Chapter 8: Form The shape of an object within a pictorial frame is two-dimensional. To emphasize its three-dimensions, artists use a variety of techniques to emphasize “form.” This can be “soft,” increasing a sense of presence, as if the viewer could feel the subject’s surface. Or “rigid,” angular or brittle, not inviting the sense of […]
Chapter 7: Depth of Field “Depth of field” (DOF) is the optical property of a photographic lens that determines the degree of sharpness between objects close to the camera and those farther away. When both distances, near and far, are sharp the DOF is said to be “long” or “deep.” When only the point of […]
Chapter 6: Contrast In photography, “contrast” is the ratio between the darkest dark and the lightest light within a frame. It’s said to be “soft” when there’s very little difference between the lights and darks, “medium” in what we regard as normal, and “high” when an image has both maximum blacks and brightest whites.” Contrast […]
Chapter 5: Elements of Composition In pictorial art, composition relates to how visual elements are organized within a frame. Through the centuries, both Eastern and Western artists developed guidelines to help them maintain a viewer’s attention. Aspiring artists and many in the public appreciate that the organization of elements within a frame influences the viewer’s […]
Chapter 3: Color as Subject Objectively speaking, the world is colorless. So is the sun. Our brains construct the sensation of color from various radiating wavelengths of photons, depending on how they’re absorbed in and reflected from various surfaces. Visible light occupies just a tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, constituted of wavelengths that stimulate […]
Chapter 3: Light and Lighting Regarding the mystery that light is, physicist Arthur M. Young wrote in The Reflexive Universe: Evolution Of Consciousness, “Light, itself without mass, can create protons and electrons which have mass. Light has no charge, yet the particles it creates do. Since light is without mass, it is nonphysical, of a […]
Chapter 1: “Abstract” and “Abstraction” Introduction to the 13-part series The Soul of Photography chapters provided insight and guidance about the function of the aesthetic dimensions relative to creative expression. This begins a series that elaborates those features (“atmosphere,” “contrast,” “gradation,” etc.) with an emphasis on application and technique. Also, I’ll show how the terms […]
Chapter 2: The Aesthetic Dimensions Artists working in visual media train themselves to perceive beyond looking by continuously imagining or creating actual frames around everything they see. After a while a pattern emerges in the subjects they choose and the materials and techniques that work best. Along with these, they develop certain aesthetic preferences—choices relating […]
The chambered nautilus is a creature that inhabits the Pacific and Indian oceans, today between depths of 600 to 1200 feet. Appearing in the fossil record before fish, dinosaurs and mammals some 500 million years ago, they grew up to 20 feet long! The spiral occurs as walls are formed to seal off and […]
Energy is vibration. It’s largely invisible, but when energy takes a form it’s always geometrical, prescribed by the fundamental laws of physics including gravity and the three Laws of Thermodynamics: 1. Conservation of Energy: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, just changed. 2. Entropy: Matter dissipates; disintegrates. Entropy either stays the same or gets bigger. […]
Contemplative Photography 