The Aesthetics of Photography

[landyvlad]

The attached link is to the pdf of a presentation which covers the Art Elements (colour, tone etc), Design Principles (contrast, movement etc), Design Concepts (eg juxtaposition), and Compositional Guidelines of photography.

It's a fairly long document that is illustrated with examples
http://www.emmagilettephotography.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Aesthetics-of-Photography_By-Emma-Gilette.pdf

The link is to the Emma Gilette Photography website, which is well worth a look ! ( http://www.emmagilettephotography.com.au/ )

[cameraguy]

Good info, thanks

[Grant S]

Whilst I think that most of the information in this is on the money, it comes across as a Y12 level assignment and one that would be in for a good pass mark rather than a top of the class effort. Some of the explanation is either non-existent or assumes prior knowledge, so for some readers (beginner photographers for example), this is likely to be small assistance. I like that she's got lots of examples, but her explanations of some of the concepts and examples are not adequate for a beginner to understand what they are really looking at. A very quick Google search I did found several much better explanations of the concepts and some which are much more approachable by a beginner right up to more advanced students.

None of this is to say that Emma's photography itself is not very good, just that the document feels like a student's assignment rather than good source for getting your head around the aesthetic elements of photography. Just my 2c worth.

[arthurking83]

I suppose we all have a certain taste(or acceptance) for certain genres.

My personal taste is that I'm not a big fan of this type of photography .. it looks too 'layered' and 'actioned' .. in that it doesn't represent any real artistic effort.
I mean, it implies a sense of 'try every action or texture available and see which one works best ... '

Some of the older photos she's included seem to point to an actual level of artistic flair ... the photo of Dali and his moustache are funny!

haven't had a chance to read it all(wayyyy too long, even by my standards! :D) .. but I've bookmarked it (with this reply) to come back to it.

[ricktas]

I am a bit with Grant here. Whilst she has presented the information all in one place in a PDF, it is really nothing new. All the compositional aspects and more she brings up are well known tools. All she has done is combine them and present them.

Photography the past few years seems to be about trends, and everyone copying the 'latest style'. As soon as someone wins a major professional photography award for a new 'style', every photographer and their dog jump on the bandwagon and emulate the style. Her photography is good, but it looks exactly the same as most of the portrait photographers out there at present. She uses the low contrast, warming filters, and the baby swaddled in a basket is not new. She certainly knows how to pose and light her subjects, but she really is not bringing anything new to the table.

I think her work is interesting and of a high standard, but we need to be careful that we do not stick her on a pedestal for just copying what has gone before.

[ameerat42]

Thanks guys. You saved me a lot of typing.:D