Line

The constantly changing direction, intensity, and color of light generates infinite shapes and perspective, providing photographers with a continually changing visual menu.

Lines leads the eye--and the mind--across the expanse of image space. The longer the line, the greater its visual importance. There are only two kinds of lines--straight and curved. Straight lines move without deviation from one place to another, and they impart a sense of purpose, especially when they lead to the primary subject. Curved lines always imply digression. They suggest unhurried movement and have the effect of relaxing the viewer.

There are three possible orientations of straight lines--vertical, horizontal, and oblique-- and they all have enormous expressive power. Straight lines are perceived to be stable in both horizontal and vertical positions and so impart that sense of stability to a visual composition. Vertical lines may also convey formality, especially if the spacing between successive vertical lines is fairly equal. The effect is usually one of strong oder and precise arrangement, as with a row of columns on a classical building. Equal spacing of very straight vertical lines an evoke the feeling of military precision. They may express strength, power, and even growth--our response to them is often the result of direct experience, due to so many growing plants, like trees, standing more or less vertical.

Horizontal lines appear to be even more stable than vertical ones, echoing the solidity of a floor or flat land. If they are not absolutely straight but undulate slightly, they may evoke a feeling of restfulness, another association from our direct experience of making our bodies horizontal and slightly curved when we sleep.

Lines in an oblique position provide a dynamic quality to images, implying a sense of movement and change. This is because, subconsciously, we regard oblique lines as having fallen out of the vertical position and moving towards the other position of rest, the horizontal. We see and feel the instability. Sometimes you can generate the effect by moving the camera body to cause vertical lines to lean in the image space.

Not all lines in a photograph are visible, and the ones you can't see may be as important as the ones you can. Imagine a small area of dark sand with two white stones lying on it. Your eyes will tend to move back and forth between the two spots of lightest tone. This movement will increase once you frame the scene in the viewfinder, because you will have simplified the composition and intentionally focused on the subject, eliminating visual competition from nearby objects on the beach. The movement or implied line between the two stones will be vertical, horizontal, or oblique depending on where you place them in the image.

Edges resemble lines. They have most of the same porperties and produce similar expressive effects, but generally they are less pronounced. The difference can usually be attributed to the fact that although every line has some width, an edge has no width at all. We don't actually see edges, we intuit them.

If a line enclose space, we call it an outline and the shape it encompases may be more important to visual design than the line iteself. Lines and their orientation may create shapes when they meet the edges of the picture space. An oblique line that spans the distance from the upper left corner to the lower right bisects a picture into two equal triangles. A vertical line the runs from the middle of the upper edge straight down to the middle of the lower forms two rectangles. The resultant shapes may alter the visual significance and the emotional impact of the image.

The skillful use of lines; type, number, direction, intensity, makes for clear and effective expression. The fewer the lines in a composition, the simpler it tends to be, since the viewer's attention is not pulled between conflicting directions. However, a multitude of lines can work together to give a sense of unity. Several parallel oblique lines or curves may produce an impression of movement more successfully than a single one can. Contrasting lines, harmoniously arranged can radically affect both the apperance of a scene and our emotional response.