PART 1: A start to assignment 1: Contrasts

Still & Moving, originally uploaded by bryanhutch.

On a trip to the river last week, I started to look for contrasts for my assignment. I initially took some shots at varying shutter speeds to capture the motion of the river but spotted this plant beside an interesting part of the river. I'm very pleased with this image, it’s really the first time I’ve used contrast as a compositional method and I really liked the result.

Photographing the image:

At the time I was conscious that this was a tricky shot to get right in terms of exposure because one element of the image was dependent on shutter speed i.e. blurring the motion of the river and the other on aperture i.e. making the plant stand out by blurring the background. However the background couldn’t be blurred too much as the flowing water is an important part of the composition. I took a sequence of 19 shots and chose a combination of aperture and shutter speed I was happy with once I viewed the image on my PC at home. I didn’t have my tripod with me so getting the plant sharp was a challenge, my tripod would have made things easier!

Reflection and post processing:

I felt the water was a bit muddy looking on the original shot, in post processing I adjusted the exposure to -0.3, increased the black level, brightness and contrast in Adobe Camera Raw and then recovered the highlights a small amount. This also enhanced the blues in the river adding to the feeling of water and movement.

On reflection and post analysis of the image, I feel the composition works on a number of levels:

The intended contrast of movement vs still is quite powerful. The feeling of the river in continual motion while the plant stands by is quite satisfying. But I think there is a secondary contrast; the plant is quite linear and structured which is a contrast against the fluidity of the river.

I also think the composition is simple in that there are only two elements: the river and the plant, a learning point for me here is to be mindful of including too many elements in a composition. The balance for me also works in that the plant is takes up a small part of the frame but has more visual weight than the river because of its sharpness and this balances well against the larger white part of the river.

Going out looking for contrasts, felt like a different approach to shooting. It felt a more focused, targeted and organised. I'm also ure I wouldn't have taken this image just using my usual wandering around approach.