Exercise 18 - Horizontal and Vertical Lines

This was an interesting exercise for two reasons, firstly, the challenge not to repeat the same cause of lines (such as building sides) was fun and it made me circle town a couple of times to find alternatives. The second reason why it was interesting was because I bought a compact camera whilst in town so that I can have a camera on me at all times. I took a few shots with the 5D and then when I had bought the compact (a GE E1480W chosen for it's bargain price, 14mpx, manual mode, robust case and lithium battery) I just used that.


The final selection is an even split between 5D and compact so I'm really happy with my purchase.


Horizontal Lines

This picture was taken at F1.6 and 1/125 down a badly lit side alley using the 5D and the 50mm lens. The horizontal lines of the shutters is the first thing the viewer should notice and then the lines of the bricks which help support the horizontal.

The lines of the road, the pavement and the cladding are the dominant lines here, because they are low in the frame, the eye does move up to the windows with the interesting pattern caused by the curtains. This was also on the 5D 50mm at F2 and 1/100.

This image was taken using the GE compact and the horizontal lines are caused by initially the window décor, then by the décor on the wall and finally by the stairs inside the room. This is not as strong as some of the other horizontal images.

The final horizontal image was again taken using the compact and it shows a dominant horizontal line of the Opera House canopy which is then boosted by the lines of scaffolding and then the road.

Vertical Lines

The first of the vertical images also features scaffolding, but in this case it shows a strong series of vertical lines which are then supplemented by the vertical lines of the adjoining building. This was taken on the 5D 50mm at F4.5 1/125. 

This is my favourite of all of the images although the angles of the shutter at the top and bottom of the frame do weaken the vertical lines with a suggestion of diagonals. This was a 5D 50mm image taken at F2 1/100.

I'm going to be honest and admit that I used the lens correction feature of Lightroom to remove the converging lines. I was struggling to capture pure vertical lines on buildings and as soon as I pointed the camera up, the verticals became diagonals. I do like this image despite cheating, it was taken using the compact and is of a very art deco building in town.

This strong vertical line was taken using the compact and was a real find. This artwork is placed in a very tall area of a refurbished library. 

I'm quite happy with my images for this exercise but to be honest I feel like I used too many artificial lines and I am going to try and keep an eye out for some more natural lines that are made out of groups of objects rather than man made lines.