Formal Elements - Royal William Yard

This morning we had a lecture on the formal elements of artwork. We went through a PowerPoint presentation which included many different formal elements as well as examples. I enjoyed the lecture as it's so easy t forget about what you're looking for when taking a picture but this was a good refresher into what makes up a photograph. We went through the simpler elements like colour and shape and then progressed to the ones you need more thought for such as the rule of thirds and focal points. Below is a bullet point list full of notes from the lecture.

Line -directs eyes - can be horizontal/vertical/diagonal/zig-zag/curvy - they can be created by colours of repetition - they can add a sense of calmness or drama

Perspective - created by leading lines - adds depth - not everything needs perspective

Shape -2d - flat - organic or geometric - creates sense of space

Form - 3d - includes height, width and depth - geometric or organic - creates a sense of substance

Space - positive space is the area taken up by the subject - negative space is the area around the subject (tends to be plain or simple)

Texture - the surface quality - how it feels - eg. rough, smooth, gooey, bumpy etc - adds depth and interest

Tone - black, white and all the grey in between - can add drama and impact an entire image - dark to light

Colour - hue - colour schemes add harmony or contrast

Camera angle - worms view (from the ground) - birds eye view (from above)

Symmetry - a rough sense of reflection on each side of an image

Rule of thirds - when the image is split into 9 boxes to work out where a focal point or negative space is - subjects tend to be on one of the lines or corners

Pattern - repetition of a shape or object - isn't always exact

After the lecture we were given the chance to go on a photoshoot at Royal William Yard where we could look out for ways to best capture the formal elements. Below are some of my final images from the shoot, a little bit about my thought process whilst shooting and my reasoning for editing the way I have.

The first piece I chose is my favourite from the entire shoot. I was looking for something to show a good grasp on symmetry and repetition. The way the building was constructed almost exactly the same on each side enabled me to grasp symmetry in its best form. As I said in my notes, a symmetrical image doesn't have to be exactly the same on each side but just grasping the main idea. Another thing which clearly shows in this image is negative space. As the sky has a pretty neutral and simple look to it, it shows a large negative area. the building is the positive space and the sky is the negative as not much is going on. The last thing I really though about when looking at this image was the tone. When editing I decided to turn the image into black and white as it makes it more classic, gripping and to an extent, moving. The image looks like the sort of thing you would've found years back and as the Royal William Yard has been in place for hundreds of years I thought it was fitting to add depth and more meaning.

The next piece is the picture to the right. The main idea behind this was to get to grips with the idea of rule of third and depth of field along with focal point. When taking this piece I pictured the grid in view and lined it up so that the sea would catch the top boxes and the middle would be the most in focus and central in the grid. I also think this image fits in well with the idea of texture as you can almost feel the rocks making the wall. You can feel the roughness and the sharpness.

The last image covers both rule of thirds and colour. The placement of the flower was chosen to be central as I thought it would be a good way for it to stand out amongst the leaves. When walking around the Royal William Yard I noticed the bright colourings of the flowers and the contrast between them and the leaves. I wanted to capture the harmonious vibrancy yet the contrasting shades and the best way to do so was have a centre in focus surrounded by the other colours blurred.