Scale

Explore scale in photography. Create three photographs that explore techniques of scale: leading lines, diminishing effect, and depth of field. You are also encouraged to digitally enhance images of your choosing from this lesson or prior lesson assignments in preparation for curating a cohesive body of work.

Essential Question: What is the importance of providing a sense of scale in a photograph?

Before we begin taking photographs and experimenting with new techniques, we will be talking about scale in photography. Scale is important in an image because it is the key to creating a relationship between the elements in any particular scene. This gives the viewer a good idea of the size of the objects in your image.

The camera lens looks at the world differently than our eyes do.

Questions for Discussion:

• Have you ever tried taking a photograph of the moon? What have you noticed happens when we photograph the moon with our phones?
• In your opinion, how does scale influence photography? Think about a photograph you might have seen of mountains or a cityscape. How did the photographer capture the large scale?
• How about a photograph of something small? How did the photographer capture its small size?

Review the Vocabulary: Review the Unshuttered Scale Reference Sheet. Keep the reference sheet handy, either printed or saved on your computer or mobile device.

Next: Look at a few artwork examples that used scale in thoughtful ways.

Examine Artworks: Look at one of the two student photographs shown here. Pause for about 30 seconds to simply observe the image, then share what you notice about the photograph.

• 30-45 seconds examining the artwork
• 2-4 minutes discussing the artwork
• Transition to the next artwork
• Repeat as time allows

About the Artists (Image 1) Norma Vidal grew up in Boyle Heights, graduated from Roosevelt High School, and currently attends the University of California, Irvine. "When I first joined the Getty Photography Program I had almost no experience with photography. I just found it interesting, and always thought it was really cool the way photographs could capture so many meanings at once. As I got more involved with photography, I realized that I really liked to take pictures of my community and things that represented my culture because I was very proud of them. My community is majority Latinx including low-income households and struggles with multiple issues such as redlining, lack of school funding, the school to prison pipeline, police brutality, and more. All of this has made me who I am today and has really shaped how I view the world and how I wish to spread awareness through my photographs."

(Image 2) Joshua De Bose is currently a third year student at UC Santa Barbara and started photography in 2018 as a member of the first Getty Unshuttered class. "In my photos, I focus on having a well-composed shot with colors that best compliment the subject/model."

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first about this image? Be as descriptive as possible. This is not about interpreting the image but rather simply describing details you notice.

• What stands out to you the most about how this photograph uses scale?

• How does the scale influence the perception of this image?

Examine Getty Collection Artworks: Look at one of the three Getty collection photographs shown here. Pause for about 30 seconds to simply observe the image and share what you notice about the photograph.

• 30-45 seconds examining the artwork
• 2-4 minutes discussing the artwork
• Share the artist description with your students
• Repeat for the next photograph

About the Artist: (Image 1) Anthony Hernandez walks the streets of his native Los Angeles observing inhabitants of the city. In order to work quickly and intuitively, he would pre-focus the camera and then wait for subjects to come into the zone of focus only briefly bringing the camera to his eye as he walked past them. In the 1980s Hernandez became interested in photographing places that were lacking human subjects although their presence is felt.

About the Artwork: For this series, Hernandez photographed vacant lots and automobile repair shops around Los Angeles, a city famous for its car culture. This photograph depicts a junkyard, with scattered piles of vehicle carcasses and automotive debris. It shows the afterlife of cars, abandoned and scrapped once they’re no longer useful.

About the Artist: (Image 2) William Eggleston is an American photographer. Much of Eggleston’s work documents “ordinary” subject matters in the Southern United States, highlighting the complexity and beauty in mundane objects.

About the Artwork: William Eggleston explains the radical perspective he used in this photograph of a child's tricycle, which seems to dwarf the houses and car in the background. "Sometimes I like the idea of making a picture that does not look like a human picture. Humans make pictures which tend to be about five feet above the ground looking out horizontally. I like very fast flying insects moving all over and I wonder what their view is from moment to moment. I have made a few pictures which show that physical viewpoint. . . . The tricycle is similar. It is an insect's view or it could be a child's view."

About the Artists: (Image 3) Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee are American photographers who collaborated on a project titled The Country Between Us. Beahan explains, “We concentrated on the richness and diversity of America, continuing to explore the reciprocal ways we relate to our environment and the implications of our actions upon the places we inhabit.”

About the Artwork: In this photograph, Beahan and McPhee capture an orchard of almond trees being flooded for irrigation. The flood irrigation method is an ancient way to irrigate or water crops, although not without debate. While it can seem inefficient or even wasteful, there are arguments that when done correctly it can be effective and low waste. The precise rows of trees are a product of people cultivating and impacting the land in contrast to the curving, sinuous lines of water flowing.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice about this image?

• What artistic scale choices did the photographer make?

Practice: Find time to take some photographs outside of class for practice.

In this exercise, you'll create three photographs that experiment with scale in photography using three different techniques such as leading lines, depth of field, and either a close, medium, or long shot. It is important to remember that photography is all about the process. Experiment with three photography examples particularly focusing on playing with the scale in the image.

Watch: Look at a few videos that experiment with scale in different ways. Extreme Close Shot, Close Shot, Medium Shot, Long Shot, and Extreme Long Shot.

Begin Creating: Grab your cameras, take photos with intention, and have fun.

• Take a photograph that uses leading lines to show a sense of scale: The lines in your photograph should draw the viewer's eye toward a specific point of interest. The lines can be, for example, patterns in clothing, traffic lines on a street, or the frames of a window.Take a photograph that uses a diminishing effect to show a sense of scale: Your photograph should emphasize the sense of depth in a landscape or space you are capturing. Patterns (for example, in floor tiles or stairs), repetition, and a horizon line can accentuate the sense of depth in an image.
• Take a photograph that uses depth of field to show a sense of scale: This refers to how much of a photograph is sharply in focus. A deep depth of field has everything in focus (often used for landscapes, but a shallow depth of field shows the subjects in the foreground in sharp focus, often used for portraits) while the background is blurred.

After you create: Select five of your photographs that are thoughtfully curated into a series. These five images will be your final portfolio. Devote 10-15 minutes at home, looking through the images and jotting down and generating 3-5 ideas or themes that you have noticed during previous lessons.

• Consider what themes you notice throughout your body of work.
• Narrow down your photographs to your top 5. These images will be shared with the class. You are encouraged to digitally enhance your images.

Curate: Share your portfolio with the class in a slide deck or in an in-person group show.

Take about 5 minutes to think about, write down, or discuss what techniques worked well, what did not work as well, and what to work on for the next class. Reflection can occur as a group or individually. Continue taking photographs and experimenting with various composition angles. Come prepared to discuss one of your photographs.