Hi everybody, this is Craig Tanner for the Mindful Eye and the Daily Critique. Today’s image was submitted by Edmund who is an advanced photographer from Massachusetts. Edmund just created this image on the Mindful Eyes Death Valley National Park workshop. This is a location in Death Valley called Artist Palette.

What I want to do over the course of the next couple of days is look at two images. The image today is an image that is working with dynamic symmetry and when you look at the image tomorrow that’s been crop square and works more with the idea of formal symmetry.

So I wanted to talk about these two different types of symmetry and when and why we might work with those ideas as an overall design idea in our image. And the other thing that I want to talk about today is I want to talk a little bit about the difference between the color and black and white version of this image. There is a color image and I also want to talk about the idea of contouring lines and how they create movement and the difference between that and implied visual movement in between subjects and the different sort of psychological effect that that could have on the viewer.

One of the things that I love about this image of Edmund’s is I really love right away the white that I know how to move through the image based on the idea of leading the line. And for me this image is a real classical image in terms of trying to create the grand scales and the landscape photograph. If you’re talking about an image were we want to imply moving through the image with the Z-axis in a very powerful way, axis horizontal movement, Y-axis is up and down movement. The Z-axis is the illusion that we can move through the image.

I’m having leading line that works on a diagonal or curves or in this case really beautiful S-curve have us to create the illusion that we can move through the image. And so much at a time when I’m shooting landscape, I'm looking for a combination of two things. If I’m trying to shoot big and wide and get a strong sense of place, I look for dynamic foreground subject like this holly bush.

It’s a single standalone subject that separates that could be a beautiful subject all by it self and I’ll look for foregrounds like this in areas where that combines with leading line that can help to connect the foreground area to the middle ground and out to the background of the shots. So very classical in terms of those two elements of visual design.

Let’s talk about the idea of dynamic symmetry. This image has not been crop in the 35 mm rectangle. It’s a very dynamic rectangle. We’ve got one side this longer than the other side and the long side is about 1-2/3 longer than the short side. When we have this kind of dynamic framing and we have a rectangle, dynamic symmetry tends to work really well.

First of all, dynamic symmetry is where instead of having a formally symmetrical shot where we have a direct reflection of subject. So we have one subject over here that’s almost directly reflected on the other side. The subject is very, very similar.

In dynamic symmetry, we can have subjects, they are very different that balance each other and a rectangular frame of shot that can work really well because the idea of a dynamic frame has already been set up.

And a big part of traditional visual design is creating a feeling of unity through repetition and this is one of the main subjects in the image. When we place it about two-thirds of the way through the image, that placement is congruent or repeats the idea of one frame being one and two-thirds longer than the other side frame.

Another thing that works really well for talking about dynamic symmetry is the idea of having things that are different, that are across from each other that are able to balance each other. And these two ideas in the frame are very classical in terms of two parts of the frame or two subjects that can balance each other but they’re very different.

One of the main subjects here, the holly bush in the foreground is pretty small but it’s very high contrast. And if we know the visual hierarchy of how the viewer looks at our images in a black and white image, it would be there is of highest contrast first then highlights then mid tones and then shadow areas with detail and black with no detail, that sort of the path that the viewer’s going to take.

Well, this is one of the highest energy subjects in the image because it’s high contrast. It’s also been pushed out near the edge in particularly and dynamically framed images. When we take a subject and we push it over towards the edge, we can call that leveraging the subject because the further it gets to the edge of the frame whether it’s very near the top, whether it’s the very near the bottom or particularly in this case in a horizontal. When you start to push it way out on the horizontal X-axis, and get it very close to the edge, it takes on more and more potential to be able to leverage a lot of information. That’s what’s happening here.

This subject across from the holly bush is very big. It’s very heavy in terms of tone. It’s also heavier than the bush because it’s over it and just the idea of movement on the Y-axis up and down from top to bottom. Things that are high on the image have quite a bit of visual weight because the idea of gravity and it’s easier to follow than it is for the viewer to move up.

So even though these two subjects are very different, they still can balance each other and we call that dynamic symmetry and you see other example of that in this image. You see a shape here that repeats on a diagonal over here. This shape is the same but it’s smaller than the shape and these two are working off of each other but this shape is above the shape.

So even though it’s smaller it has more visual weight and these two ideas balance each other really well. And the sky is doing the same thing. We basically have a high contrast shape and idea. And then a sort of it spreads out and repeats in this part of the image where it’s lower contrast but this again is above this.

And so those two ideas in dynamic way or balancing each other, something else that works really well if we’re talking about dynamic symmetry is movement on a diagonal. So in other words, these subjects are moving on a diagonal and balancing and a big part of the reason for that being true and a rectangular framed subject is just this idea that things that are higher can have more weight than things that are lower.

We’re going to look tomorrow in an image has been crop square and we’re going to see that when we start with the symmetrical framing device. The different type of symmetry or formal symmetry where we center subjects and where we have subject that reflect each other not only in a direct way but in a lot of times are straight across from each other that that can tend to be very visually pleasing.

So then I was going to talk a little bit about the color version of this shot. For me the black and white versions were so much better and a big part of the reason is that in the color version, two things to me are really making to me less evocative for the viewer. One is that just this color, this very, very cool green blue is not as emotionally appealing to the viewer as an idea of a near of high contrast or an area of very white in a black and white image.

This is a cool color and intends to literally push out of the frame. The other thing is truly is then the color version with this being a color. This sort of cool color and the cloud and the background now are being close to a neutral color. These two ideas don’t connect very well and that takes us to the concept of the difference between contouring lines that actually outline shapes in the image and the idea of implied lines of movement in between subject.

And one of the reasons that the black and white version is working so well is that you have this very powerful implied line of movement from near to far because these ideas now rhyme each other much better when we go to black and white. The shape here, the texture really plays off of the main subject. So you not only have contouring lines that help you to move through, have implied movement because of rhythm from this subject between black and white to this subject.

And a lot of times, this type of movement has a much bigger psychological impact on the viewer. You’re going to be looking more landscaping just over the course of the next few weeks from the Death Valley National Park workshop. And I want to say a huge thank you to Edmund for sharing this really stunning landscape image from Artist Palette in Death Valley National Park and see you again soon on the Mindful Eye.