Part 2 - Elements of Design - Exercise 6 - Implied Lines

First up for this exercise was to looking at the following 2 photographs and if a dominant implied line of direction was found then mark it with an arrow.

Corrida by Michael Freeman

This image by Michael Freeman captures the graceful movement of a Matador and Bull. I found that there was a strong line of direction clockwise around the Matador which the bull is going in. This notion is heightened by the red circular line in the dirt and the whole picture gives us a feeling of spinning almost like a tornado around the Matador.

Threshing Corn in Sicily by Gotthard Schuh

Gotthard Schuhs' image again captures great elegant movement of the 2 horses as they trot around their trainer. There is a definite circular motion going anti clockwise around the man where with the horses heads pointing in the same direction only reinforces this. There seems to be less strong implied lines between the man and the horses along the rope connecting them and the eye line of the man. These lines seem to give a feeling of togetherness joining the 3 into one graceful movement. I also feel I can imagine the up and down motion of the horses trot perhaps due to there stride seemingly being captured in unison.

The second part of the exercise was to choose any 3 photographs and perform the same analysis as with the first 2.

Image 1

Image 1 was taken on a cold winters afternoon with a kite surfer braving the conditions. Generally we have the horizontals of the horizon and the sea waves with very little happening above the horizon. There is some directional lines along the waves suggesting the surfers direction of travel is from left to right. But with the physical line between the surfer and his kite we get a stronger implied line which allows us to drift our eye up from the sea and into the grey mirky sky and onto the kite, bringing more of the image together.

Image 2

Here in image 2, we get the strong implied line from the subjects eyes to the writing on the sand. Her direction of travel also gives a sense of movement around the heart shape instead of just standing looking at it. There is also a line along the beach/grass line that leads us to the subjects eyes that we subsequently travel down her eye line to the sand with an almost zig zag effect.

Image 3

In image 3 we have 3 subjects, initially we have the young girl walking alone the line of her shadow with arms out, giving the implied line out of the image. We also get a sense of movement from the 2 ladies on the left, with the wind obviously blowing their hair and dresses from behind there is almost a feeling they are unable to resist its strength and are being blown out the shot from right to left, the opposite of the your girls direction of travel. The complete image gives me the impression of someone putting their hands into the centre of the image and parting them outwards, trying to wipe the 3 subjects from the shot.

The 3rd part of this exercise is to take 2 photographs planning implied lines to lead the eye using firstly, eye line then the extension of a line or lines that point.

Image 4 - Eye-line

Image 4 was my attempt to capture an image that used implied eye-lines to lead the eye. These faces hang in one of the huge rooms of the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow and I used their totally random direction to create an almost haphazard image where the eye is lead in all different directions around the many faces to a point of almost confusion. Possibly not the most stable image but for this exercise I thought it would highlight the impact of implied eye-lines as tools to direct and lead the eye. I cropped to a square to try and highlight the confusion where as with the original portrait crop I found there was an opportunity for the eye to escape from the madness that was intended.

Image 5 - Extension of a line, a line that points

Here in image 5, I was messing around with depth of field, moving my focal point with the aperture wide open to see what I got as I looked along some barbed wire. I noticed that by moving my viewpoint and focusing in on this certain piece of wire I could use the top point of the 3 strands around the wire to point the eye down the line of the wire and into the blurred abyss created by the shallow depth of field. This time I used the portrait crop to help emphasise the nothingness that lay along the wire.

It was enlightening to realise the importance of implied lines when working through this exercise. Again this might have been an unconscious decision when framing an image before hand but now hope to put more thought into my design of a shot and where I want to direct the viewer and hold their attention in a certain part of the image. And it has also helped me understand why some images grab my attention and give a certain feeling or mood when being explored.