Art of Photography: Project 25

Here I learnt about the first of three basic shapes, rectangles.

Most opportunities to photograph rectangles come from man made things as they are made with straight sides and right angles. They have to be shot from straight on to maintain shape, as any deviation in the viewpoint will distort the rectangle. Also, because the frame of the photograph is itself rectangle, it is very easy for the eye to compare shape and see distorted or uneven rectangles, so even a small change in angle from 'straight on' becomes very obvious.

Whilst doing this project I found this fact to be quite limiting as it limits what you are able to do with a subject and also makes for quite a static image. However, rectangles can also be used as frames within a frame, and as they match the shape of the photographic frame they are also good at dividing the frame into sections.

Shapes in a photograph can create associated feelings or views, in the same way as lines. Rectangles are associated with being formal, enclosing, precise and static.







For all three of my photographs I decided to take them handheld to judge how hard it is to line up the rectangle to keep its shape in the frame. I found that I had to have quite a few attempts and as you can see they are still not perfectly straight. Even when using a tripod you would have to be very precise and careful to line up a rectangle perfectly, and although this is generally not needed or desired anyway, it does show just how much a rectangle is affected with even very small changes to viewpoint.

Art of Photography: Project 24

Project 24 still focused on design elements, but moved from lines to shapes. Here I learnt the basics of 'shape' and that a shape can be an outline or an enclosure depending on the subject, and that again as with lines, a shape is mostly defined by contrast, either of light or of colours.

I also learnt that shapes can be regular or irregular, and that regular shapes such as triangles, rectangles etc, are more easily recognized and therefore play a larger part in composition than irregular shapes.

I enjoyed learning that even when a shape is not clearly defined (it may be broken or uneven), as with lines the brain fills in the gaps to define the shape. I also enjoyed the examples of contrast playing a large part in forming shapes. A light subject such as a white building can have its shape defined strongly by placing it on a dark background. In the example a dark blue sky was used for the background, utilizing a circular polarizer to further darken the sky, which made the building and its shape clearly stand out. The other opposite example used a light background to define the shape of a silhouette, another effective technique which also removes detail from the silhouetted subject, further emphasizing just its shape.

Art of Photography: Project 23

After horizontal, vertical, diagonal lines and curves, this project focused on implied lines. Implied lines are those which are not complete or obvious but which the brain judges and resolves to make into lines. Imaginary lines.

As with the other projects on this subject, I enjoyed learning about this and hope to be able to retain the knowledge and put it into use. I particularly like implied lines as they can be used to direct a viewers gaze and attention to parts of an image, but in subtle and hidden ways.

For this project I had to find and photograph two examples of this in use.


This picture uses a line extension, where only part of a line is used but the viewers eye follows the direction of the line to a point of interest.


This image uses an eye-line, where the viewer follows the direction of someones gaze in the photograph.

Art of Photography: Project 22

After learning about points, horizontal and vertical lines, and diagonals, this project focused on curves. I learnt that curves have a sense of movement and direction similar to diagonals, and that they can convey smoothness and elegance.

As before it was much easier to find curves in man made objects, but I tried to avoid simple things and be a bit more creative. I ended up with two man made and two natural subjects.









I find it easy to see and understand the sense of movement provided by curves. In the image of the bridge the eye follows the curve over the bridge, and in the image of the truck there is a left to right or right to left movement following the structure of the truck.

For the first natural image I found an unusual tree which had curves going all the way up the trunk as if it had continuously twisted as it had grown. I found it hard to capture and provide as good an example of this as I would have liked, but the curves still convey the 'twisting' motion of the tree.

For the final image I tried hard to find something other than flowers which would have been an easy choice for curves. In the end I found this plant and was intrigued by the circular shape of the thorns, which were perfectly positioned and distanced to form a circle and also a star shape. I tried hard to capture it and show how perfect the shape was, choosing a wide aperture and focusing on the thorns to distinguish them from the rest of the plant, but in the end it probably didn't show curves as well as the other images.

Art of Photography: Project 21

This project focused on diagonals. Again I enjoyed learning about the properties and effects shapes can have on an image. In the case of diagonals they usually imply movement in an image much more than horizontals and verticals, as diagonals are seen as unstable.

I also enjoyed learning different ideas for capturing diagonals in an image. Photographing a straight line, fence, wall, etc from an angle will create a diagonal, something that is hard to miss if you have been taking photos for a while as they crop up everywhere. However, using them effectively or creatively is another matter, such as to converge on a point, draw the viewers attention along their length, divide the image, etc. I find this fascinating and I'm really trying hard to remember it all to experiment and put it into practice in the future.

Another aspect which intrigues me is the use of different focal lengths to achieve certain results with diagonals, something else I hope I can remember! Wide angle lenses can exaggerate diagonals and create converging lines, whilst as telephoto lenses compress viewpoints and subjects they can be used to compress/flatten a line of points to create diagonals.

