Composition, Collage, Composites

PROF VAUGHN: Okay, this video tutorial is
going to give you some art historical

context for what we're moving into with
Photoshop, and also some basic design

principle theories.

So we're going to talk a little bit about
composition, compositional strategies,

the history of collage, which is where we're
sort of launching off into our digital

collages which we're gonna call
composites, so they're very similar but

they have a couple differences.

Let's start off with composition.

When we're talking about composition,
we're really trying to answer this

question: where do you place your
elements?

We're always thinking about placing our
elements within our composition to get at

the most dynamic interesting look
possible.

There are some, sort of, standards that we
have in design principle.

We have rules, we have compositional
rules.

We have the rule of thirds and we have the
golden rule.

We have framing and implied lines.

We have background colour and
atmosphere, and something we call value.

So we're gonna look at these strategies so
that you can use them in your own work.

The rule of thirds is a really classic
important strategy, typically used in

photography, but we can use it also
because we're using images in Photoshop

and we're starting to add and combine
different elements.

So, in this rule, we're using an imaginary
grid of 9 equal parts, the placement of

your elements at the intersections equals
a more interesting placement for the viewer.

Um, so in this you can imagine you have a
grid, so I've got 2 vertical lines and 2

horizontal lines drawn in black over
these sample images.

Anywhere those lines sort of interact,
where they cross over, so right here,

right here, right here, right here, that is
the most dynamic placement for any

of your objects or subjects.

So you can see in this photograph, our
dog is placed in a really good position.

This vase also, uh, picture, has sort of
been placed in the same position.

Any asymmetrical placement is going to
create something for your viewers eye

to do.

The viewers eye is going to enter the
image plane and give it an opportunity

to travel around the composition, because
this is more dynamic, more energetic, can

have a feeling of tension, even.

So these are kind of those power positions
where you could imagine placing your

objects, elements, subjects, to create the
most dynamic possible position.

Here's another sample, I've got the
imaginary, kind of, grid drawn over this.

You can see we've got our subject placed
over to the left here.

The eye is starting over here because this
is in the foreground, and it is sort of

placed off to the side, so we start here.

We're sort of following the curve of the
landscape, similar tonal value, following

it around, and we very quickly, our eye is
going to go up to this bright spot, notice

this sort of castle is also at a power
position at this intersection, and then

we're going to travel over to this
imaginary, sort of like, dragon creature.

So, very dynamic position because the eye
is travelling around the composition.

Okay, really important classic, kind of,
painting, Edmund Dulac,

this is 'The Little Mermaid.'

Uh, here you can see we have a composition
similarly, things are asymmetrical, they are

placed off to the right.

It is not centered, the subject is a little bit
lower, the horizon line is up about that

middle third if you imagine the imaginary
rule of third grid.

Here gives you a kind of clear picture of,
kind of, how these elements are placed.

The imbalance is good here, so remember
that, you actually want imbalance in

your composition.

If we compared them, I cropped the one on
the right a little bit to make it sort of

centered, the comparison should give
you a good idea.

Here, your eye kind of comes in and it
travels up and it comes back down.

In this very centered image it sort of just
breaks the image plane into 2 parts.

Very boring, very static.

We also have 2 equal parts between the
top, because the horizon line is falling in

the middle, and this bottom section.

So it's very very static.

Our second rule is the golden ratio.

This is the Greek mathematical equation,
it expresses itself as a spiral.

Many of the most famous pieces of art use
this ratio to decide on the placement of

elements, and as a natural way to lead the
eye across the image.

This is very popular in, um, architecture
as well.

The golden ratio, again, it is a
mathematical equation.

Once you know he equation you can use it
to determine the placement and the scale

of certain objects.

Here's a very famous piece, you can see
how that spiral is being expressed in

the shape of the wave.

Many, uh, very important and classic
logos are based on the golden ratio.

So the ratio itself is 1 to 1.618, you can
see how these play out in logos that

you're often very familiar with.

So these all are using a ratio of 1 to
1.168: Chevron, Pepsi, all of these logos

using that golden ratio.

The idea behind the golden ratio is
that it is a mathematical proportion, so

the ratio itself is often found in nature,
think of shells etcetera, things you find

at the beach.

Um, that idea is sort of, uh, being
borrowed by designers to make logos that

feel naturally balanced.

Okay, let's talk about placement of where
you can put your things, again, thinking

of the golden ratio, thinking of the rule
of thirds, thinking about imbalance,

thinking about proportion, we're going to
try and do the most dynamic composition.

if we think about what is the least
interesting thing to do in comparison to

those strategies, it is always something
like this.

It is putting your main element right
smack in the center of your image,

of your composition.

The horizon line directly down the center
axis, super boring, avoid this.

