This exercise is similar in content to the previous horizontal and vertical lines exercise in that it required four photos but this time this time diagonal lines would feature. It would have been very easy to find some horizontal lines, turn the camera 30° and press the shutter button, and there you have diagonal lines. That would have made a very dull blog post and they wouldn’t have learned much along the way.
“Of all lines, diagonals introduce the most dynamism into a picture. They are highly active, with an even stronger expression of direction and speed than verticals. They bring life and activity precisely because they represent unresolved tension.” (Freeman M, 2007: P76)
There is definitely a sense of movement and direction in this picture due to the diagonal lines we can see where the train is coming from and the direction it is heading in. If I had composed this photograph so that the train was coming directly at me head on the viewer would not have the same sense of motion.
The white picket fence also gives a very strong diagonal running through the photograph but if you look closely you will see that it also forms a zigzag pattern separating the people from the train.
In the previous exercise on horizontal and vertical lines we saw that horizontal lines could have the effect of flattening perspective into bands of texture or colour. In the photograph above we can see that the converging diagonal lines actually give depth and draw the viewer’s eye into the picture. This is the effect of perspective and also viewpoint. If the photo was taken directly in front of the steps they would be shown as horizontal lines with much less of a “depth effect”
in the photograph above the diagonal shadows emphasize a point in the center of the photograph but in this case it is not an effect of perspective but rather the intersection of the diagonals that draw the viewers eye.
This photo comprises some of the elements of the previous photos into one. the depth perspective is provided by the ground floor escalators and lead your eye to the center of the photo where it encounters the people on the escalator heading up. their movement in turn leads your eye to the people heading down on the escalator. the converging and diverging diagonals give this photo a real energy.
Reflection
We often hear people talking about the language of photography. Stretching that analogy a little further I would suggest that these compositional exercises are teaching me the grammar of that language. When I become proficient in the proper use of that grammar I will be able to more effectively communicate in the language of photography.