Lines: Diagonals

Diagonals are easy to create in a photograph.  They depend mainly on viewpoint.  There are few real diagonals - a staircase being one exception.  Diagonals depend on camera angle and perspective.

Straight edges will become diagonal in the picture if you photograph along them towards the distance.  They give a sense of depth and linear perspective is largely based on diagonals. 

Here are some examples of diagonals:




Wooden House
The diagonals are clear at the side of this wooden house shot at this angle.  The lines created by the wooden panels emphasises the diagonals and sense of movement.

Diagonal Building
This building has diagonal features.  This abstract shot highlights the diagonal by the angle it is taken from.

Trees
This row of trees shot at this angle provides a diagonal with depth of field. 

Bridge
The angle this bridge is taken from gives a diagonal giving a sense of movement into the shot.  The bridge design is also diagonal.  There is dynamic tension in the shot as the diagonal of the overhead wires is going in a different direction to the bridge.  

Lines: Horizontal and vertical lines

Contrast usually makes lines stand out.  Lines can be the edge of things but can also occur by implication where our imagination makes the connection between points. 

There are 3 types of lines:

• horizontal
• vertical
• diagonal

Horizontal lines


Wooden bridge over the canal




Sheep in a field



Steps



Garage doors

Vertical lines

Old doorway




 



People waiting at a bus stop



Liverpool Street Station entrance



Vertical Statue



Points. Exercise 3: Multiple points

Moving on from the relationship between two points, this exercise focuses in the relationships with several points. 

Lines are implied by a group of objects creating shapes by implication.  The task is to create my own still life by rearranging the composition as opposed to changing the framing in the camera.  I used small leaves on a wooden background for this exercise.



One leaf




2 leaves and a single line is implied




3 leaves and a triangle shape is formed



4 leaves and the shape is square



5 leaves gives and a cruciform is implied




6 leaves and 2 shapes are forming



7 leaves form a triangle



8 leaves



8 leaves and a square and rectangle shape can be identified

The relationships in this final image are illustrated below:

Points. Exercise 2: The relationship between points

When there is more than one point in a picture the simplicity of a single point is lost. 

The relationship with one point is mainly with the frame as there is nothing else but with two points the relationships is between the points that dominate the image. When you look at the picture the eye is drawn from one point to the other setting up an implied line and direction in the picture.  Usually one point will attract more attention than the other because it may be bigger, appears nearer or is closer to the centre. 

In the pictures below the relationship between the points is illustrated. 

Your attention is drawn to the bird in the front because of positioning but also because of his colouring.  It is easier to see.

The relationship between these points illustrated by the blue arrow.

The relationship is between the 2 guys running.  The image is equally balanced and attention drawn to each runner. If one was ahead of the other our attention would be divided and focus on the runner closer to us.

The arrow illustrates the relationship between these points.

In this shot the attention is on the man nearest the foreground.  We can see what he is doing and he is looking into the shot whereas the other man is looking away.

The relationship between these points is highlighted by the blue arrow.

There is a special case where both points attract equal attention and thiscan be seen if you take a close up of someone's eyes where they are equidistant from the centre of the image as below. 



In this image we cannot resolve the composition and this leads to tension in the image. 

The Tea Horse Road by Michael Freeman

Michael Freeman’s talk on his latest book The Tea Horse Road was held at Asia House in London.   

The Tea Horse Road is one of the longest trade routes of the ancient world.  It facilitated a vital exchange between tea and horses for 13 centuries between China and Tibet.  The route stretches 3,000km via a network of trails, gorges and passes which were crossed by horse, mule and yaks caravans together with human porters. 

Over the course of two years, Freeman compiled this visual record from the Tea Mountains of Yunnan and Sichuan to Tibet. 

Although the talk was mainly aimed at the people there who had come to simply hear more about the region it was still interesting to view the images and the way they were presented. 

Freeman’s oeuvre is documentary reportage and his work really gave you an insight to how these people lived and worked from preparing the tea, transporting it and their cultural mores.

Puerh tea has long been known for its benefits and it is found along this route.

This body of work including the use of an infrared camera for shots of the tea trees where the people were at work, panoramas and many portraits. 

Through Freeman we were given an insight into the lives of these people, how they worked in the fields, prepared the tea cakes, their horses at work, the dangerous paths they crossed along the route.  But the focus was not just on the work and the tea, he also gave us an insight into their culture including; the annual festival held in thanksgiving for the gift of the tea leaves, their music and arts and crafts. 

Freeman also captures a way of life that is in decline – cormorant fishing – by spending time with a man who still uses this type of fishing to survive.

Included in the presentation were a couple of short films including Freeman himself going across a gorge by a cable suspended from one side to the other.  The use of these films enhanced his presentation as they were relevant and timely in his presentation.

Overall an impressive collection and some food for thought for me on capturing people and ways of life that are changing or in decline.

Points. Exercise 1: Positioning a point

For this exercise I experimented with the different positions where you can position a point. 

There are 3 positions:

• In the middle - although this produces a static image sometimes and in certain situations it can work
• a little off centre - this makes the image a little more interesting
• close to the edge





Centre

The centre position would be very static if it wasn't for the fact that the subject is on a bike cycling through the frame.  If he was posing/stationary then it would look static.  



Off centre

This works well for the rabbit as he is just off centre and gives more of a sense of movement and sense of being as his position is closer to the edge of the frame.  



Close to edge





This position nearest to the edge and bottom corner of the frame gives the greatest sense of movement as it can be implied that the subject has just walked through the empty space in the left hand side of the frame.  You also get the sense of urgency as she is just about to walk out of the frame.  If she was positioned in the centre you would be unsure of her direction and whether or not she was posing for the shot which would have given a more staged feel to the shot.  

The following shows where the points lie in the frame.

Part 2: Elements of design

Elements of design
Examining the basic elements of graphic design in photography. The objective of this part of the course is to be able to identify the the grahpic elements in the photograph, to assess the role they play and learn how to use them for structure and movement in composition.

Colour behaves differently so this section of the course will focus on points, lines and shapes.

Points
For a subject to qualify as being a poiht it has to be small in the frame and contrast with its surroundings.  For example, a scene where the background is plain and even like a field and where the subject takes up just a fraction of that space. 

Situations where you could make a clear shot of a point include:

• Boat out a sea where the sky and sea are even in colour giving you a plain background.
• People.  A person in a field or in a vast open space. 
• Buildings - in a field or open countryside.
• Flowers - either one flower in a field or elements of the flower in macro photography.
• Insects - on flowers or other open space.
• Birds - in the sky etc
• Lighting - just on a person's face in a darkly lit portrait type shot

Assignment 1: Contrasts

Below are my pictures which I submitted for my first assignment.

Straight

Curved

Broad

Narrow

Many

Few

Diagonal

Rounded

Pointed

Blunt

Still

Moving

Rough

Smooth

High



Low



Large and small