Exercise 18: Horizontal and Vertical Lines

The idea for this exercise was to go out and look for specific examples of horizontal and vertical lines and photograph them.  The course notes suggested trying to avoid repeating the way in which a line appears. For instance, if I were to take a photograph of vertical lines in a tall building I was not to repeat this as an example.  The notes also suggested to try and subordinate the content of the picture i.e. make the line the first thing the viewer sees when looking at the photograph.  I found this aspect of this exercise extremely difficult as I found the eye was first drawn to the image itself then the patterns or lines.

I have again converted all images to greyscale in order to help see the lines/patterns first and not be influenced by colour.

Vertical

Photograph 1:


Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, 105.0mm, f/22.0, 1/125s. ISO160

 I took this photograph of the mast of dinghies knowing that some were not completely vertical I do however still think it shows 'vertical' well.

Photograph 2:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, 105.0mm, f/22.0, 1/125s. ISO400, +0.33

Again not all of these post are complete vertical.  However, I do believe it portrays vertical quite well with the post leading to the mast in the background.

Photograph 3:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, 85.0mm, f/22.0, 1/100s. ISO400, +0.33

I think this chimney stack shows vertical extremely well with strong lines emphasising.

Photograph 4:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, 45.0mm, f/8.0, 1/60s. ISO100

I shot this photo of flower stalks hoping they would portray vertical.  I think there might be a little too much going on in this image and 'vertical' is lost somewhat and is perhaps only implied!

I did notice that all but one of my vertical shots were shot with the camera in the vertical position.  This was subconscious but I do feel it emphasises the vertical aspect of the image.  If I were to shoot these images again I think I would deliberately shoot them in the horizontal plane as the image itself should portray vertical.

Horizontal

Photograph 1:



Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, 80.0mm, f/22.0, 1/60s. ISO400, -1



This photograph of a pile of railway sleepers was difficult to categorise into horizontal or vertical.  I decided that the horizontal lines was dominant.

Photograph 2:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, 85.0mm, f/22.0, 1/600s. ISO320, +0.33

I like how the gate frames the photograph and the viewer sees the the vertical lines of the gate bars before seeing the miniature horse.

Photograph 3:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, 105.0mm, f/16.0, 1/500s. ISO400

Even though the horizon is not horizontal I think the horizontal lines of the different fields and roads work in making this image suggest horizontal.

Photograph 4:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, 32.0mm, f/20.0, 1/40s. ISO100, +0.33

I shot this grill of a lorry and liked how the grill formed horizontal lines leading the eye across the frame.

Vertical and horizontal lines have two kinds of quality in an image - a graphic and an expressive association.  The graphic qualities are they make a division, help locate things inside the frame and have a sense of direction.  Expressive associations are more vague, horizontal lines tend to be more static (horizons etc) and vertical lines have more sense of movement and confront the viewer.