Shape and Form

 

Shape and Form is such a broad topic, I started by creating a spider diagram of all the possible areas I could pursue.

 

 

As an initial response to shape and form I started doing some primary research into organic shape and form. I took a series of experimental photographs capturing a variety of 3D natural forms:

 

 

Whilst taking photos I became particularly interested in photographing these *flower* because of their striking colours and unique forms. But I was fascinated with capturing the reflection of these flowers in the window behind them. I became interested in creating depth to the my photographs.

 

 

Using a small aperture of 5.6 I captured the reflection of the flowers in the window. By using a small aperture brought the focus on the shape and formation of the petals, because it blurred out the background distractions. The darkened and blurred background creates depth to the images, maintaining the flowers 3D formation. I think these images worked particularly well because whilst the shape of the petals have not been distorted, they appear to be floating. The double glazed window also created 2 reflections of each petal, and this detachment of the flower heads from their stems makes them appear abstract, and focuses the attention on their form.

 

 Unedited image:

 

 

 Experimentation with different flowers and plants. Unedited image of the reflection of a *flower*. The vibrant colours, duplicating of the flowers from the double glazing and darkness in the background created by the small Aperture setting (5.6), results in an abstract and unique way of capturing natural forms through photography.

 

Exposure

I then did some basic editing using photoshop to adjust exposure and contrast. I first experimented with reducing the contrast and brightening the images. The results  were very soft, abstract, and highly texturized. The soft background flattens the image and brings focus to the shape of the petals.

 

 

However these images are quite noisy and they are too flat. I then experimented with doing the opposite, I darkened the images and increased the contrast, this resulted in keeping the depth to the image and bringing out the colour of the petals. I think the contrast between the colour and the dark background work better in this image:

 

Texture

 

After my initial experiment I then went back and decided to experiment with different textures and different focuses. With in each image there are 3 layers of different textures; the scratched, dusty glass, the petal (reflection), and the stone floor the Kitchen inside. I decided to work in black and white as I wanted to focus on texture in the images. I also edited each image by slightly increasing the contrast to bring out textures.

Window surface (first texture)

Plant and slate tiles on kitchen floor (surfaces 2 and 3)

 

Final Images capturing all three surfaces, window, flower and tiles.

 

 

This experiment has taught me to search for unique ways of capturing shape and form. I have become interested in considering the layers and compositions of my photographs, to create dimension, or flatten 3D forms. The different textures in my final images are effective because they complement each other yet also contrast, making them very visually interesting. They appear to adopt both 3D and 2D forms, the kitchen and flowers, against the flatness of the surface of the window. This results in a diverse range of shapes, patterns and forms in the images.