highlighting only the reinforcements upon the gate giving it a more solid feel. Giving a sense of being trapped.

Long/short

A small, short cigarette stub dropped on the ground. I wanted to keep this photograph quite basic and simple as depending on the position of the subject and the angle at which the camera is being held, short objects can appear to be bigger than what they actually are. I chose a small, short subject and zoomed in only enough so the cigarette butt was clear but far away enough to still appear small within the frame.

I chose a long branch on a tall tree, and angled the camera to give the appearance of looking up/ along the branch. Your eye sight is draw from the base of the branch at the bottom corner of the frame, up the tree, to the top of the frame. Giving a sense of length.

Many/few

Walking through piles and piles of leaves, I decided this would be a suitable subject for this contrasting pair. I didn't give much thought into how the leaves would look within the frame, i just simply took a quick 'snap' . I do like how the bright yellow leaf appears to be the center of the photograph, the main focus within the pile of leaves, although unintentional

A single feather lying on the floor, alone. I added a black and white effect to this photograph as i fell it made the feather look bolder, but also added a sense of being perhaps scarce or solitary.
The frame being vertical, and the feather postioned at the top of the frame, further away from you also adds to this.

 Rough/smooth

To create a rough picture, i took a photograph of tree bark using a macro lens. Capturing all the different colours and textures present on the tree. I heightened the levels of contrasts on this picture, to make the cracks/ textures in the tree more visible, so they stand out more, making the tree look rougher.

My ideas for smooth originally were to use marble of something smooth and spherical although this proved difficult to find. Instead i found a smooth, shiny bench. The way the light hits the back of the bench adds to the feel of its smooth texture. I tried to take up the majority of the frame with the bench, although not too much as i still wanted it to be very physically obvious that it was a bench and not just some smooth vertical slats.

A photograph demonstrating contrasts in one picture

I originally intended to take a photograph of a much bigger pool of water. However, i stumbled on this puddle. The murky grey/ brown colours give it quite a cold autumnal feel. The bare tree branches reflected in the puddle also add to this. I love how the branches are reflected in the water. I love the way they looked when the wind blew and rippled their image in the water making the very fine branches look even more delicate. I tried to get the reflection as the main focus within this picture.