Strong Vertical Elements and Divisions

peterm1

peterm1

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On reviewing some of my images I suddenly realized that I often have a tendency to be drawn to make images with strong vertical elements to both frame and divide images into parts. This may also be due to a love of reflections - where this can be achieved as simply as including part fo a window frame in the final image. Or it can be because the scene is inherently vertical.

Here are some examples.......lets see yours.

Coffee Shop and Bus by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Street Impressions - Walking by by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Ladies Who Lunch by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Prescence of the Past by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Framed in Red by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Skyline 2 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Spire and glass by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

And occasionally I will add the verticals to create a triptych which in this image somehow complements the buildings in the background.

South Bank Esplanade Melbourne Tryptich by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

And of course it can just be the buildings themselves that do it.

Skyline Impressions South Bank Melbourne by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
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peterm1 said:
On reviewing some of my images I suddenly realized that I often have a tendency to be drawn to make images with strong vertical elements to both frame and divide images into parts. This may also be due to a love of reflections - where this can be achieved as simply as including part fo a window frame in the final image. Or it can be because the scene is inherently vertical.

Here are some examples.......lets see yours.

Coffee Shop and Bus by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Strikingly strong images, peterm1. I like them all, but especially this one.
 
I came across this old thread just now and it reminded me there are some really nice images in it from a wide variety of members. I had rather forgotten about and neglected it although I had started it. But congratulations to all who contributed.

I had in any event been thinking of starting a thread named "triptych" (a group of three pictures which together form a coherent whole or tell a story). I decided that while it is a bit of a stretch, it would fit here given a triptych relies on strong vertical elements. (I have in any event used one such triptych in one of my much earlier posts in this thread).

My thought is this. I have started using the above technique occasionally (very occasionally - not often) when I found I had an image that had some merit (or at least I thought it did) or potential but was perhaps a bit boring or conventional. Maybe it might sometimes work, I thought, if I were to display some of these images as a triptych, as doing this adds visual interest by making the viewer look and think more about what is going on. A photo very often suffers from the deficit that it is just "there". You look at it, you see what's going on and that's it - it might be a good image but is lacking in visual excitement. A triptych however is a bit like a mini video - there is a kind of flow that tells a story a bit like scene cuts in a film. (Or alternatively I just end up with 3 boring images in each case instead of one. :) ) Some of the following work I think - especially the first one - but some not so well. The last two are a bit weaker than the others in my view. Never mind they are experiments. In each case below the technique is simple: The image is divided into 3 vertical elements then the left hand side of the original image is transferred to the right hand triptych box and visa versa, while the centre of the original image remains more or less where it was originally.

I will post a few of my experiments and ask the question - is anyone else experimenting with this style of image? if so, I for one would like to see them.

South Bank Esplanade Melbourne Tryptich by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Scenes on the Street -Triptych by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Cafe Triptych by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Tryptich - Scenes from City Life by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Tryptich. Along the Street by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Adelaide Hills Triptych by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
Peterm1, I love these triptychs very much and I'm inspired to give it a go myself.

On the technical side, and for clarification, after taking a standard 3x2 frame (FF) and spitting into 3 parts in PS or LR, you shufflle the LH and RH sections leaving the centre section as is. (The final stitching is probably best done in PS I suspect.) Why the specific shuffling, as you described. Although I've not tried it, I would have thought it's arbitrary, since PS allows borders on the individual frames and the interface to the middle section can be dragged to overlap so that it looks as your examples above.
 
Ricoh said:
Peterm1, I love these triptychs very much and I'm inspired to give it a go myself.

On the technical side, and for clarification, after taking a standard 3x2 frame (FF) and spitting into 3 parts in PS or LR, you shufflle the LH and RH sections leaving the centre section as is. (The final stitching is probably best done in PS I suspect.) Why the specific shuffling, as you described. Although I've not tried it, I would have thought it's arbitrary, since PS allows borders on the individual frames and the interface to the middle section can be dragged to overlap so that it looks as your examples above.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ricoh. Much appreciated. I have quite often done it before in PS but not for a while and I would need to go back and give it a go one more time before I can give to much specific info about how it was done. I think from memory I opened the master image in one window and a new blank on of equivalent size in a new window. I then cut up the master image adding borders (I have a plug in for this but it can be done in other ways too) and copying and pasting those 3 individual sub images into the new blank image in the other window. As I say though I have to give it a go once more to refresh my memory.

