Photography
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Space is a very important element because it gives your images depth. Images without depth from foreground to background appear flat and are less realistic and inviting.
Landscape photography is a great way to demonstrate how to use space to give your photographs more depth. This image below is an example of a lack of depth. While there are still a background, middle ground, and foreground, they are not as defined as they could be.
This image of Big Laurel Creek has much more separation between levels of depth. This was achieved by a large difference in light levels as well as distortion from a wide-angle lens. The background adds to the image, but it isn’t overwhelming. The foreground is large, dominant, and right where your eye lands on the subject of the image. The middle ground works to bridge the two.
Here are a few more images with a huge separation of foreground and background.
In the next image, technically the background is the focal point. Your eye is drawn BACK in to the image until you can’t go any deeper. The foreground is close, but not distracting.
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The element of form is what takes a two-dimensional photograph and makes it appear three-dimensional. A flat image is boring and an image with depth and form is much more interesting.
Put simply, lighting can be hard and harsh with sharp shadows, or soft with very smooth shadows. The longer the transition between light and dark, the softer the light is. With either soft or hard light, form is created through light and shadow.
The image below was taken with a very frontal, harsh sunlight. It gives very little shape to Madison’s face and therefore lacks “form”.
Comparing the above image to the one below, you can really see how different lighting can give more form to the face. Even though this is “softer” light, it is from the side, creating shadows that give form to her face.
Landscapes are affected by the same quality of form, depending on the position of the sun. The below image from Wayah Bald in North Carolina was taken in the middle of the day with the sun directly overhead. There is very little form to the mountains because of the lack of shadows.
This image of Cades Cove from Gregory Bald in the Smokies was taken late in the evening, near sunset. With the sun near the horizon, there are a huge number of shadows, giving form to the mountains valleys and ridges.
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Black and white photography is completely dependent upon tone. Tone is the various amounts of light and dark in a photo. More contrast means more tones. Color photographs also have tone but also have an extra element of hues. Below are a few examples of tone in black and white photography.
This macro photograph of a blooming flower uses tone to separate the background from the foreground subject. Tone also gives detail to the leaves.
Tone also separates the background and foreground in this image. There isn’t much light tone in the gorillas so it is nearly a silhouette.
The clouds made this photo front the summit of Tusquitee Bald. The clouds had so much variety of tone and the shadows cast on the ground added to the contrast in the mountains.
This shot of a sunset uses tone in small detailed areas to give it a high contrast look.
The last shot is a macro image of a cluster of flowers. These flowers were a bright purple, but adding a black and white filter in post processing added a huge amount of contrast.
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The fourth element of art is shape. Shape is a two dimensional area formed by the other elements of art.
The photo below is an excellent example of the element of line creating circle shapes. Notice how the way the shapes are arranged across the image helps to lead the eye far back into space.
Last time we discussed the element of line and how it is used to better your photography. This article will cover the element of color.
Color is another way of adding interest and contrast to a photograph. The primary colors of red, blue, and yellow can be mixed together to create secondary and tertiary colors, eventually creating the “color wheel.”
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The next element of art that can be used to improve your photography is line. Line is created by shapes, edges of shapes, differences in tone, or anything that makes your eye follow a path.
Line is VERY important to getting your viewer to look at your images the way YOU want them to. Lines naturally lead viewer’s eyes around. There are actual lines such as a rail, a road, or a tree. Implied lines are things like edges of a building, the line of a model’s body, or elements that are in a line but not really connected.
The first of the seven elements of art that I will go over is texture. Texture, like the other elements is used to give interest and draw the attention of your viewer’s eye.
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In fine art of any media, there are seven basic elements of art. There are also the principles of design, but I will get to that in another post. I learned the elements of art while studying fine arts at Young Harris College. While we only applied these to other mediums such as painting, charcoal, and pencil drawing, they are just as applicable to photography!