I really enjoy learning these aspects of photography, and also the fact that although some of this becomes evident to you naturally and without thinking about if you have been doing photography for a while, its only when you study and concentrate on it in this way that you can start to see more creative options and idea's using these effects. What I mean to say is, from the photography I had already done I knew some of this already, but until now it wasn't actively used in my pictures and would never have been considered, to the detriment of my photography. Where as now I can explore ideas and concepts which can make use of and even focus on the techniques I have learnt.









I wasn't too pleased with the first pictures I took, I wanted something which could explore the ideas I had learnt but I didn't have much time and the light was fading. I had captured diagonals but not found anything as creative as I'd hoped.

I was much more pleased with the fourth image though. A combination of a wide angle lens and low viewpoint created four converging diagonals on the bridge.

Art of Photography: Project 20

This project was about the lines in a photograph. Horizontal and vertical lines and how they are seen by the eye, standing out more with more contrast.

The target was to go out and photograph 4 horizontal and 4 vertical lines, whilst trying the make the content subordinate to the line, i.e. the line is the first thing noticed or stands out the most.

As suggested in the project I found that the most common lines were man made structures, both horizontal and vertical. However I was interested to read in the project about other ideas for lines which I hadn't thought or seen, such as shadows, rows of objects making a line, a string of points making a line, and a mass of objects seen from a low angle. These gave me more idea's for lines and geometry which I would like to try out.

I was also interested to read some of the other idea's about lines, such as horizontal lines being seen as static, stable and having weight as they are naturally seen as a base for something to stand on! Whilst vertical lines have more sense of movement, and that parallel verticals in a horizontal frame can have a greater sense of speed and movement.

The project told us to just take pictures of lines first, without reading on, and then told us about other ideas for lines. Whilst I understand the philosophy for that type of learning I would have preferred to have been given the ideas first and then able to go out and see what I could make of them. I feel this would have not only produced much more interesting pictures but also would have felt to me that I'd really learnt something new and interesting, and furthered my photography. Of course I will make an effort to try and remember these and try them out but to have already tried them as part of the project would have been better.

I really find it fascinating to see how the brain works, how the eye sees, and to find aspects of that knowledge which can help create more interesting and intriguing photographs. For instance, the way some drawings with certain geometry and shapes can trick your mind into seeing different things! That is just one aspect but if you could learn and understand how and why the brain and eye sees those things then you can implement them into photography!

Anyway, here are the lines I found whilst out. Like I said, I would have liked to learn the new ideas before going and been able to find more interesting subjects!

Art of Photography: Project 19

This project was about many 'points' in an image and how their relationship and placement creates the overall image and its composition. I had to create a still life with 6 or more objects, adding one at a time and changing the placement and composition as I went along.

I actually found this quite difficult. Maybe my choice of still life wasn't very good or maybe its because I haven't had any practice with building a composition in this way. I found myself trying to create patterns with the objects to make an interesting image, whilst still trying to place them in a way which would look 'normal', i.e. like they could have been scattered there and not carefully placed in a strange arrangement. Maybe the objects themselves weren't interesting enough.

I'm not sure but I found I didn't have many ideas for how to arrange them to make a good picture. I thought the idea was good enough. I am a smoker who is thinking about quitting and finding it hard, although I know its bad for me. I had an idea about trying to show a kind of contradiction or struggle, which represents my own struggle with smoking and that of many others. I was going to use the objects which create the smoking, i.e. cigarette, lighter, ashtray, but also the fight against it as an inhaler and aid for giving up. Actually the way I imagined the idea would still make a good image as I had pictured the scene to be dramatic with strong lighting and camera angles. The trouble here was that this project called for a top down view which didn't match what I had in mind. I think I got confused between an idea that I thought was good but used for a project which didn't really match the idea. It's all learning I guess.


In the first image I simply placed the object off centre towards the golden section.


The second object was placed in the empty space to the left.


The third object is placed upper left at a similar angle to the first. The intersection of object one and three create a frame for object two.


Because the cigarette and lighter are the 'finished article' they are central in the picture and pointing to the elements that made, which are placed around the edge at the 'back' of the image.


Now the ashtray is added and is almost central, with the tobacco and papers etc pointing towards it.


The tobacco and cigarette papers are on the left, the finished cigarette is on the right, both pointing to the inhaler which is center front in the image, the 'aftermath'.


For the final image I had the ashtray almost centered, with the lighter, tobacco, etc, surrounding it. I placed the inhaler and a stop smoking aid at the bottom of the image. I thought it would be good to place the inhaler at an angle to appear like a 'tick' and the stop smoking aid to appear like a 'cross'. The tick and cross show again the struggle - smoking is good, smoking is bad, keep smoking, give up smoking.


This image shows the lines created by the objects. I actually didn't notice some of these until I saw the image on the computer! I understand that often these lines and shapes in photographs can be created subconsciously, but I also know that one thing the course aims to teach is to be able to see this kind of thing when composing an image, before taking a picture, and not rely on the subconscious to get it right! So I hope this is something I improve at soon. The lines created form a frame around the ashtray which is the subject of all the photos, and also line up diagonally across the image.