Exercise 19 - Diagonals

The diagonals exercise was interesting because as the folder says, it is really easy to create diagonals by shifting the perspective and creating a diagonal out of a vertical or horizontal line. The images that I took, on a return visit to the city centre, are a combination of created diagonals and actual diagonals.

All of these images were taken on my compact camera and have had the levels altered in Lightroom.

In this image, the wall and balcony create a strong diagonal line which has been created by my standpoint when I took the shot. This is strengthened by the diagonal line created by the lamposts which run up the street.

Stair cases make classic diagonal line shots and this one works very well.The main staircase whcih dominates the image causes the viewer's eye to roam from right to left but then back again. The second stair case in the top right is a secondary interest to the viewer. I used a split tone effect with this image as I wanted to make it feel quite cold and clinical to reinforce the lines and encourage a feeling of faster movement.

The main diagonal line in this image is created by the row of bollards and the feeling of movement is increased by the three figures walking towards the camera, whilst also following the line of bollards. Secondary lines are seen in the paving and whilst they are ataully intermittent verticals, the perspective makes them seem like extra diagonal lines. In the background to the top right and top left, alternative diagonal lines from the road and a disability ramp are featured but are at different angles to the bollards which does create a small amount of tension in the image.

This image features the second of the enforced diagonals and the saturation has been increased for the reds in the photo to make it pop. When I took this imagemy intention was to show a strong diagonal line that was totally intentional and this line, of an available retail unit, has been clearly chosen for graphic design purposes. It creates a dynamic feeling through the use of the diagonal line and again a feeling of movement. Looking at the image for a second time, there is a real conflict for the eye as the natural response is to look at the line from the bottom left and then move up to the top right, but the human brain will always go to text before anything else so the line's strength is diminished due to the text.

The last image is a strong diagonal line that has been created by perspective and the row of buildings creates quite a dramatic line that is mirrored in the lines of the road.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad