Constructing Bicycles
Have students access the student chapter Constructing Bicycles and have them look at the initial image in the first Image Slider (the bicycle in the woods), or display the image on a screen or digital whiteboard.
Explain to students that the content of this image is the bicycle, the path and the woods.
The rules of notice used are:
The composition (horizontally, the bicycle is in the middle of the frame; this shows it’s important but also gives it a static, “posed” look.
The bicycle is also in the middle in terms of depth: we can see a bit of the path in front of it and some path and woods behind it. This also gives it a static feel, like a diorama in a museum)
The angle (a flat angle is a mostly neutral “frame”)
The distance (we’re close enough to the bicycle to see details, but not so close that we can’t see the background behind it)
The focus (the bicycle is in focus but the woods behind are not, showing that it’s the bicycle we should focus our attention on)
The light and colour (the colours are rich but not too bright, giving it a peaceful, natural feeling; the light is even, casting almost no shadows, which also makes the image feel almost frozen.)
Overall, we might say this is as neutrally framed a picture of a bicycle as you could take: while the person who took the photo did make choices, they made ones that make the picture feel “unframed” — that is to say, it feels as much as possible as though we were just out walking and happened to see a bicycle, rather than making us aware of the creator’s choices.
Now have students use the Image Slider to contrast it with the second image, of the black-and-white bicycle.
Explain that while the content of this image is almost the same (the only difference is the background) the rules of notice are used very differently. In this case, we can’t ignore that we’re looking at choices made by the media maker.
Ask students how the rules of notice are used differently, and how that might affect how we “read” the image.
Remind students to consider the framing choices analyzed in the first image (composition, angle, distance, focus, light and colour.)
- Some (like light and colour) are dramatically different; some (like focus) are subtly different; some (like composition and angle) are basically the same.
Slide back to the previous image, then return to this one and ask:
How do the two images feel different?
- (There is no right or wrong answer, obviously, but students are likely to find the second image feels less warm and natural, but perhaps a bit less static and generic; having the bicycle fully in the foreground keeps it from having the “diorama” quality of the first image, while removing colour may create a feeling of mystery—there’s no way to tell what time of year it is or even when in the last fifty years or so that the photo was taken.)
Now have students move to the second Image Slider. Have them view the top image and ask them to compare these two images of bicycles.
Remind them not just to consider obvious differences in content (the first has two bicycles; the second has a person riding the bicycle) but the five elements of framing previously discussed.
Next, have them slide the image to show the highlighted lines of the image composition. Ask them what else they have noticed.
Make sure the following points come up:
The light and colour in the first image gives it a warm feeling.
The way the two bicycles lean towards each other makes them look as though they have a relationship together; this is underlined by the way it looks like the right-hand bike’s kickstand is reaching towards the left-hand bike.
Ask students: If these bikes were on a date, which one would you say is more into the other? Clearly the one on the right.
We’re also more able to personify them because the angle the photographer chose is one we don’t often see bikes from, so that if you didn’t already know what the photo was it might take you a few moments to figure out what you were looking at. This image has a peaceful feeling, like the picture of the bike in the woods, but in this case it’s more like the end of a good day you spent with a friend.
The composition of the second image, with the bike making a sharp angled line from the top left corner to the bottom centre, gives it a feeling of movement and dynamism.
As well, the way the rider’s left elbow is cropped gives the feeling that they’re falling out of the frame. The way the top wheel and the rider’s leg are out of focus add to that feeling of motion.
The angle, looking up at the rider and the top wheel of the bike, make us feel like what’s being done is more impressive. The overall feeling of the image is movement, instability and danger.
The sharpness of an image, or the different parts of it. An image that is in focus will have clearly defined lines, while an image that is out of focus will have fuzzier lines.
A literary device in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person or by a figure in human form (e.g., The sun smiled down on us. Or The stairs groaned as we walked on them.)