October Competition - Shape

[Pipeman]

Here we go then – another chance to get the brain working and go out and shoot something special for the Competition, or alternatively trawl through your archives and find a cracker which suits the theme.

You know you have some!!

“Shape” gives a wide choice to go for as everything has shape, but I think that the idea is that shape is the feature of the image that makes it stand out.

There will be abstracts, window scenes, buildings, PS distortions perhaps, and images shaped by oval instead of squares, etc.

Look at using a long lens to give things a compressed shape, or a wide angle to throw a different shape to the clouds, or simply look out for a different shape which makes an attractive image.

What’s your thought on the theme?

[benjiblanco]

I think shape is a simple subject, but complex because it is really often forgotten about.
We always think about colour, contrast, texture, action, exposure, composition, rule of thirds, lead ins the list goes on... but shape is not often in there.

Everything around us is made of just a few simple shapes, so look for combinations of them, matching, repeating, contrasting/conflicting.

Look for shapes that aren't so obvious too... a clear blue sky is nothing more than a blue rectangle, usually on top of another rectangle of land, but we dont often look at it that way.

Good tips from Ron about using focal length to exaggerate or flatten the depth of an image too, can have a big influence on how the viewer sees shape.