Vertical and Horizontal Frames

When taking photographs many people forget that you can and should look for opportunities to shoot in both landscape and portrait. There are certain situations where portrait photography could alter the structure of the photograph and as such many photo opportunities may be over looked.
This next exercise illustrates this process.

f/9-1/160-100-17mm

f/9-1/160-100-17mm

Shooting here the scene tends to work best in landscape mode, which is usually more appeals to the human eye.

f14-1/125-100-17mm

f/14-1/80-100-17mm

The horizon here plays a big part and illustrates that again shooting in landscape is more appealing.

f/14-1/400-800-250mm

f/14-1/400-500-250mm

With the addition of detail below the horizon in the mud flaps and re-positioning the horizon line to the top of the frame the portrait photograph has surpassed the original in this instance.

f/16-1/40-250-17mm

f/16-1/30-250-19mm

Landscape photo is more appealing, as the main focus of the photo is the reeds on the edge of the lake.

f/22-1/30-320-17mm

f/22-1/30-250-17mm

The expanses of the flowers and position of the horizon line makes the landscape photograph more appealing.

f/4-1/320-100-55mm

f/4-1/400-100-55mm

The landscape photo here is fairly compact, gives nice details towards the edge of the photo, whereas the portrait photo allows more details on the foreground and the tree in back is now completely visible. In this instance I prefer the portrait photo.

f/4-1/320-100-55mm

f/4-1/250-100-55mm

The additional detail of the tree in the portrait photo makes this more appealing. On reflection the photo could have been taken higher so that the flowers appear at the base of the tree and photo.

f/4-1/200-100-17mm

f/4-1/320-100-17mm

Where the landscape photo shows more of the fountain the portrait allows us to see that the mouth of the gargoyle statue is part of the complete fountain.

f/4-1/640-100-17mm

f/4-1/640-100-17mm

Here the portrait photo allows us to see the entire statue where as the landscape does not blend itself well to the frame.

f/4-1/320-100-40mm

f/4-1/320-100-40mm

The nature of this subject being vertical automatically blends itself to the portrait frame.

Positioning the Horizon

Manipulating the position of the horizon was the aim of this exercise.

f/14-1/60-400-40mm

Position of the Horizon towards the top, shows good detail in the mud flaps, the sun setting in the background adds to the composition of the photograph.

f/14-1/60-320-40mm

Horizon position slightly lower than above, the detail is lost in the bottom of the photo now which has perhaps lost some of the contrast across the image.

f/14-1/60-320-40mm

Horizon now mid way, the photo appears bland, the actual position of the horizon and detail within the photo do not blend well together.

f/14-1/60-200-40mm

The sky is more prominent in the photo above, the detail of the mud flaps, and curves draw your attention to the front of the photo where sun and clouds offer another attractive point of view.

f/14-1/60-125-40mm

With the horizon positioned along the bottom of the frame, the focus of the photo now becomes vast expanse of sky. The sun setting in the bottom left helps draw your attention away from the nothingness.

f/14-1/80-125-40mm

The horizon is now just below the bottom of the photo, small details are slightly visible.

A combination of low and high horizon lines work well here.
Looking through the photos I feel that there's a relationship between the horizon line and details within the frame that help with composition and determining if the horizon affects the photograph and how it looks.
I note that as rule of thumb horizons tend not to be positioned centrally, however there are always exceptions to this rule ... depending on the subject, detail and meaning.

Balance

The object of this exercise is to take some of my existing photographs and look at how they are balanced.
whether this is by, subject, other objects, colour etc
Next to each photo you will a small chart showing my interpolation of the 'balance' in each photo.

f/5.0-0.5-100-30mm

Balance was straight forward here, with the statue dead centre and the two church towers either side.

f/5.6-1/60-1600-79mm

Although I like the composition of this photo, the balance as I see it is slightly off centred, however this doesn't affect the image and makes it more appealing.

f/5.6-1/60-800-55mm

 Although the most dominate feature of this image is the sign post, I feel the background and washed colours help balance this photo out.

f/8-1/400-500-250mm

A good balance of deep colours and subjects help balance this photo.

f/5.6-1/1600-400-250mm

Here each Dama Gazelle almost mirror each other as they playfully head butt each other! 

I like this image as it portrays a typical romantic link between each animal, although slightly cheesy!

f/8-1/100-320-200mm

The balance here is difficult to determine, as the lion statue is so dominate within the frame. Although at first glance it would appear off balance, I feel the nature of the background bring the image together, the subtle details of the windows, the house and vines all aid at balancing out the photo.