Hi All,
A few years ago I wrote a small program to help with cropping and composing digital photos - its a simple grid overlay that you can use to judge whether lining image elements up with the rule of thirds, or golden sections etc. might help improve the composition. I find its a useful tool, though its only a guide, and often breaking the 'rules' produces better outcomes.
It's possible others here might find it useful too, so I thought I'd make it available. Its called Digital-Photo Crop Overlay (D-CPO) and you can grab it at
http://www.steverox.info/DPCO/index.htm. There are some instructions on the page as well, though it is pretty easy to use.
Sorry apple-heads, its a Windows only program
Comments
This is likely that last update for quite some time, but let me know if you find any problems and I'll try and fix those. Here is the download link with some brief instructions:
http://www.steverox.info/DPCO/index.htm.
I have a question. Tonight I was dickering around with a landscspe photo I took recently and I superimposed the grids for 'rule of thirds', 'Phi' etc over the photo until I found something I think works (the Golden Spiral). Is there a way of pasting your Golden Spiral over a photo so I can adjust the photo in my image editing software with the Golden Spiral supetimposed? Also, is there a way of printing the photo with your Golden Spiral superimposed? I'm not very computer savy and apologise if there is an obvious way that I am just too silly to see.
Thanks
Rob
Thanks again to Rob for the suggestion, and for doing some beta-testing over the last week!
Any probs just let me know
http://www.steverox.info/DPCO/index.htm.
Over the break I have fixed a couple of bugs (mouse control of resizing and rotating not working properly; some odd behavior with the masking), and added some extra functionality (it now has the ability to stack different patterns on top of one another, and also to replicate up to four copies of the same pattern side-by-side or on top of one another. The latest update can be downloaded at the same place - http://www.steverox.info/DPCO/index.htm
Re the virus checking warnings - understandable I guess when downloading .exe files from the ether - but I can assure you there is nothing nefarious in the code. if you are still concerned that it may have been tampered with, the latest version's zip file SHA-256 checksum (a kind of digital fingerprint) can verified using the calculator at https://md5file.com/calculator (just drag and drop the zip file onto the webpage). The returned value should be 32489d8c076f1fe0f712ef99adea99bc3bab78b05b6c396d0b7833399f9a6894.
[edited to update the checksum]
http://www.steverox.info/DPCO/index.htm
I think its all pretty self-explanatory and there is a bit of a guide on the site, but feel free to drop me a message if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks again @Roxy, I find this to be a gem!
Thanks @GTO, I'll check out the file and checksum tonight and post an update
@gar3thjon3s - I've recently been playing around with programming in Linux Mint (and also the Raspberry Pi, which was a lot of fun), and might have a play around to see if I can port it over - might be another interesting learning exercise. But I know nothing about Macs
Just got back from a holiday, and with a bit of spare time on my hands time I read 'The Painters's Secret Geometry' by Charles Bouleau.
It seems some people think this is the bees knees when it comes to understanding composition; others seem to regard the author as a bit of a crank with a propensity to draw random lines on otherwise fine paintings. After reading it I guess I fall somewhere in between. I found some interesting stuff in here, but I did think he pushed the limits of credibility on a few occasions. I also found it quite difficult to read, partly due to many paintings being described in quite some detail but with no accompanying illustration, and partly I think to a pretty poor translation from the original French - with lots of convoluted sentences and grammar.
Anyway, there were a number of compositional constructs described in the book that I decided to add to my program that I wrote a while ago for aiding in cropping and composing images - a pic of the new interface is below. This included 6 variants involving rabatment of the rectangle, which Bouleau treats in quite some detail, and also 12 variants of the intriguing idea that relates musical proportions ('consonances') with compositional proportions in paintings, that Bouleau argues was widely used in the Renaissance.
The bottom line for me is that I think this is all good fun as long as you don't take it too seriously, and treat this stuff as guidance rather than rules that must be strictly adhered to.
The latest update can be downloaded at the same place as the previous version - http://www.steverox.info/DPCO/index.htm
I agree that one can take this stuff to ridiculous lengths. And sometimes it's not needed. Often, if I see a good composition in one of my photos, I just know instinctively that it works and I don't need GR grids. But nature, although beautiful, is messy and rarely presents the artist with a ready made composition. Quite often I have a photo that contains elements I really like but which is a mess compositionally and It's hard to figure out why. It's in such instances that I have found your little app a great help. By superimposing the various GR grids on a photo I can see how best to crop it and what I need to eliminate, add or move in order to make a satisfying composition. All without having to do calculations and draw lines all over my photo. I've used the app to help me with many of my paintings. I think it's great and I'm looking forward to playing with the new bells and whistles you've added. Thanks for making it freely available to us here on DMP.
Cheers
Rob
I hope you don't mind @GTO, but I did such a quick analysis of your latest painting and thought you might be interested to see the result. The yellow lines correspond to the so-called 'double diatessaron' that Bouleau talks about w.r.t the Renaissance (the lines are at 9/16 and 12/16 along each axis). I don't want to read too much into it, but the alignment with your window, and also the top horizontal line running across the top of the music and the lit part of the vase, is pretty much spot-on!
Of course, one can overdo adherence to the GR and I guess the trick is to employ it with subtlety. If everything matched up perfectly it would look weird. I think GTO got it just right here.
https://www.phimatrix.com
When I was in school we were taught this type of composition. One theory we were was that much of these visual systems are engrained in the visual Zeitgeist. I didn't buy it. That was until I started my illustration major. There it was. Thats not to say that I don't use dynamic symmetry with every painting.
The one problem you have is that your software is not cross platform.
The Dover book 12.95 Amazon
https://amzn.to/3rx6fML
Thanks @KingstonFineArt, yes I'm aware of PhiMatrix and used it a while ago. The big difference of course is that PhiMatrix is commercial software whereas mine is just a hobby hack and distributed for free (with all the caveats associated with that). I take your point about it being windows based, but it was just something I wrote for my own use, then later decided to share. I know nothing about coding and distributing programs for the Mac, but if anyone does and wants to have a go at the translation (either for Mac or Linux) I'm happy to make the code available (its written in Delphi). Thanks for pointing out the Hambridge book - I read that a while ago, and actually enjoyed it a lot more than the Bouleau book. You can also read the Hambridge book online at elements_of_dynamic_symmetry_hambidge.pdf (wordpress.com)