Texture
This image has wonderful texture...especially for SOUND (1), as you can almost hear the silence, and how quiet it is out on this remote salt playa in Death valley...plus, there is also the texture of touch, as you can feel the cool desert warmth in the air under the full moon...plus feel the texture of the cracks and fissures on the playa surface, as well as the grains of salt shining in the moonlight
Have you ever looked at a photo in a cookbook or magazine and commented that the food looked so good you could practically taste it? Or you looked at a picture under the stars and could hear the silence? Or looked a picture of a harbor at sunrise and you could smell the salt in the misty morning breeze? Or looked into a picture and you could feel the soft cool sand shifting under your feet, or feel the delicate edges of flower petals on your fingertips, or the jagged shards of a broken window, or the warm heat from glowing sunbeams?
What really connects you into the essence of a photograph is texture
When a photo makes a person want to touch it, you have your audience hooked. Images using texture effectively speak not only to the eyes, but to as many of the other senses as they possibly can. This way, they to speak to the heart and are powerful and captivating.
TEXTURE is that quality that makes an image seem like it could be experienced through touch, or taste, or sound, or smell…
Texture is defined as the surface details of anything (especially objects) in a picture.
Texture brings out memories your audience has to similar situations and scenes they have experienced so they can interact on a more personal level with an image
Texture exists in the surface details of your subject. It is that quality that makes an otherwise two-dimensional object seem like it could be experienced through senses other than sight…can feel smooth, or rough, or cold, or hot, or damp, or slick, or soft, or sharp, or grainy…can sense the smell of a flower or the salt air…can taste the flavor of food…can hear the sound of the breeze or the roar of a lion or noise of a city or silence of the stars, etc…
No foundation of photographic art is more capable of moving your deep emotions than texture. This makes your audience relate to and be more connected to your image
The challenge of seeing & capturing texture with a camera is based on one quality: the available light...
Texture can be accentuated by the side light of early mornings or evenings with heavy long shadows...Texture can be accented also by overhead light when the sun is vertical and high in the sky to create smoother brighter surfaces. With the sun high in the sky, the roughness of the walls of buildings, or the wood textures of tree trunks, or any kind of texture along vertical surfaces is emphasized as the overhead light casts small shadows along those surfaces...While the impact is subtle, it adds more depth, interest, and reality to the shots.
Texture also shines extra on surfaces that are wet: wet wood, rocks, metal, beach sands…Light color creates feelings of warmth or cold—red/orange = warm, blue/green = cool...
Texture as a background can create an exciting and emotion-filled composition. Texture in the foreground can help create nice leading lines into an image.
And with the correct use of texture in the subject, pictures can become more alive and almost three dimensional, allowing the audience emotional connections with memories of feeling
Leading lines guide you into a picture, texture keeps you there experiencing the picture…So, When you take an image, ask yourself these questions if you were inside your picture:
-->What would you smell?
-->What would you hear?
-->What might you taste?
-->What could you touch?
This image shows the texture of SOUND (2), as you can immagine hearing all the chatter and noise created from all of these birds sitting on old pier pilings...
This image show the texture of SMELL (1), as you can almost sense the wonderful smell of all these beautiful blooming flowers in the air...
This image show the texture of SMELL (2), as you can smell all the pine and redwood in this forest...plus you can touch the bark of the trees and feel the soft forest bed of pine needles under your feet, and feel the coolness in the morning air...plus you can hear all of the birds singin in the trees nd the wind blowing through the tops of these super tall redwoods...
This image shows the texture of TASTE (1), as you can almost taste the sandwich with its soft bread, crunch lettuce and red peppers, mustard, and yummy roast turkey lunchmeat...this use of texture makes this a better photo as people might want to eat this sandwich (especially if they are hungry)
This image shows the texture of TASTE (2), if you do not like a medium-rare steak, you can taste your dislike of the bloodiness and texture of the meat...or, if you love a good steak, you can imagine eating this piece of mouth watering beef...plus you can taste the seasoning with the hints of salt crystals scattered about the cutting board...
This image show the texture of TOUCH (1), as you can sense the feel of the boards making up the pier, how they move under your feet as well as how the hand rails feel on your hands...plus you can feel the electricity in the air coming off the lightning bolt mixed the cool dampness of the ocean air on your skin...and note also that this is a superb example of the texture of sound as well, as you can literally hear the booming thunder as this lightning bolt as it crashes...and this image also has use of the texture of taste and smell as well: you can taste the sea salt in the air, and smell all the scents of the ocean air with fish, salt, combined with the smell of the wet boards making up the pier
This image show the texture of TOUCH (2), as you can feel the dry coolness of the night, as well as touch the surface of the coarse rocks all around you...
This image show the texture of TOUCH (3), as you can feel the foggy mist of the rain on your skin and sense the warm dampness of the air...plus there is the feel of the wood making up the barn and the feel of the mossy trees and other green vegetation, plus the feel of the cool and slushy melting snow on the barn and in the grass...all this texture makes this composition very strong, all owing viewers to feel the picture with multiple senses, not just their sense of sight (although it is a strikingly beautiful image)
This image show the texture of TOUCH (4), you can feel the frigid air as it goes into your lungs, plus the feel of the fluffy light snowflakes making your hands wet and cold...making this image a very personal experience by connecting people to their memories of the sense and feeling of snow
This image show the texture of TOUCH (5), notice the texture created by the puffy pastel-colored clouds in the sky, you can imagine feeling them would be like touching cotton candy…then notice how the texture changes as the same clouds are reflected in the cool wet sand on the beach, you can imagine how that would feel while walking on this beach in your bare feet…and this contrast in reflective textures to the textures in the sky creates a strong extra interest and connections to the image, making the image so much more successful
