2020 Photo Challenge #16

April’s theme / technique: Being Creative with Lines

The six visual keys to a great photograph are:

• • Patterns
  • Texture
  • Lines
  • Light
  • Depth of field
  • Space

Lines are everywhere in our world. Just look around you. Seek them out to add visual impact to your photographs (in fact Becky ran a Square Challenge in November purely on lines – check out some of my entries for that if you want ideas) There are lines within nature which can be straight or curved, and man-made lines are everywhere in buildings and roads and even cars. Even a human arm is a line.

• • choose a subject and then look for lines in the scene that lead the viewer to it
  • find an interesting line then decide what your subject is going to be
  • start making looking for lines a part of every photographic outing and develop an eye for finding and placing lines in your composition.

Lines and perspective – Parallel lines never meet or touch but as they disappear an impression is given that they do. This is what fools the eye and brain into believing that there is distance in the image.  It is best illustrated when using a wide angle lens. Be sure though to include the focal point which is also known as the vanishing point, which is the point where the lines disappear into nothing.

Diminishing Lines – Diminishing perspective of scale refers to the appearance of size that our eyes see. Take for example a row of telephone poles disappearing into the distance. Our brain tells us that they all should be the same height. But, because they are all gradually getting smaller the brain says they must be getting further apart. If you use this sense of perspective you will find it extremely effective in giving depth to your images. So when you are trying to achieve this, look for fences, trees, telephone poles, and similar repeated objects to include in your photo which will help create the depth.

Diagonal Lines – diagonal lines lead the eye from one part of an image to another and impart more energy than horizontals. It allows the viewer to scan the picture sweeping naturally through the frame.

Implied Lines – are where there are no distinct lines but they are clearly part of the composition. Think about a line of people in a queue, a row of flowers, birds on the seashore.

This week's assignment - Converging lines. These convey a sense of depth and distance, try to have something of interest at the point where they appear to meet. Or position them on the diagonal to infer motion.

A rather more challenging task this week. Getting the vanishing point into the frame is more difficult than you might first think.

(1) This lane, or rather, hill, in New Zealand disappears at the top of the hill into the trees. I hope it conveys the sense of leading you up along the lane and into the distance.

(please click on any photo to enlarge it)

(2) Below another road this time in Scotland takes you past the little stone bridge on your right and onwards through the forest.

(3) Closer to home, this winding track leads you up to the dairy farm, disappearing behind the Cornish hedge before you get there.

(4) And my final image is a little different. Again close to home, here I was attempting to frame the vertical lines of the furrows that draw your eye into the little woodland area and beyond to the diagonal lines of that arable field which sweeps across the frame from left to right leading to the wind turbine on the edge. It would have worked better if the turbine had been slightly more to the right, but although I tried I couldn’t position myself at an angle to capture it like that.

As always I welcome your critique / comments about any of my photos. Remember this is all about challenging my (and your) photographic techniques.

If you would like to join in with the 2020 photo challenge then please take a look at my 2020 Photo Challenge page. No complicated rules, just a camera required 🙂

• • Create your own post with some information about how you composed the shot.
  • Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
  • Add the tag #2020PhotoChallenge so everyone can find your entry easily in the WP Reader
  • Get your post(s) in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in May.