Photography and lens-based media: framing, viewpoint, light and focus as compositional choices, the difference between recording and making images, and using photography as a deliberate art process.

What this dot point is asking

Photography is a lens-based art process, not just a way of taking pictures, and the J173 Photography title is built on it. This dot point is about using photography deliberately: framing, viewpoint, light and focus as compositional choices, and the difference between snapping (recording by chance) and making a considered image. Used well, photography is a tool for recording (AO3) and a medium for a considered outcome (AO4), and choosing and refining photographic methods is an AO2 decision.

Photography as a deliberate process

The first thing to understand is that, as an art process, photography is judged on the choices you make, just as a drawing is. Pointing and shooting leaves framing, light and focus to chance and makes no deliberate image; making a considered photograph means controlling those things so the image communicates. The same compositional thinking that governs a drawing governs a photograph: you decide a focal point, an arrangement, a light, a focus. So treat the camera as a tool for making images, not just for recording what is in front of you.

Viewpoint and framing

Two of the most powerful controls are viewpoint and framing. Viewpoint is where you shoot from, and changing it transforms an image: looking down on an object, getting very close, or shooting from below makes an ordinary subject striking, where an eye-level snap would not. Framing is what you include and exclude, composed in the viewfinder with the same devices as any composition: a focal point, the rule of thirds, leading lines, deliberate negative space. Moving your viewpoint and framing carefully is the difference between documenting a subject and composing a photograph of it.

Light and focus

Light is the raw material of photography, and using it deliberately is central. Side light rakes across a surface to reveal texture and model form; back light throws the subject into silhouette; soft, diffuse light gives gentle, even tone; hard light gives strong contrast and sharp shadows. Choosing the light, the time of day, or arranging it yourself, is a key decision. Focus is the other control: a sharp image describes detail, while a shallow depth of field (sharp subject, blurred background) isolates the focal point. Using light and focus deliberately, rather than accepting whatever the camera does automatically, is what makes a photograph considered.

Photography across the objectives and titles

Photography is useful far beyond the J173 Photography title. As a recording tool it gives AO3 first-hand material: your own photographs of real subjects (not found images) are first-hand recording. As a medium it can be the final outcome (AO4), a considered image or series that realises an intention. And exploring and refining photographic methods, lighting, viewpoint, editing, is AO2. So whatever title you take, photography can investigate, record, experiment and resolve, provided the images are your own and the choices are deliberate. Used as a considered process, it carries the same visual language as any other medium.

Try this

Q1. Name the four deliberate controls in photography as an art process. [Knowledge recall]

• Cue. Viewpoint (where you shoot from), framing (what to include and exclude, using compositional devices), light (side, back, soft, hard) and focus (sharp or shallow depth of field).

Q2. Explain the difference between using photography to record and using it to make a considered image. [Short explanation]

• Cue. Recording (snapping) points and shoots, leaving framing, light and focus to chance, so it captures information but makes no deliberate image; making a considered image chooses viewpoint, framing, light and focus deliberately so the photograph communicates, which is the visual language and intention photography is judged on as an art process.