Triptych Photo Compositions– it’s all Greek to me.

Triptych comes from the Greek term meaning three (trip) fold (tych). This usually refers to a work of art that is divided into sections (3) and linked together.

Many modern artists have created pieces that were designed to be displayed together and the thus triptych has become very popular and over recent years more so in the digital photography field.

So why make triptychs anyway?

Many people can find the creation of a single image challenging let alone dealing with three associated images. But the challenge is worth taking on as it will enable you to expand your ideas around composition and structure, and will encourage you to reinterpret and re-evaluate your photographic images.

For those who follow my blog on a regular basis will have noted that I include a large amount of photos based on aviation. When I’m not running around doing my normal sports photography I like to capture  classic aircraft, specifically those from a by gone era, i.e. world War 1 and 2

After recently re-reading an article in one of my old photography magazines, I thought It would be a good idea to go back through my ever growing collection of old aircraft photos a(12,500!!) and see if I could compose a Triptych composition.

So what was I looking for in my photos?

Establishing a strong sense of unity and synchronicity across all three of my images was the most important element and to achieve this you can deploy different techniques;

·    Consider your angle of view. Do you want this to be similar throughout or deliberately varied for a specific effect?

·     How close or far away from your subject matter? Inconsistently sized subjects across your panels may result in a disjointed look.

·     Will the depth of field be the same across all the panels?

·     Keep your colour palette consistent and unified.

·     Avoid strong, distracting colours

·     Avoid having bright sections on the extreme edges of your outer panels, this will break the flow across your pane.

·     Use the natural shapes, lines and patterns to establish visual connections

·    Use the shapes and patterns inherent in your subject to establish visual connections across the three images

·     Consider mirroring effects to provide a sense of symmetry and balance.

·     Keep the elements in each panel roughly the same size.

I’m sure there are more techniques out there and at the end of the day it will be down to your subject matter.

For me the outcome is to create a story around the subject and as shown in my example above, I have focused on a particular scene I photographed at the Omaka Heritage Centre.

3 Photos, combined to form a Triptych composition (Digitally tweaked)

By taking several shots of the subject from varying angles , I  hopefully have captured the ensuing air battle and at the same time provided an interesting perspective through the implementation of triptych.

Thanks for popping by, and hopefully you found this article interesting. Pop back soon.