The Photographer's Eye: Graphic Guide

PATTERN & FIELD

What makes a pattern is the repetition of something graphic, like a shape. A field image is similar—a view of many similar things, from a field of poppies to a field of stars. The repetition and the numbers involved make a pattern or a field a possible subject for a photo, but there are conditions. There has to be some surprise or some curious element for it to be worth shooting or looking at. A pattern of bricks making up a brick wall is hardly interesting, and even a field of flowers has to be especially pretty or dense, or have something be eye-catching. And while I say eye-catching, pattern and field images can succeed by being visually striking, but they can also sometimes succeed by content alone. Imagine a million people ...