Exercise – Curves

This exercise follows on from my last project for diagonals and looks at how curves can be used for composition.

In this picture, I have used curves to draw the eye to the subject point, the bell, which I have colour popped to help it stand out.

In this picture, I have used curves to draw the eye through the picture and the cars give added direction.

In this image I came across a convex mirror used for traffic safety and thought that the reflections of the cars that passed the mirror created a nice example of using curves for distorting an image creating an interesting angle of perspective and movement plus an almost 3D depth.

I wanted to find a good example of curves giving an impression of movement and I found it by chance in a lobby of a Hotel in Spain with the curves of the steel bands surrounding this steel statue of a dancer with ribbons. This photo was taken using just a small digital holiday snap-shot camera.

Exercise – Diagonals

In this exercise I have looked at the use of diagonals in composition to create dramatic and interesting compositions and can also create a sense of movement.

This first picture creates a sense of tension and drama by observing this monument from below at an angle. The resulting diagonal image exaggerates the height and also suggests a feeling of vulnerability for the observer.

In this example, I have used the theory of diagonals to lead the viewers eye in to the picture. I thought that This foot bridge was a good choice of locations as it offered both depth and interesting shadow effects.

In this example, I have used the diagonals to draw attention to the subject, Holly, my dog.

In this final example, I have photographed a large scale model of Concorde displayed on a roundabout outside Brooklands Museum. By using the theory of diagonals I have created a sense of drama, as if I have caught an image of Concorde just as it is taking off right in front of me.

Exercise – Horizontal and verticle lines

In this exercise, I looked for subjects that could convey the immediate impression of either horizontal or vertical lines as the theme.

The horizontal lines in this of the pallets is obvious but made interesting by the textures, light and shade and stacking arrangement.  I used a 24mm lens. f/8, 1/125 and I Cropped the picture in tightly and added contract to the image.

This subject I came upon whilst walking my dog, someone had dumped this old timber and I took the photo in landscape using my 55-300 zoom lens at 55mm focal, f/8, 1/160, I then altered the image to portrait and turned it upside down, in Lightroom, to get the effect I wanted.

These flowers were growing in a greenhouse in a Nursery close by, laid out on the floor I could see these horizontal bands of colour which I think make a perfect impression for the theme of horizontal lines. I used my 55-300mm zoom at 220mm focal length, f/10, 1/320, I then added contrast and made some colour adjustments in Lightroom.

The individual rows of flowers in another greenhouse offered up a nice example for vertical lines. I used my 55-300mm zoom, f/4.5, 1/1000, added contrast and adjusted colour in Lightroom.

I took this photo in landscape and tightly cropped the final image and turned it for portrait to get the interesting effect. I used my 50mm lens, f/10, 1/125.

Taken through the end of the bed frame using my 50mm lens, f/5.6, 1/50.

This was an old American car sadly slowly rusting away, someone’s abandoned restoring project and I saw the idea of the lines in the car’s design.

This image is of some industrial plastic trays stacked up that I photographed and tightly cropped and turned 90 degrees in Lightroom, I used a 50mm lens, f/10, 1/160.