{"id":3124,"date":"2014-01-17T07:53:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T15:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=3124"},"modified":"2019-11-29T14:34:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T22:34:00","slug":"mastering-compositionmore-border-patrol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/17\/mastering-compositionmore-border-patrol\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering Composition–More Border Patrol"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may not be obvious at first but a photograph\u2019s border is a critical element of a successful composition.\u00a0 All too often we get so focused on the subject that the borders get\u00a0 ignored.\u00a0\u00a0 Because it\u2019s so important I\u2019m writing a second post on the subject.\u00a0 To read the first post you can click on this link\u00a0 – Mastering Composition – Border Patrol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For this post take a look at this photograph.<\/p>\n

\"big_sur_131105__SM38613-flat\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The photograph is of the famous tunnel at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, California.\u00a0 In wintertime, as you can see, not only do the waves come crashing through but the setting sun turns the water to liquid gold.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to get so absorbed by the spectacle that important elements of the composition get ignored.\u00a0 Can you see what I missed here?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When checking the borders, the top and side borders are fine.\u00a0 But the bottom border has a problem.\u00a0 The rocks are very interesting but the patch of sand in front of them is calling for attention.\u00a0 But we don\u2019t want to do anything to distract the viewer\u2019s attention from the magic that is happening in the tunnel.\u00a0 The solution is to crop out the sand and place the field of rocks on the bottom border.\u00a0 The result is striking.<\/p>\n

\"big_sur_131105__SM38613-crop\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now the bottom border is uniform without being boring.\u00a0 The viewer\u2019s eye goes immediately to the glowing golden light and from there explores the wonderful power and textures of the rest of the image \u2013 including the bottom border.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth saying a word or two about a visual foundation.\u00a0 Some images (not all) are strengthened when the bottom border has a visual anchor or foundation.\u00a0 This is one such image.\u00a0 The dark tonalities of the rocks provides a solid base, especially when contrasted with the brighter surf just above it.\u00a0 We perceive dark tonalities as possessing a visual weight which, when placed at the bottom of the frame, impart a stability to the image.\u00a0 One can think of a visual center of gravity just like we think of a physical center of gravity.\u00a0 In the physical world placing a heavy weight near the top of an object raises the center of gravity and makes it unstable and easily tipped over.\u00a0 Placing the weight at the bottom of the object lowers the center of gravity and stabilizes it.<\/p>\n

The same holds true in the visual realm.\u00a0 Dark areas have the same effect on the visual center of gravity.\u00a0 At this point you\u2019re probably observing that the borders of the image above are all dark.\u00a0 And I think you will agree that it works.\u00a0 But in the first image placing the\u00a0 light sand at the bottom, besides attracting the viewer\u2019s eye, also disrupted the visual center of gravity.\u00a0 By eliminating it now all the action is concentrated in the center of the image (and there\u2019s plenty of action!).<\/p>\n

I might also point out a couple more things about this photograph.\u00a0 First is the placement of the tunnel.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, it\u2019s on the left 1\/3rd line.\u00a0 Simply moving it off the center of the image creates visual tension which adds interest.\u00a0 The wave itself also has a curved shape that turns into the center of the frame.\u00a0 The curve of the wave and the placement of the tunnel complement each other to create drama.<\/p>\n

The color palette of the image also adds to the drama.\u00a0 By making the surf in the foreground a cool color, the blazing gold of the tunnel becomes even more powerful.\u00a0 Blue and yellow are contrasting colors; that is, opposite each other on the color wheel.\u00a0 And including them both in the image attracts the viewer\u2019s eye, especially when they are in close proximity to each other.<\/p>\n

But these considerations are the same in both photographs.\u00a0 Both are identical except for the bottom border.\u00a0 And a simple tweak there produced a much stronger image.<\/p>\n

\n

As always we enjoy hearing from you so please don\u2019t be shy.\u00a0 Speak up and share your experiences with us.\u00a0 We invite you to leave a comment.<\/p>\n

Also, please feel free to share this post with your friends, on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or wherever your social media wanderings take you.<\/p>\n

Join me on an upcoming workshop.\u00a0 Click here for more details.<\/a><\/p>\n

To see more of my photographs click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

(2321)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Small tweaks around the borders of your photograph can have a powerful effect on the overall strength of your composition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[293],"tags":[300,509,483,32,1246,126,1247,991,1244,1212,1245,1242,482,127,1243,997],"class_list":["post-3124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-composition-how-to-articles","tag-big-sur","tag-blue","tag-border-patrol","tag-california","tag-color-palette","tag-composition","tag-contrasting-colors","tag-crop","tag-dark-tonality","tag-golden-light","tag-light-tonality","tag-pfeiffer-beach","tag-rule-of-thirds","tag-tonality","tag-visual-center-of-gravity","tag-yellow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-Oo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3124"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4708,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124\/revisions\/4708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}