Breaking the Rules

This weeks assignment was to Break the Rules of composition in photography.

This photo breaks the rules because it is heavily asymmetrical. Although my dog almost lies on one of the key points in the rule of thirds, he still is a bit too off to the side. I think this composition still works because it conveys an affect of inferiority and submission that a dog might experience.

This photo breaks the rules because of the blank space in the middle of the composition. The items in the foreground are blurry and the candle in the background breaks the theme of straight vertical objects.  I think those things add visual interest and an element of chaos among an otherwise very pristine image.

This last photo breaks the rules mainly because of how heavy each side of the composition is. There is a predominantly white area on one side and a predominantly dark area on the others; these conflict. To add to this, there is a lamp dividing the room in half. I think this photo still works because the division creates an element of dysfunction which adds to the affect of a messy room.

Surreal Photography

Shutter Speed: 1/640, Aperture: f3.5

The goal of this assignment was to use a panorama or time lapse photo to create a surreal effect. To create this photo, I took multiple pictures of my friend, Cecilia, lying on the ground, progressively arching her back more and then I brought it onto photoshop and layered the photos on top of each other with less and less opacity and moving each one up a little more. I used layer masks to rub away the background on all of the photos except the first and I used the liquify tool to arch her back more on the last few photos.

Mixed Lighting

This week I was focusing on mixed lighting. I tried setting my friend Cecilia up next to windows to get natural lighting that way but it wasn't strong enough. I found some bright spots throughout the school from where the light was shining in through skylights and decided to shoot there. I was trying to capture strong, bright lighting against her face to create deep shadows. 

When I showed some of my friends the pictures of her sitting in the atrium, some of them thought she was outside at first! 

I shot all of these pictures with a DSLR camera at a shutter speed of 1/25 and an aperture of f5.6.

Renaissance Lighting

The Renaissance was an era of new perspective. Artists such as Da Vinci, Brunelleschi and Massaccio introduced the concept of 3D art on a 2D plane and one point perspective. Oil paint was also introduced, giving a whole new medium for artists to work with. Subjects of art were often used as symbolism or documentation. Art wasn't just used for decoration but also to send a message to those who would see it or even used as important documents such as wedding certificates (as seen in the Arnold-Feeney Wedding by Jan Van Eyck.)

This week, I played with studio lighting to mimic the lighting in a Renaissance painting called The Magdalen Reading by Ambrosius Benson. Mary Magdalen was one of Benson's greatest muses alongside Sybil Persica. He treated these women in a very similar manner. This particular painting was most likely influenced by Rogier van der Weyden's painting under the same title.


I used DSLR camera on my friend, Cecilia with a shutter speed of 1/13 and an aperture of f14.


Ambrosius Benson was an Italian painter who moved to Bruges, Belgium to be part of the Northern Renaissance. There's very little information about Benson and he didn't have much influence in Renaissance. However, he was very successful and was known at the time for being a religious leader within the artistic community.