Date: 16th April 2021
Location: Isle of Wight
Category: Foto Fridays

Following on from last week’s post about diptychs, I thought I’d share a few more. These ones are nature based and have a completely different feel to them. My originals were presented in an upright phone screen format, rather than the more traditional side-by-side landscape format.

I thought it might be fun to show them in horizontal format as well to compare them and see which layout tells a better story.

Striving to tell a story with a photograph is something I aim for and it can be difficult to do with a single image. Of course, a collage, or sequence of photos can tell that story, but I feel that too many images in a collage can clutter the message. That’s why for me, diptychs and triptychs work so well – they are still collages but with limited images! And, its surprising how easy it is to show contrasts using just those 2 or 3 images.

Once you’ve had a look at the variations below, let me know what you think. Do you prefer the vertical format or one of the horizontal layouts? Why? Do different layouts work better with some images than others?

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Ideas for diptychs

Inspired? Have a go yourself. Let your intuition lead the way and play with how you choose the two photos. Play with the photo ratios and with placement of photos. Play and have fun with your experimentation! Here are some ideas from Digital Photo Mag

• Use a common colour thread
• Use one wide shot and one close-up
• Try similar shapes
• Find a thematic connection such as autumn, summer, birthday etc
• Use the same shot at varying times, like day and night, or winter and spring
• Portrait shoots

Related posts

• Coastal walk – photographic diptychs
• The art of collecting
• What does detail mean
• Other Foto Fridays posts