How to Work with Formal Imagery

Hi, everybody. This is Craig Tanner for the Mindful Eye and the Daily Critique. Today’s image was submitted by Chuck who is an advanced photographer from Illinois.

Chuck just recently created this image on the Mindful Eye’s Death Valley National Park workshop and this is from a location called Artist Palette. We started the discussion yesterday. We were talking about the difference between dynamic symmetry and formal symmetry. And yesterday’s image from Edmund was dynamically framed. So full framed 35 millimeter not crop image and we talked about dynamic symmetry and what I want to talk about today is the idea of formal symmetry in a shot that has been cropped very near to square.

Formal symmetry is a type of symmetry were a lot of times will take a single subject and center it so that the subject itself can be just put right down in the middle and we’ll have two halves of the same or we’ll work with design idea where subjects in the frame are reflecting each other in a way that’s very similar from one side to the frame to the other and a lot of times they’re straight across from each other. And a square framed image where we’re starting with the framing device that represent formal symmetry to begin with.

So this is very close to the square crop if we just went ahead and said that it was exactly square then it would be obvious to say that all sides of the image would be the same size and that the sides would be the same distance from each other in the frame. So we have a formally symmetrical framing device and to continue with the idea of traditional beauty or traditional harmonious visual design. If we start to arrange the subject to our main subjects of our image to be congruent or to rhyme that idea, the formal symmetry of the framing device then we could say that we would be just in the subject placement creating visual unity.

And even though this image is not perfectly formally symmetrical relative to yesterday’s image, we have a lot stronger sense centering of the main idea and we have a lot stronger sense of subjects being place on the X-axis and also on the Y-axis where they are straight across from each other. In this image, one of the things that happens to me is the viewers that this idea really draws my eye because a lot of the color in this image are warm and this is a real powerful cool color. It repeats again here and it repeats again here in a pretty strong way.

You also have a real strong feeling of contrast here and then in between that, you have an area of the image that flattens out about as much as any of other area of the image in terms of a value and contrast and color. And so a lot of the energy in this image is centered around the bulls eye of the image. The direct center of the image and this type of subject placement or a visual weight or implied movement or area that’s going to attract the eye of the viewer by putting into the middle can work very, very well in a square frame.

And the square frame also adds to the same distance form side to side and now we’re taking our main subject and we’re placing in a way where it is congruent with these idea. Now all lines leading to the edge are going essentially be of the same size so we have a rhyme there. When you look at this image even though again that’s not perfect in terms of this idea of subjects being placed, let’s say on the X or Y axis directly across from each other there’s a real strong feeling of that.

When you look at movement down here from subject to subject as this builds and goes up you have a whole series of subjects that are almost split down the middle of the frame. And they’re reflecting each other back and forth along the X-axis. We also get a real strong sense of a lot of subjects stuck up directly on top of each other on the Y-axis and you’re seeing that again over here as you move down all these shapes that are building.

There are similar shapes. They’re building on top of each other over and over and over again on the frame. And the other thing that’s true about Chuck’s image is that when you look at the corners you get a real strong sense of what I would call pinning the corners out so that corners have been composed in a way where they’re very similar.

If you go all the way to the corner, we essentially have the same color, same contrast, the same value happening in every corner. And again this idea of all four of these corners being weighed at the same, being almost exactly the same goes along whether it’s congruent, whether it rhymes the idea of the framing to begin with.

Now it’s not perfect here and so one of the things that can pretty visually powerful is getting close to a formal symmetry but then a sort of slightly being off kilter. It could be real nice way to add some tension back into a formally symmetrical shot because the risk with formal symmetry is that it can just become so static that the viewer doesn’t spend much time in the image.

And something else that’s still true and one we’re looking at square framing is that use of the major diagonals as a design element. It can still be very powerful and work very well and you get a strong sense of that in the image. It’s a really beautiful shot from Chuck here. I just really love the way that he has framed this. I love the way his working with the idea of formal symmetry. It’s really a beautiful sense of color and design and sort of this pattern study.

And we want to say big thank you to Chuck for sharing this image with us. I want to say big thank you to Chuck and Edmund and all the participants on our Death Valley National Park workshop for being here and I would love to hear your comments and feedback about this idea of the difference between dynamic and formal symmetries. I hope to see you again real soon on the Mindful Eye.