We can think about giving our sense of-
giving our composition a sense of space.

When we're thinking of creating a sense of
space, remember we're working 2

dimensionally, but we're creating an
illusion of depth.

There are several ways to do this, we can
use framing elements, put things in the

foreground, angles and implied lines, or
atmospheric perspective and value.

Framing, super simple concept, you're
thinking about what is on the edges of

your image, left and right, top and
bottom.

You can think about it sort of like a
vignette, but anytime you have elements

that are used as a frame, your viewer
has the inclination to look through

thus these things that they're looking
through become kind of a, uh,

highlighted aspect, if you will.

When we're thinking about framing, it's
important to just note the following:

foreground, this word means anything
sort of in the frontal view right here.

Our midground appears about here
in an image, and our background of

course is the farthest away, so it
should be back here.

2 dimensional plane, so again it's an
illusion of space.

If we were to print this it's actually a
flat object.

Here's another example, what could be
placed in the foreground to create a

sense of space?

Particularly we know in our brain that
this is a small flower, but when placed

bigger in the foreground and we let
the background kind of go blurry, we know

that the landscape is actually very
dominant, it's huge compared to the

actual scale of the flower, but by giving
the flower some prominence in the

foreground, we have a greater sense of
space.

Implied line, so implied lines are another
design principle that are very important.

And implied line is a broken line that
visually we begin to connect together

using our brain.

Your mind is always going to try to
connect the dots, creating a

sense of direction.

These are hidden directionals, remember
they're not actual lines they're implied

lines, so in this particular instance the
implied line is happening with these

concrete spheres.

We start here in the foreground, it's the
largest element grabbing our attention,

our mind just sort of visually steps back
through the composition.

So we have an implied line that's about a
kind of soft arch.

We have actual lines in this image too,
we've got a pattern in the sidewalk.

More implied line.

Think about the way perspective can work,
you've seen and heard of perspective but

here we have a lot of actual line and
implied line.

Implied line happening here, we've got
this sort of repeated element dropping

from the foreground into the background,
same here.

We have actual line with these sort of
concrete, and the lines of the sidewalk,

but a lot of force here, the directional
given to your viewers eye is aiming

everything back to this little spot back
here.

Implied line is also something that's
connected to the gaze.

So when I say the gaze, I'm talking about,
um, a human or animal sort of view from

the eyeballs.

here we have our subject, they are gazing
this direction which, as a viewer of this

artwork, I want to know wat this person is
looking at, so every viewer is going to

follow the gaze, that's an implied line,
to this house.

It's coming down with this sort of
landscape, coming back over.

Or alternately, it's going up to this
house and then kind of swooping

back around.

So gaze is another very very important
implied line.

Okay, value and space.

When we talk about value in art, we're
talking about the lightness or darkness

of something.

When we talk about space, again, 2
dimensional but we're thinking about

creating an illusion of distance.

So value, importantly, has the ability to
create atmospheric perspective.

Again, in this image we're getting a sense
of space of a distant landscape because

this mountainscape is getting, um,
sort of a gradation effect.

We start from dark, medium, light,
even lighter.

So this atmospheric perspective works a
lot like fog.

You can think about how things feel very
far away when they're foggy.

Here's another example, if you have a
weak atmosphere over here, you have

a certain sense of space.

A stronger atmosphere, over here, and it
changes the way things feel

in the distance.

Okay, value can be really really powerful,
you can use it to emphasize certain things.

You very very very much can create these
sort of bright sports or areas of high

contrast that will always draw your
viewers eye first.

So areas of brightness are very attractive
to the eyeball, we're gonna look right

here and we're gonna look right here,
especially because this is so dark

on something that is so bright.

More examples, so these are all focal
points, your eye can't not look here

at this egg.

the focal point is here because it is the
brightest, the highest value.

Same over here, this super high value
beam of light, it is so light and bright

that we start up here and our eye looks
down, so we've got value, we also have

a line here so we're getting a really
strong focal point.

Notice the placement of the main
subject, also in that rule of thirds

it's placed at an interesting kind of
dynamic position.

Okay, let's think about collage for
a minute.

This will be our art historical reference.

Collage comes from the French word
collage, which means 'to glue'.

So this is a really important word, we're
gonna think about how this forms the

basis of what we will be doing, which is
a composite, but the idea and the roots of

this history are very similar.

We draw on collage from some really
important art movements.

We have cubism, dada, and surrealism.

All of these movements were very art
historically because they integrated signs

and fragments of real things.

This is one of the first times that this
happened in art history, we moved away

from super realistic painting of religious
figures and into using these kind of

everyday materials to create a very
obvious art aesthetic.

In a collage, you have very obvious edges,
and by edges I mean these look like rough

cut pieces, right?