More recently I have been experimenting with Nik Analogue Efex running under Lightroom (the free "abandon ware " version may still be available somewhere on the internet if you have not already downloaded that excellent Nik suite of processing plugins. One of the filters in Nik Analogue Efex software is called multi-lens filter and one of the effects available in that filter is the one you see in my images. You can choose from various frames: e.g. 3 vertical frames (the one I am using) 5 vertical frames, 3 horizontal frames etc. It is far and away the easiest way to achieve the effect and does allow you to move the images around within the frames a bit to get the framing as you want it. It also adds the border.

I do like the effect with the right image. It can add a touch of dynamism to an image which as I said I think gives it a kind of movie like aspect.
 
Forgot to say I stick with the Nik default shuffling which seemed to work for me but in principle you could use any order that looks good and works to help create a story, if I can put it that way.
 
Thanks Peter, a nice clear description to follow.

I purchased the Nik Suite, which includes Analogue Efex, when it was owned by Google and prior to it being offered free. I was, and still am, ok with that, you win some you lose some, as it's said.

I was losing the motivation to go out and shoot lately, but I now have something new to try out.

One of the other things I'm hoping to try is 'Joiners', in the David Hockney sense of the word. In a YouTube video the young Hockney describes the shortcoming of stills photography, compared to art, that of being able to express the passage of Time. I hadn't thought of it that way prior to listening to him. Something else to try to help me with this period I'm in.
 
Ricoh said:
Thanks Peter, a nice clear description to follow.

I purchased the Nik Suite, which includes Analogue Efex, when it was owned by Google and prior to it being offered free. I was, and still am, ok with that, you win some you lose some, as it's said.

I was losing the motivation to go out and shoot lately, but I now have something new to try out.

One of the other things I'm hoping to try is 'Joiners', in the David Hockney sense of the word. In a YouTube video the young Hockney describes the shortcoming of stills photography, compared to art, that of being able to express the passage of Time. I hadn't thought of it that way prior to listening to him. Something else to try to help me with this period I'm in.
Click to expand...

I am glad this has helped inspire you. It sounds as if you are somewhat similar to me in that I find considerable creative inspiration in discovering new ways to represent images. It is very hard over time to keep inspired when one almost inevitably finds oneself shooting the same kind of images in the same kind of locations. (Something similar to writers block I suppose). Going to new locations, for example, helps but I find that so does this kind of thing - experimenting with new imagery using different post processing techniques to develop or modify my style.

You / David Hockney are absolutely right in that stills photography does suffer in regard to expressing that dynamic element of the passage of time and I think that using multiple images in this manner can help with that. I also use deliberate motion blur through slow shutter speeds enhanced sometimes by post processing to help in that regard too. I think the first of the images I posted below exemplifies this, though the movement blur in this one is wholly accidental - but nicely complemented somehow by the images in the other two panels. The second image also works quite well in that regard by emphasising the stillness of the performer in the middle frame surrounded by life and movement of the busy street in the other two.

Without these creative "games" I would get stale very quickly and probably find myself reading books or playing tiddly-winks. :)
 
Thanks Peter. I wouldn't be at all surprised if many if no all photograhers (and other creatives too) suffer the feeling of 'I've done this all before', exacerbated by shooting in the same area, in my case a city.
Examining time is a challenging objective, photographically, and in itself can become a project. In general 'projects' give purpose and direction, unlike random snapping on the street for instance. One other problem for us in the northern hemisphere is the shortage of daylight, not only today being the winter solstice, but during late autumn and early spring. It's all too easy to say bugger it and have anothe game of fiddly-winks, as you suggested. ��
Steve
 
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