Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Photomicrography: Float the specimen on black, turned so repetition reads
- Type
- Set in Photomicrography's manner (Put magnification and a scale bar in the frame with the specimen name), and let Spectrogram's lettering (A log frequency axis, scale and units printed inside the figure) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Photomicrography's material (Separate tissues by polarized or fluorescent color and record the basis); bring in exactly one thing from Spectrogram (A colormap rising monotonically in lightness, never rainbow).
- Colour
- Build on #f8f8f8, #5778b7, #020205 and admit one accent from #e7e7e7, #8f8f8f, #3b3b3b.
Where they fight
- Photomicrography and Spectrogram are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.
- Photomicrography and Spectrogram stand roughly 100 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Photomicrography Scale bar and magnification get dropped while the color is being made beautiful, and the result becomes decoration that no longer works as a scientific figure.
- Spectrogram Drawing without choosing a window length skews the tradeoff between time and frequency resolution, and artifacts get read as real features.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Photomicrography (technique, 1840s–) and their accent from Spectrogram (technique, 1940s–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Photomicrography exists for: illustrations for outreach and science writing on research findings, or product documents that show material structure as evidence. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Photomicrography - Structures beyond sight - Specimens on black - Polarized and fluorescent color - The wonder of symmetry Composition: Float the specimen on black, turned so repetition reads. Type and lettering: Put magnification and a scale bar in the frame with the specimen name. ## Accent comes from Spectrogram, used sparingly - The time-frequency plane - Intensity as shading - Voiceprint patterns - Hidden-image play Let one material quality come from it: A colormap rising monotonically in lightness, never rainbow. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #f8f8f8, carry the structure in #5778b7 and #020205, and let a single accent come from #8f8f8f. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, calm, exhilaration, play. ## Where they fight - Photomicrography and Spectrogram are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show. - Photomicrography and Spectrogram stand roughly 100 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Photomicrography: Scale bar and magnification get dropped while the color is being made beautiful, and the result becomes decoration that no longer works as a scientific figure. - Spectrogram: Drawing without choosing a window length skews the tradeoff between time and frequency resolution, and artifacts get read as real features. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Photomicrography 1840s– / Technique / Photographic Genres
Scientific photography that records, through a microscope, structures the eye cannot reach. Bentley's snowflakes proved the scientific image could be beautiful, and that claim runs on through polarized color and fluorescence to the Nikon Small World of today.
- Spectrogram 1940s– / Technique / Diagrammatic Expression
A visualization that maps sound onto a plane of time, frequency and intensity. From birdsong research to the DAW screen it became the standard way to see the shape of a sound, and artists have since taken to hiding pictures inside it.
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