Rhythm and Pattern (2.5)

Requirement

At least 2 photographs, one showing pattern, the other rhythm

Purpose

To show how to create interest when photographing design elements massed together.

Technical learning

• Repetition has strong appeal in photography – a visual beat as opposed to a musical one
• Repetition comes in two forms:  pattern and rhythm
• Pattern is static, rhythm creates 'movement'
• Movement  is the path the viewer’s eye takes through an image, often to a focal point: it can be directed along lines, edges, shapes and colour
• Key to drawing out repetition is (a) distance from subject and (b) choice of focal length

Pattern

• Pattern is static repetition: i.e. it does not encourage the eye to move in a particular way
• Pattern is usually used as a secondary element: images which use pattern as their main element tend to be monotonous
• You can encourage a sense of continuation (beyond the frame) by excluding any space between the pattern and the edge of the image
•  As the elements (of a pattern) become more numerous, the viewer tends to see them less as a 'pattern' and more as ‘texture’

Rhythm

• Rhythm is dynamic repetition: i.e. it prompts the eye to move in a certain way around the image and/or to settle somewhere important
• Rhythm can be classified into (a) attention rhythm (elements regularly alternating with each other) (b) progressive rhythm (change in shape of elements at regular intervals) or (c) rhythm sensation (change in elements’ colour, size and shape at regular intervals) depending on the way and rate at which the image's elements repeat themselevs.
• More subtly, rhythm also extends to different elements that repeat, yet imitate each other in the photo: e.g. curves on branches might be echoed in the shapes of distant mountains. 
• Whilst the frame may limit any rhythm to a fragment, composition should encourage the viewer to imagine that movement continues beyond the frame
• When the rhythm is predictable it may need a contrasting element to break the repetition and so add interest

Project and review

Shoot one example of a pattern, another of showing rhythm. Pattern - Fill the frame and eliminate boundaries that break the pattern so that viewer can imagine pattern continues beyond the frame. Rhythm - Capture a sequence so that the eye will follow a direction and feel an optical beat. 

Sherlock Holmes tiles at Baker Street Station, London

Pattern: The motifs on the tiles
create a regular but static image.
The impression of continuation occurs
 by cropping across them.

Cloister in Paternoster Square, London

Rhythm: the repeating columns and
orange flanges move the eye along the
cloister, reinforced by the pedestrian
walking into the frame