Including a sense of scale
Your literal understanding of certain elements affects the way you perceive balance and weight. When a person looks small in a scene, you can assume he was far away from the camera at the time of the exposure. If one person is small and another is much larger, you know that distance lies between the two of them in relation to the camera.
Figure 12-3: Too much or too little negative space could ruin the balance in a photograph, but the right amount gets the job done.
You can make these assumptions because you're familiar with the size of people and can use that familiarity to assume things about an image. Objects, on the other hand, are trickier. If I stick a miniature umbrella (like the ones used to garnish drinks) in the sand and photograph the scene from above, you may assume that it was a beach shot taken from high in the air, perhaps in a helicopter. But, if I placed an empty glass with half-melted ice cubes next to the umbrella, you would know that it was a miniature from the cocktail someone just finished.
When it comes to representing an element's size, some situations require further explanation to get the message across. The viewer needs some element in the scene that has a known value of size (like a person) in order to reveal the size of the other elements. Including that element in your scene gives the composition a sense of
Providing a sense of scale usually is relevant when size matters to your message. A sense of scale is a great way to capture a viewer's attention through the lure of amazement. It's also a great way to tell a story about your subject or the environment in your scene.
For example, a small figure amidst a busy city with towering buildings and traffic jams could send a message about being unremarkable or about being a necessary part of the system, depending on the compositional techniques used to create the message. A small climber on a huge rock face surrounded by wilderness is brave and adventuresome. One small figure at the far end of an expansive room highlights the size of the room and could send a message of being alone or of lacking an identity.
The redwoods in Northern California are one of my favorite things to explore and photograph. These trees are amazing and massive. Relating that size to a viewer is difficult unless you include an element that can be compared to the trees. In the left-hand image of Figure 12-4,1 photographed the trees among themselves, so they appear to be fairly normal in size. In the image on the right side, however, I included a person in the scene to show just how massive the trees actually are.
50mm,
Figure 12-4: Redwood trees photographed with and without a sense of scale.
Usinq Rhythm and Repetition of Elements
Elements that are identical or similar in shape, texture, line, color, tone, or size provide an excellent opportunity to create interesting and compelling compositions through rhythm and repetition. The
When you put a mirror image, or two elements of similar look and size, in a composition, the viewer's eyes jump back and forth to compare the two and to look for similarities and differences. When you put elements of similar look but varying sizes in a composition, the viewer's eyes follow one to the other based on their individual weight in the composition.
In Figure 12-5, each line and shape gradually decreases in weight as you move toward the center of the frame, creating a pattern. This photo doesn't actually contain a mirror image, but the left and right sides of the frame are so similar that you're compelled to investigate it for yourself. Because of the repetition, the image has a straightforward rhythm. The symmetry causes you to bounce back and forth while
the leading lines and repeating shapes cause you to be drawn into the image toward the vanishing point where a man is walking through the massive tunnel. (I discuss vanishing point in the earlier section 'Making compositional elements mimic one another with symmetry.') Even with such a small and unclear subject, this composition does everything in its power to draw you toward that subject and to keep your eyes from wandering off the edge of the frame.
Figure 12-5: A composition showing symmetry and the vanishing pattern, which are two styles of repetition.
Patterns don't have to be as blatantly symmetrical as the example shown in Figure 12-5. Any similarity or relationship in shape, texture, line, color, or size can create repetition in a composition.
For example, in Figure 12-6, sea gulls fly through the air in no particular order. However, they each take on a somewhat similar shape created by three lines meeting at a center point. The gradual differences in size represent distance, and the scattered order of the flock represents a pattern of randomness or free will. Certain sections of the pattern create shapes similar to that of an individual seagull. The holes in the sand create another pattern in this composition. They're scattered randomly and create a sort of reflection (or symmetry) to the birds in the sky. The rhythm in this photo represents freedom and space, and it generally flows in a way that leads your eyes through the frame from left to right. The direction of this composition is much less blatant than that of Figure 12-5.
Figure 12-6: Suggested symmetry through similar patterns.
Putting harmony out of chaos
Soldiers marching to a cadence are in rhythm with each other, so if you photograph an advancing platoon you capture a moment when 40 or so men and women are in sync and each is mimicking the others. This repetition creates an obvious pattern.
People in a busy public area, however, are unlikely to be in perfect sync with one another. Each has an individual destination and purpose. Some people may be in cars and others are on bicycles. Still others are walking, jogging, standing, sitting, eating, reading, and so on. In this type of scene, where everything seems to be on its own program, you may consider the situation to be in chaos. But, if you pay closer attention, I guarantee that you can find repetition and patterns.
For example, if two (or even better, three) men are wearing hats of similar styles, you have repetition. A child holding a red balloon could produce repetition with a red traffic light and a woman wearing the same shade of red on her lips. Maybe the texture of a dog's fur is similar to the texture of a person's coat.
After you notice a pattern or repetition, the key to getting the shot is finding the right perspective to reveal the similarities in the composition. Your perspective is a combination of your relationship to the elements and their relationships to each other. I discuss perspective in detail in Chapter 8.
Shooting simple compositions
A simple design provides a clean composition with a minimal number of graphic elements. When it's successful, a simple composition provides a strong message and a complex theme using only the elements that are
