Now the theory works done its time to put into practise what we've learned of Gestalt. Right of i made the classic mistake of thinking how hard can it be, surprisingly quiet hard. Now I'm aware of the basic principles i start looking at the scenes through the camera lens in a slightly different way looking for shapes and relationships that although i probably subconsciously recognised before, now i really start the think about what I'm seeing. What i soon found was that alot of the time things just don't fit together to form the kind of order I'm searching for or parts of the scene don't quiet form the shapes I'd like. To say I'm driven a little mad by the process is an understatement but with a bit of persistence i think i got three pretty good images.
f-stops- f/9
Exposure- 640secs
ISO- 800
Exposure Bias- 0 steps
Focal Length- 300mm
With the above photo of a Red Admiral butterfly i used the Law of Closure and the Law of Simplicity to produce a very balanced image. The way Closure works is that the each wing and the fern leaf below form triangles while also you have another formed between the two wings and the top of the frame, add these all together and they direct your eye nicely to the middle of the frame and the main focus. To involve Simplicity i managed to capture the butterfly in such a location that there isn't alot of confusing lines in the background or foreground which remove from the focus of the shot, yes i think i could have used a little more blurring in the background but unfortunately with the lens i had i couldn't get a much lower F-stop setting to gain this depth of field. Took a bit of time and patients to get the right shot because anyone who's ever tried to photograph butterflies will know that the slightest movement and away they go, i must have spent about an hour hour and a half just following the bloody thing round the garden with my camera and tripod and each time i thought I'd got it either the wind would blow and it would take off or I'd scare it myself somehow. Overall i think the colours and sharpness created by the light really make this photo stand out, but that's just my personal opinion.
f-stops- F/10
Exposure- 250secs
ISO- 250
Exposure Bias- 0 steps
Focal Length- 28mm
For my next image in this project you could possible say makes use of quite a few of the laws, when i original took it i only really had in mind the Law of Simplicity created by the single line of trees line up diagonally through the frame but when I've sat and studied it a bit more i think there's more to it then just that. You could put the idea of Proximity to it because you recognise that the trees are grouped together because of how close they are to one another but then also you could use Similarity because they are the same shape and size throughout only appearing smaller as they move through the frame, finally I'd also say Good Continuation has some part to it also because you can imagine the line of trees continuing in either direction out of the frame. My thinking behind shooting in black and white was that i found the colours in the scene a little distracting from the pattern i was focusing on, if it had been a few month later with Autumn in full swing i might have felt differently but at this point all i would have ended up with was a very solid block of green which to me didn't do anything for it.
f-stops- F/7.1
Exposure- 400secs
ISO- 640
Exposure Bias- 0 steps
Focal Length- 250mm
For my final image its all about the eyes. When you study a face i never realised and to be honest hadn't before this point thought about it that much but the shape of it tends to make you focus on the eyes, what i mean is that if you consider it with the Law of Closure in mind the shape formed by the nose around the eye sockets forms two circles which draw you whether you know it or not to focus on the eyes. Its very clever in away and I'm sure there's some reason for it ( I'm pretty sure i read somewhere that if you only see a persons eyes that you know you'll recognise them) but anyway this is slightly getting of the point, my aim was to get a close up of a face to make use of this idea and this cats face works better then maybe a humans because the markings help to outline the shapes more clearly. I have increased the saturation of the eye colour slightly plus my focus is off a bit because its more on the nose then the eyes but overall I'm happy with how the final shot turned out.
To be honest i found this project as I've already said difficult at times but once i got my first shot in the bag the other two didn't take me that long to finish. What I've found through this process was a different way to look at and study photos, as the saying goes things aren't always as black and white as they seem and when you understand Gestalt theory it give you another way to dissect imagery and understand what makes it work and why.
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