Lesson 06: Framing and Viewpoint
Pre A Level Art & Design · Unit 2 · U2·L1 · ← L05 | L07 →
At a glance
| Session | W7, one Wednesday double (~90 min) — Unit 2 opens, first session after National Day |
| Dates | Wed 2026-10-14 |
| Focus | Framing, viewpoint, rule of thirds — composing with a camera instead of a pencil |
| Deliverable | Best-3 selection from HW1 with written reasons; a five-viewpoint circuit shoot with three selects |
| Feeds | HW1 due today; the circuit frames become part of CS2’s composition set (W9) |
| Homework | Ten frames placed deliberately on the thirds + five deliberately breaking them, one line on which felt better; MB posting |
Goal
The unit’s motto: “shoot many, keep few, know why.” You arrive with twenty photographs of one subject. This session shows you that the interesting decisions happen before the shutter — where you stood, what you put in the frame, what you left out — and that choosing three from twenty is a skill with reasons.
How it runs
- Warm-up (10 min) — cameras out — any camera counts: phone, compact, DSLR — and the framing grid goes on (grid overlay on phones, viewfinder grid on cameras; your standing habit for this unit). Put the vocabulary list into your sketchbook — terms 1–13 (elements, principles, composition); a two-minute match game: term to photo on screen.
- HW1 harvest (20 min) — open your twenty photos. Choose your best three and your worst one, then explain both choices to a partner with the frames: “I kept this because…” / “This one fails because…“. Selection is the unit’s core skill.
- Teach (15 min) — framing and viewpoint, from the Seeing Photographs exemplars: rule of thirds, balance (symmetrical vs asymmetrical), horizon placement and tilt, vantage point, figure–ground. Each concept is one image and one question (“what did the photographer decide here?”).
- Viewpoint circuit (30 min) — one subject per pair, five stations: eye level · high · low · close · far-with-context. Minimum fifteen frames each. The subject never moves; only you do — viewpoint alone changes the picture’s meaning.
- Close (15 min) — select three from the circuit, post to MB with a one-line reason each; add thumbnail sketches or printed strips of the selects with notes to your sketchbook. Homework stated.
Assessment
HW1 (≥20 photos, one subject, varied viewpoint/light — set 09-30) is due and checked today; marked for looking, not luck. Today’s circuit frames and the thirds homework feed CS2 (W9). Register: PAL S1 Assessments.