Going into this assignment, I thought that it would be much like the photo safari where we had prompts and just had to go and do. But, this proved to be a little bit more difficult than I initially thought. Instead of a time limit, this assignment required me to think about the set up of the photo that I was going to take before I took it and which design element it best suited.
As someone who has taken photography in the past these are some of the things we think of when setting up shots, but this was really difficult to me despite any experience behind the camera that I had had before.
For the photo that I chose to represent balance, I took a picture of a lawnmower in some grass that was illuminated by the sun. I felt that it provided a symmetrical layout with a middle line. (As well as balance, this photo features red and green colors which are complimentary since they are on opposite sides of the color wheel.
For my Color photo, I chose to take a picture of these succulents that I had in my house on my maroon kitchen table. As mentioned before, red and green are on the opposite side of the color wheel and are therefore complimentary and look good together. Much like the other photo, was a layout decided that I thought looked good. Even though the photo isn’t symmetrical, it uses the rule of thirds in order to create a photo pleasing to the eye. Color is the key to attention, and the green draws the eye into the details of the photo.
This was the photo that I chose for dominance. I took this photo thinking that it would look a lot better than it actually turned out, which is okay! It is a learning process to be able to create well designed pieces of art. The pinecone in the picture is in focus and dominant in the frame, but my dog in the background is still noticeable. The shallow depth of field was what created the focus to make the pinecone the dominant part of the photo.
This was my favorite photo of the bunch. I used a fork from my kitchen and held it up to a wall. The sunlight was coming in from the left, creating an interesting shadow. The photo is symmetrical and well balanced, but I think the part that makes it interesting is the shadow. Without it, I feel like the photo would have been slightly plain.
Overall, I thought that this assignment was a little more difficult than I thought it would be when I started. Having to really sit and think about the design elements helped me to understand them more as well as think about where good/bad design exists in the world. Being able to do an assignment helps me to think about things in a different and more graphic based way. By creating each photo from a prompt, it encourages each photo to be as meaningful as possible, to tell the story as easily as possible through one photo.
