Friday Photography

Today's post takes a look at textures.

This week's assignment is: Textures (bet no one saw that coming).

Please post any photos, comment about anything or ask any questions about photography.- Also, treat this as a photography (or anything else for that matter) open thread.

Textures

A somewhat meandering look at the subject of texture in photography

If there was a single question that has driven my own photography it is the one of what makes for a successful photograph. I have reached a few conclusions (most of which are tentative at best.) One is that it is not the subject matter. Two photographers can take photographs of the same thing under the same light using the same equipment and one’s work will be breathtaking and the other’s pedestrian. The same two photographers can approach a subject considered to be as dull as ditchwater and guess what? The same thing happens, one produces excellent images and the other doesn’t. So it isn’t the subject that makes the photograph. Of course this doesn’t mean that having a beautiful subject doesn’t help matters.

So, if it isn’t the subject then it has to be more abstract elements. Good photographers know this either consciously or subconsciously. There is always something about a scene that draws us in. It may be an unusual color combination, an interesting arrangement of shapes or lines, tones and contrasts etc. Another element that makes a scene interesting enough to photograph is texture and that is what I want to look at in a bit more detail.

As far as photography is concerned there are at least two different types of texture. There is the texture that comes from the real three dimensional world and then is captured by the camera. Think of say, a photograph of a brick wall. The surface is usually rough and pitted and the camera captures this. The other is the purely visual texture that has no depth. A photograph of a chessboard would be an example. The subject is two dimensional yet it provides a very definite textural feel if used in a photograph. Most of this piece will be about the former.

I apologise in advance if this comes across as stating the obvious but sometimes it is good to go back to first principles to really understand something and, perhaps more importantly, to be able to apply it. What is texture? Easy answer to this one - texture is bumps pure and simple. Or to put it another way three dimensional protrusions and indentations on a two dimensional surface. With our sense of touch we can build a mental picture of a texture by tough, we can run our finger over a surface with our eyes closed and build up a mental picture of the surface’s structure. Obviously we do not have this option when it comes to looking at a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional surface (or anything else for that matter) so how do we know that something is textured just by looking at a picture of it? The answer to this question is shadows - that’s it, that is all. We feel bumps but we see shadows.

This information tells us how best to photograph a surface to emphasize its texture. To make the texture pronounce we need to emphasize the shadows cast by the bumps. We need to make them big and obvious to the camera. To cut a long story short a light source that is low and at 45 degrees to the camera does the best job. A soft light is better than a hard one as it stops the shadows from going completely black which leads to an image that looks like it was produced on a xerox machine, i.e. extremely contrasty with all detail lost. Dawn and dusk are the ideal times as they provide the low angles, soft warm light that rakes across the subject. The textures are revealed but the image never becomes harsh. This is also why landscape photographers tend to work during these hours - not because they like getting up in the morning and not eating supper with their families.

Sometimes too much texture will ruin an image by making it too fussy and the answer to this problem is hinted at in the previous paragraph. Architectural photographers sometimes want to show off the clean lines of a building and too much textural information simply gets in the way. They will often shoot at midday when the shadows are hard and dark. They can not only be used to emphasize lines but can also bury detail in the shadows (and in the highlights for that matter).

With regard to portrait photography too much texture is generally regarded as a bad thing. 45 degree lighting will emphasize every skin imperfection and will generally age the subject by at least a decade. Of course if gritty realism is the goal then all bets are off and 45 degree sidelighting is a good option.

Anyway that is enough about texture. Apologies for the rambling post - it is mainly to to an allergy induced sinus thing that makes me really spacey and unfocused - always happens at this time of year.

Assignments

Last Week's Assignment - Local

Photographs and comments

This Week's Assignment - Textures

Lots of potential here.
Some random suggestions:
Macros of towels, toothbrush heads, rusty metal, peeling paint
Photographs of patterns in construction, bricks, pavers, stonwork.
Grass. leaves (closeup or lots of leaves = different types of texture)
Meshes e.g. fences, waste bins, cheese graters.

Any treatment is fine - natural colors, black and white, heavily edited or straight out of the camera. It's all good. One quick hint with regard to editing though: If the software you use has a local contrast option this can really give textures a 3D look. It has different names in different software. I know that it is called clarity in Lightroom.

Where to post images

I'll put up a new thread tomorrow, around noon ET, specifically for the uploading of photos relating to the assignment. If you want to post them here and/or on tomorrow's thread that is fine. Also feel free to post any other images of anything on either today's or tomorrow's threads. The assignments are purely optional.

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.

-George Eastman

This is an open thread so have at it. Post photos, questions, thoughts etc. - anything whatsoever to do with photography or anything at all for that matter.