Birgit's blog

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Pattern/Repetition Challenge

Great job on the rule-of-thirds photos! Our next composition challenge is repetition and pattern. While repetition or pattern can be really boring (if you take a picture of a brick wall, you technically have repetition and pattern - but who would really want to look at it?) it can actually add a lot of interest to a photo. Here, we aren't talking about things like the varying pattern on a butterfly wing, but a motif/shape that repeats several times within the same photo. There are two ways to make pattern or repetition especially interesting:

1) Focus on it. Make the repetition the main focus of the piece. The most important thing here is to make sure the pattern fills the entire frame – the pattern should continue all the way across the composition (top to bottom, or side to side) to make the most impact.

2) Break it. It can be really interesting to have a pattern that is interrupted by one thing that is different.

Here are some examples (by, in order, Sheila, Sarah, Birgit, Sheila, Julie, Birgit, Birgit, Lisa):

Your challenge:

Look for interesting patterns or repeating motifs around you! Make sure to fill your whole frame. New photos only - don't go looking through your archives. Happy shooting!

posted by Birgit
1 comments at 2:03 PM

Comments:

Thanks Birgit, I need this so much. I keep feeling stale in my photography and this will help me see new subjects.

# posted by

Sheila Hudson : 4:57 PM

Birgit's Blog

Favorite Links

Stories

Blogs I read

Recent Reads:

Thursday, August 11, 2011