Exercise six: Fitting the frame to the subject

The idea of this exercise was to experiment with how much space the frame the subject takes up. To give me an additional challenge, if it were needed, I chose a subject that didn't naturally fit the frame - a tower in Two Brooks Valley, Hawkshaw.

Baseline shot - 13mm, 1/160 secs at f/20, ISO 400

This was my initial attempt. Although, as per the brief, the shot wasn't particularly thought out it's fairly pleasant on the eye, well exposed, and the wide angle provides depth to the scene.

Filling the frame - 22mm, 1/160 secs at f/20, ISO 400

The aim of the second shot was to fill the frame without loosing any of the subject. The shape of the subject made this more difficult and I wasn't able to fill the frame to any great extent without changing the angle of the composition. I think this adds to the appeal of the image, though.

Close up - 20mm, 1/60 secs at f/5.6, ISO 100

I took a number of different images to fit this brief, including some 'face on' close ups of the stone work. This was the strongest though. It gives the impression of two adding triangles, and there's also a contrast between the strength of the stone work and the fragility of the flowers (emphasised by the motion blur).

Subject in context - 55mm, 1/400 secs at f/11, ISO 400

This was one of two potential images for this element - the other was a panoramic that rendered the subject a little too small. This image leaves the viewer in no doubt of its countryside setting. The foreground detail also contributed to this image being stronger that the panoramic.

It proved a valuable exercise as more often than not I would have only considered the first three viewpoints. Having to choose the viewpoint for the fourth shot required much more consideration - from which direction, foreground detail, position in the frame etc. In addition, the learning from previous exercises meant that I confidently chose different lenses for the various images.