Advanced CeramicsStill Life Composition

Project

FINAL PHOTOS UPLOADED TO ARTSONIA

BY JUNE 8, 2020

NO EXCEPTIONS

"A picture is worth a thousand

words". But a picture of what?

Sometimes photographs

capture something that is already in

existence - a landscape, a scene on the street, even a candid selfie. But

often times, the photographer or

artist constructs a scene to tell a very

specific story. Victoria Ivanova

Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate (not living) subject matter, typically a small group of objects.

Composition is an important aspect of still life photography; composition is the way in which the elements or objects in a photograph are arranged.

Traer Scott

Jerry Peng

The backgroundis another important aspect of photography; the background greatly influences the quality of the photograph.

Balance is a principle of design that is used often in photography. Balance is the arrangement of the elements to create an equal distribution of visual weight throughout the composition. If a composition appears top or bottom heavy and/or anchored by weight to one side, it is not visually balanced. There are three types of balance:

• symmetrical (formal balance): the image or form is equally weighted on both sides of a center line

• asymmetrical (informal balance): the image or form is unevenly weighted

• radial: the weight of the image or form radiates from a center point.

Remember the Rule of Thirds, that you learned in Art 1? This rule helps you achieve balance in all forms of art including still life photography as you will see in how the artists composed the following still life photos.

• Symmetrical balance (formal): the image or form is equally weighted on both sides of a center line.

• If I drew this grid on top of the picture, the identical thing is happening in all the boxes

asymmetrical (informal balance): the image or form is unevenly weightedThis first photo shows a nice, colorful still life composition of asymmetrically balanced tea cups.

This second photo shows the rule of thirds grid on top. Notice the focal points indicated in blue dots at the line intersections. You want the viewer’s eye drawn to the focal points. You also want to use the vertical columns as a way to organize your still life in thirds, or use the horizontal rows to do so, depending on your still life materials.

radial: the weight of the image or form radiates from a center point.

*when you hear or read the word radialthink round. Chances are the object or shape will be round. Many times in art, a radial design includes a repeated shape or pattern. There’s that Art 1 stuff again!

You can tell a beautiful, funny, tragic, or somber story with constructed environments. The three-dimensional items in the photograph, the arrangement of the items, their visual balance, the hierarchy of scale among the items, the lighting... all of these things contribute to the overall story that you capture in a single photograph.

Your assignment is to create a series of at least 3 still life photographs that

utilize a minimum of 10 items/objects to tell a story about you at this

moment in time. What are the things around you that you interact with?

What do you hear? What do you see? What do you eat (or eat with)? How do

you feel?

Take those items and arrange them in a composition that helps tell the story.

Think about the background; are you staging things in a corner, under a tree,

in a flower garden, on a floor with a solid colored wall behind?

Also think about where the bigger items are and where the smaller items are;

create visual balance that makes sense for your story - is it all shoved into the

corner or is each item 6" apart from each other?

And finally, how is the lighting in your picture? Is the sun behind you and

your body casting an unwanted shadow, or is the evening light streaming in

so that your items cast their own shadows to create a desired visual contrast?

STILL LIFE COMPOSITION RUBRICRequirement Possible Points

3+ High Resolution Photos of your Still Life composition uploaded to correct album in Artsonia

3

Composition made of 10+ objects showing a personal narrative

3

Composition shows BALANCE: symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial

3

All 3 photos demonstrate the Rule of Thirds in the framing of the composition of each photograph.

3

Background in composition is intentional, staged, and thoughtful

3

Photo lighting appears intentional by artist: suggesting mood or tone relating to composition

3

Project completed by due date of June 10 and google form rubric completed on time.

3

Title of Composition:_________________________________ 3

Total Points _______/24