Lines serve 2 extremely important purposes in the composition of photographs.
Firstly, lines create mood. A vertical line can create a sense of power or tension by chopping up a picture, a horizontal line can create a sense of peace or calmness or a curved line can create a sense of balance. Put more than one type of line in a photograph and they can either enhance each others effect or they can contradict and counteract an effect you may have been going for.
Secondly, lines can guide the viewer’s eye into and within the photograph. In North America we read all written materials from left to right. Little did I realize that we also “read” art and photos from left to right as well. A well-placed horizontal line on the left edge can lead the viewer’s eye into the picture.
From the pictures that I posted you can see the horizontal twig draws your eye straight across to the dragonfly which is vertical and thereby stands out. And in the loom picture, the horizontal wood leads your eye gently into the picture and then you are tempted to look further at the diagonal lines of the loom strings.
I learned these techniques from a class I took but as I continue to expand my knowledge and search the web I found a great breakdown of both meaning and example on this website by Gloria Hopkins.
Wow, there is so much more to photography than just finding something to click a picture of and printing. I am impressed with how much more details there are involved. Thanks for sharing this with us. Did you find it hard to remember all these techniques at once when you were taking pics, or did it gradually all seem to become automatically integrated?
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that the lines in a picture led the viewer to what the photographer wanted them to see. It is interesting that it is related to how we read. What if there are no distinguishable lines in sight? Is that your next tip?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great tips. My husband is also learning from you.
Lines are about 1 of 7 compositional techniques used. You can use any of them in combination. Lines were one of the first topics I learned about and then decided that I was going to find and photograph them all the time... sometimes there just aren't any. Then you have to focus on the others.
ReplyDeleteI was in shock too Mona that there was so much leading us to enjoy pictures. I learned them in a class that taught us one a week and then we had to use that one in our picture taking assignment. As we brought in our homework our instructor would sneakily bring in the next topics based on our homework photos. Showed us we were doing it anyway but made us more conscious of it so i guess gradual integration and constant thinking was the key there.