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07/15/2010 01:56:34 PM · #1 |
Maybe you too found fascination in the number of entries this week for our companion challenges: 68 for rectangles and 113 for spheres, or nearly twice as many entries for round over square shapes. Any ideas on this?
Consider the shape of photography: round and square. Which plays a greater role in your understanding of photography? We receive light/images through a round lens but look at that light/image through square/rectangular viewing screens, and ultimately format every image in squares/rectangles.
DPC, like most photographic sites, does not allow for round formatted images, but forces all images into a square peg. Though our image can be spherical, the final border around our spheres will always be rectangles. DPC formatting simply follows photographic protocol from photo-gods higher up, most of whom somehow consider the creative endeavor called photography as something which must fit into a box rather than into a ball.
Think of your eyes, one of the most important tools you have for photography. Imagine that you have an eyebox rather than an eyeball. Think also of the ball you stand upon known as Earth as you make your next image. Spheres abound in nature, whereas boxes are in short supply, except among the human population. We tend to live and work in boxes. The original camera, of course, was a simple box with a pinhole.
I'd love to hear any reflections you have on spheres and rectangles in light of this week's challenges.
Peace,
charliebaker (David) |
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07/15/2010 02:19:41 PM · #2 |
| Well, my reflections may not be as deep as yours :), but I entered the spheres challenge instead of the rectangles because I found it easier to conceptualize a dynamic composition with curves against a rectangular frame. Rectangles within rectangles tend to be more static, so I think it's more challenging to come up with a strong composition in that case. That and I'm lazy... |
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07/15/2010 02:30:42 PM · #3 |
| I felt spheres was going to have a lot of the studio created "wowee" stuff that is not my strong area. Rectangles seems to be more suited to my preferred subjects. |
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07/15/2010 02:47:09 PM · #4 |
| I entered spheres... its my husbands fault... i named the challenges... he threw a sphere at me (lovingly) |
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07/15/2010 02:51:35 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:
I felt spheres was going to have a lot of the studio created "wowee" stuff that is not my strong area. Rectangles seems to be more suited to my preferred subjects. |
I agree, but unlike you, rectangles is not my forté either! |
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07/15/2010 02:53:22 PM · #6 |
I like the idea of spheres. And had some lying around in an upside down hat in my room. So it was natual.
My first sphere shot I took at like 1AM before going to bed cause I remembered I had them. I sayed up till four cause I was so happy/surprised with the results. Heh.
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07/15/2010 03:00:33 PM · #7 |
| I thought the entries in spheres would all be stylized, which is not my style, but a DPC favorite, so I didn't enter. I did shoot for rectangle but found it difficult to create something dynamic, so I ended up eating my prop (Hershey bar) and moved on to the next challenge. |
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07/15/2010 03:47:13 PM · #8 |
Spheres just seemed more interesting. Rectangles seemed kind of flat and lifeless when I pondered them. And when it boils down to it, I couldn't think of an interesting rectangular subjects (not that there aren't any -- I just couldn't come up with one. Creative brain freeze)
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07/15/2010 05:19:36 PM · #9 |
I tried a circular border once.
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07/15/2010 05:41:06 PM · #10 |
| Rectangles are digital and mechanical, spheres/curves are analog, smooth and full of motion. I think we're more comfortable with curvy stuff. It's easier on the eyes, softer to the touch. We can build stuff with rectangles, but we can relax and enjoy curves. |
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07/15/2010 05:41:46 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by mycelium:
I tried a circular border once.
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I like it! I wonder what such an entry would be like if the black background was the same ubiquitous DPC grey? Then the circle border/frame would really stand out. Maybe some DPC folks will attempt entries like this! |
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07/15/2010 05:47:37 PM · #12 |
Aren't those vigilante or vigentee or givnette's kinda like circular borders? I like them when they're done subtly. They draw your eye in.
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07/15/2010 06:03:23 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by NiallOTuama:
Aren't those vigilante or vigentee or givnette's kinda like circular borders? I like them when they're done subtly. They draw your eye in. |
The vignette is a classic, old time printing technique/style. 
The limitations on round images are mainly due to the constraints of the output media: printable paper is usually rectangular, and a computer file/display would be confusing to describe succinctly if it were not a simple LxW matrix/array of dots. |
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07/15/2010 08:19:36 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
The limitations on round images are mainly due to the constraints of the output media: printable paper is usually rectangular, and a computer file/display would be confusing to describe succinctly if it were not a simple LxW matrix/array of dots. |
Indeed and understood when involving photography on paper, but what about within a photographic electronic media such as DPC? What keeps DPC from allowing variable formats for final form of the image, including round photo entries? |
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07/15/2010 09:00:21 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by charliebaker:
What keeps DPC from allowing variable formats for final form of the image, including round photo entries? |
I guess mainly the restriction against GIF images, which support transparency. However, they are not very good at displaying photographic images since you are limited to 256 colors.
As someone suggested, you could try making the background outside of your circle the same color as the DPC voting page background to make it "disappear" -- but I won't hazard a guess as to whether this would be considered a "clearly discernable border" or not ... |
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