Exercise 22: Real and Implied Triangles

Graphically triangles occur more frequently than any other shape and they are very usable in design. This might be because it has the fewest number of sides of any of the regular shapes and because the diagonals it contains make it active and it can appear to be pointing and so induce a sense of movement.

The brief for this exercise was to produce two sets of triangular compositions in photographs, one using 'real' triangles the other making 'implied' triangles.

Real

Photograph 1: A subject which is itself triangular (it can be a detail of something larger).

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens, f/11.0, 105.0mm, 1/50s, ISO1250

This real triangle is part of a sundial.

Photograph 2: A triangle by perspective, converging towards the top of the frame.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens, f/20.0, 75.0mm, 1/10s, ISO100

This scene uses perspective to convey a triangular shape toward the the top of frame.

Photograph 3: An inverted triangle by perspective, converging towards the bottom of the frame.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens, f/20.0, 28.0mm, 1/5s, ISO100

This shot was taken looking down and uses a wide angle to generate the triangle and perspective.

Implied

Photograph 1: Make a still-life arrangement to produce a triangle with the apex at the top

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens, f/20.0, 58.0mm, 2.0s, ISO100



This child's toy has an implied triangle toward the top of frame.

Photograph 2: Make a still-life arrangement, but so that the triangle is inverted, with the apex at the bottom.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens, f/8.0, 82.0mm, 0.3s, ISO100

I shot this still-life with a small f/stop so as to blur the base of the triangle to help emphasize the apex at the bottom of the frame.

Photograph 3: Arrange three people in a group picture in such a way that either their faces or the lines of their bodies makes a triangle.

'To follow'

A definable shape organises parts of a picture.  Because a shape has a tendency to enclose, it helps make groups of things cohere.  Triangles are arguably the simplest regular shape to achieve in photography.  Also, the natural tendency of linear perspective is for lines to converge on a vanishing point and to form two sides of a triangle.