They're just glued down pieces of paper,
maybe some drawing, maybe some painting.

This was a mix of high and low art, you're
very familiar, we've probably seen a lot

of these kinds of pieces.

Picasso is this example here.

Cubism, you can think about in terms of
its sort of fragmented nature.

We have many many many parts.

Some cubism was just painted, some also
has collage where they glued little bits

of paper in, but either way think of
cubism in this sort of multifaceted nature,

they were really breaking with prior
traditions and attempting to show many

angles at once.

Cubism was really important because it was
a reaction, it was very much against the

prior tradition of Western art.

The artists broke out of artistic
conventions and they made work that felt

fitting for their time period.

This is Braque and Guitar.

Dada came next.

In dada artists incorporated a wide array
of iconography.

These are- iconography refers to signs to
signs and symbols.

That was reinterpreted portraits, often
they were figures that were sort of

fantastical, very strange.

They became a little bit more innovative
and used different and more material than

our surrealists, or than our cubists.

And again, iconography is really just the
study of interpretation of visual images

and symbols, so signs and symbols.

Hannah Hoch was a great dada artist, using
all magazine bits, cut found material,

interesting sense of scale in Hannah Hoch's
work, interesting combination of elements.

Very strange, uh, fantastical odd
portraits.

Hannah Hoch is known for saying "there
are no limits to the material available

for pictorial collages, above all they
can be found in photography, but also

in writing and printed matter even in
waste products."

Here are some more samples of Hannah
Hoch pulling and pushing against

propaganda imagery, things found in
newspapers.

Francis Picabia on the right,
incorporating text.

We similarly --
we may not be using magazines

but we have a wide range of
images that we can use

from the internet.

Okay, last art movement that
we are going to quickly look

at is surrealism.

In surrealism, we are talking early
1900s, 1920s, 30s.

Here things are going to get
really, really crazy.

We start thinking a lot
more about the subconscious.

So this is when Freud becomes
kind of apparent and, um,

culturally relevant.

The artist really tap into
this idea of the subconscious.

They think through, um,
what they call the automatic,

which is sort of letting your brain flow,
not at or in yourself.

Psychoanalysis, again,
is an area they look into and

they become really concerned with dreams.

You can see that playing out
in their work.

So here is Dali.

Magritte, the double secret.

So again, they are really
concerned with the

internal experience of the human.

How does our psychology work?

Our mind?

Our subconscious?

Here is some more Salvador Dali.

Very strange combination of figues.

Always thinking about our design principles.

Look at this horizon,
it is in the lower third,

that is an important rule of thirds.

This is not centered,
it is off to the left.

Rene Magritte,
here is another one.

Look at the repetition of
elements or images.

We've got a pattern of this man
sort of falling through the sky.

This is something you could very easily
achieve in photoshop after this week.

Okay, so we are going to
think about digital composites.

They have, again, we are sort of
pulling on our art historical references

but we have moved into the digital era.

How can we achieve some of the
same things, and what might that be?

To what purpose?

So when we talk about composite
it is really important to note that

all we are referencing is the
combination of two or

more images together in a
seamless manner.

So we are not necessarily sort of
emphasizing those edges like

they did in collage.

But we are making it look seamless.

That is the point in a
digital composite.

That is where photoshop will help us.

So here I have got an image.

I have taken the fireworks and
composited it over this sort of,

um, mountain star scape
to get this.

Again, seamlessly done so it
appears real even if the

content or the story that it
is telling is sort of fantastical.

We are going to get more and
more, um, clever with the

way that we do composites.

We are starting off slow
but as our images get more complex,

your compositing skills will get more complex.

There are tons of great composites
out there that you can look at

for inspiration.

Remember, we are always looking
to create what appears to be a

seamless image even if the idea
reveals a magical idea or

a magical truth or
some sort of narrative

that we know is not real
but we can believe it

because it is seamlessly done
in photoshop.

This is Eric Johannson.

Great photographer, editor.

You can look up his work,
this is just one example.

I think it is called
'Give Me More Time'.

Carley Shelly, kind of a
everyday portrait photographer

who uses portraits of her
subjects to create digital composites

that fit maybe the characteristics of
her clients.

Chris Chrisman.

Again, we are really thinking about
seamless editing to create a new

scene that is somewhat magical
or a new truth.

And Roland Ong, this one, um,
this artist is kind of important

because when you watch the
newest version of photoshop

and you see this sort of man
with a mirror in the clouds,

that actually was done by this artist.

So, interesting sort of tension built.

Again, always looking at the
rule of thirds.

The seamless editing so
that these look very real,

knowing of course that the ocean
is not a blanket that could be picked up

but again, how could we achieve this
in photoshop?

These will be the things that we
will be looking towards doing

for your first assignment.