The lines, along with the point, are a basic element in artistic composition, but at the same time it is one of the most used for its effectiveness when it comes to helping us compose the images. Today we will talk about lines and how to use them in composition, but if you want to delve into the Photographic composition and know all the tricks and tips for some of the most impressive photographs, I recommend this mega guide that we have prepared for you.
Why are lines so important in composition?
The lines allow you to guide the direction of the gaze through defined paths in the image, they make it flow, giving it dynamism, volume, depth and position. Within a composition marked through lines or in part to them, you can find a predominant line that is the one that most strongly guides your gaze towards the center of interest. These lines are called lines of force or dominant lines.
How can I use them and for what purpose?
To start using them in your compositions with a certain logic, you will first have to learn to identify them, since perhaps until now you were not aware that most of the images you were looking at contained lines that, without knowing it, directed your attention to a specific point. from image. Once you get a little familiar with the lines, you can use them to make the viewer of your photograph walk through it exactly how you want them to; to indicate which path to follow and which element you have decided to highlight. In short, so that they understand what you want to explain and how.
For example, if you look at the following image, you will be able to identify several lines that predominate in the scene. We see a horizon line behind the boatman, which divides the image in two (sky and water-environment and action). In turn, you can observe the diagonal line that traces the oar and the boat itself towards the figure of the main subject, making it stand out in the composition.
What type of lines can I use and for what?
vertical lines
Vertical lines direct your gaze from top to bottom or bottom to top. They are associated with growth, strength, rigidity and height, since they tend to escape our usual angle of vision. For example, when you admire very pronounced vertical lines such as those of a skyscraper, a large tree or any vertical element, your gaze travels vertically, and normally for this you have to raise or lower your head, which in itself is a bit awkward. forced or out of the ‘usual’.
The vertical lines can be composed however you want, but you will get different results depending on whether you have decided to frame them horizontally or vertically. If you do it vertically, the frame will accompany the lines, so their effect will be even more accentuated. If you do it horizontally, you will compensate the strength of the vertical lines with the horizontal format.
Horizontal lines
These are the lines that you are perhaps most used to, since they mark the usual direction of many of your daily actions (we read horizontally, at least in this language, and you tend to look more naturally horizontally than vertically). We usually associate horizontal lines with tranquility, peace and stillness. You can use them as a formal element in itself (for example the image of some steps, with many repeated horizontal lines) or to divide or organize your image from them.
Surely if I tell you to think of a placid image you will think of something like a straight horizon with few formal elements within the image. This is because the horizon line is one of the most common elements we use in landscape format. The horizon line apart from transmitting, as I have already mentioned, that stillness and peace, it also serves you in composition to divide the planes of your image.
If you also combine the horizon with other rules of composition, such as the well-known rule of thirds to place the main motif, your image will gain interest, since a horizontal line by itself, without any other prominent element, runs the risk of being a somewhat flat or nondescript image.
(If you need some more inspiration on horizons, you can see great images from readers of this blog, here )
diagonal lines
The diagonals are lines with a lot of tension, they have a lot of visual strength and create very interesting perspectives. That is why diagonal lines are perhaps the most attractive in composition, because they completely break the schemes of your gaze, and consequently make them stand out more than the rest.
Perhaps they are more striking to you because you do not usually find them very much in the natural forms of nature or in your usual environment, (buildings, trees and vertical people, or ground, horizons, and horizontal stairs, for example.) But in reality, each line whether horizontal or vertical, you can turn it diagonally, varying the point of view of your frame until you find it.
Look at the following image which is a combination of several horizontal and diagonal lines. Is it true that despite the fact that in number there are many more horizontal lines than diagonal lines, the ones that stand out the most are the diagonal lines?
Curve lines
Curved lines are the ones most associated with movement, they are fluid, smooth, sensual and elegant, and allow you to ‘walk’ your gaze more slowly over the image than straight lines. We could say that straight lines take you to your destination quickly or even abruptly, while curves invite you to walk following their shape through the frame.
Within the curved lines, the “S” curve stands out, which is well known in photographic composition, surely you have seen it many times in beautiful landscape photographs, for example the shape of a river winding through some mountains, or a road lined with trees. It has a very suggestive shape and brings, in itself, great beauty to the photographs.
Use your imagination: combine lines
You don’t have to limit yourself to using one leading line every time you take a picture. You can try to combine several of them to mark space, fluidity, distance, or whatever comes to mind.
For example, in the image below, there is a combination of diagonal and vertical lines. The gaze ‘goes up’ along the diagonal (because we read them from bottom to top and from left to right), stops at the character and goes down the vertical line.
And finally… Take advantage of the vanishing point of your lines
Another aspect that you must take into account when composing through lines is the vanishing point. The vanishing point is a real or imaginary point where the lines of an image converge, that is, it is where the lines (real or not) that project the elements of an image meet.
To emphasize the vanishing points of an image, you can use the converging lines, which are nothing more than two parallel lines that intersect in space due to the effect of distance. The typical and clarifying example for this effect are the lines of a train track that run parallel and get progressively closer as they move away, or as in the following image, the sides of a road that converge in the distance.
Lines, whether curved, diagonal, vertical or horizontal, can be found everywhere, since by definition everything is made up of lines, a silhouette, a landscape, a building, everything. And in addition to being very easy to find, they are also very intuitive to use, because what they transmit are general sensations to all of us, (calm, movement, aggressiveness, sensuality, power…) all those feelings common to human beings. Because of this, using them with intuition is very easy, you just have to be aware of their existence and play with them, be creative, let yourself go, use them combining other composition schemes, or use them breaking those same composition schemes. To your liking 😉
Until now, hadn’t you given importance to that leak made by the railing of your balcony? And to that combination of horizontals and verticals of the building opposite? And to those steps that converge towards that old woman resting on a bench? So go for those pictures! I assure you that when you start using them… it will be hard for you to leave it 🙂
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