Exercise - Horizontal and vertical lines

Object - looking for lines and edges:

 Lines of trees, lit from the side and echoed by the line of the wall to the right.

 Leaves growing upward, taken from low down and looking into the centre of the plant.

 A column in the abbey, this is a relative close up, to show the pattern and the edges.

 A narrow, dark passage with the sun from behind, lines in the height of the wall, emphasised by the narrow walkway.

 Layers of plants in the field, lines produced by alternating light of the flowers and dark of the stems.

 Pipes, man made and stacked, sun behind the camera.

 Lines of metal and of text (on the War Memorial), lit from above on a brilliantly sunny day.

Lines in the bark of tree, in spite of the height of the tree the first thing noticed when walking by are the horizontal lines.

When I looked though my recent images I found that many of them were strongly influenced by lines , either horizontal or vertical, or both. It became difficult to pick out a representative sample, I have many trees, all very vertical, but I found the one shown second here, with the horizontal lines in the trunk, interesting because of the tension caused by the expectation of height in a tree set against the vertical lines seen. The flowers (rape seed) are also interesting because although they are intrinsically vertical, the light and shade and the colours give a very definite implied horizontal pattern.

Exercise - Vertical framing

These are some of the other images taken while doing the exercise of taking 20 vertical images. In these cases either I have not been able to take a similar image in a horizontal format or the horizontal format was not effective.

All of the images clearly benefitted from a vertical format as it emphasises the height or the repeating patterns.

Exercise - Vertical and horizontal frames. - 3

Example 8.

More ceilings in the shopping centre, this time taken on the way in. The vertical format gives a good overall view of the roof and an idea of the length of the corridors in the building. The shodows mirror the glass and make an interesting pattern to balance the pattern of the glass.

The horizontal view(on the way out)  gives an odd perspective to the image, and is rather distorted. The effect of the shadows is less pronounced .

Example 9.

In the view of the street going down the hill to the distant fields the vertical format emphasises the height of the buildings and the sense of enclosure in the narrow street. The image was taken in bright sunlight but was almost directly facing the sun which was just blocked out by the buildings.

The horizontal version is much less effective at showing the visual distance and turns into a rather dull image of a street in apparently poor weather conditions.

Example 10.

This vertical image is cramped and, although showing the stalks and a leaf does not show the flower as the most important part of it. More attention is drawn to the roof and the lines of the glass.

In the horizontal image the flower clearly takes the central stage, giving a better balanced image where the eye's attention is drawn to it rather than to the surrounding area.

Example 11.

This image gives a good impression of the shape of the bananas growing on the tree and echos the upright shape of the fruit itself. An image taken with a slightly wider angle lens, or from further away, would show the whole bunch and some of the tree and possibly be more effective.

This format emphasises the roundness of the bunch rather than its sheer size and gives an extra dimension to the picture. Ther is also a tension between the upright bananas and the horizontal format. Both images work but show different information about the scene.

These 11 pairs of images show that images of a wide range of subjects can be taken either horizontally or vertically, both when taking distance views and close up details. However not all are equally successful and one needs to think about the purpose of the image and the focal point before making a decision. It is worth exploring both possibilities as it is not always the most obvious one that is the most successful.

Exercise - Vertical and horizontal frames. - 2

 Example 3.

This is the roof of our local shopping centre and the end of my trip before reversing my route. It was also memorable for being the first time I have had to deal with irate security guards trying to take my camera and throw me out. Eventually they accepted that it was a public place and I could take pictures of the roof!

In this case I think there is little to prefer between the two formats, the horizontal gives a more overall view and the vertical shows the height better but both have equal merit.

Example 4. 

This is a fairly attractive view of a local museum. The vertical format emphasises its height and size. The relatively close view shows the detail of the building well.

A horizontal format from slightly further away gives a better idea of the setting and size of the building, especially as there are now lots of people around but does not show the detail as well.

Example 5. 

These photographs were taken in our local abbey. I had gone in to take images that really benefit from a vertical format to show the extreme height of the pillars. Instead I found that the abbey was dressed in coloured silk and mirror glass as part of a son et lumimiere performance. This did interupt the concentration on '20 verticals on a row' as I knew that this was not something I could leave until tomorrow.

In this case both formats were utilised to show both the detail and the grandeur of the place contrasting with the reflections and the silk.

Example 6. 

This shows a reflection in the glass  of a conservatory. in the vertical format there are few clues as to the exact make-up of the image and it becomes almost abstract.

This format, taken from slightly further away is much more obvious and therefore possibly less interesting the the previous one.

Exercise - Vertical and horizontal frames.

The exercise here was to take  the next 20 photographs in a vertical format then repeat as many as possible of them in a horizontal format to look at the difference this made to the image.  When thinking about this task I went back and looked at my previous images and found that I do take about 1/3 of them in a vertical format. this is probably because I live in a town with a large number of high and old buildings and therefore vertical framing is often appropriate, I also enjoy photographing trees which also often benefit from a vertical look.

Here I have chosen to show some pairs of images in vertical and horizontal format and some single vertical images. Not all of the vertical images have been repeated due to inclement weather this week. Some of the images were taken in both orientations at the same occasion as I knew that they were not repeatable as they were part of a local sound and light show that I stumbled across accidentally while out taking my '20 verticals'. Thus nicely demonstrating the importance of always carrying a camera.

Example 1.

The original picture was taken vertically and I was quite pleased with it. This is the format I often choose to photograph trees as I feel it accentuates their height.

The horizontal picture was taken on my walk back though the park.  The light had changed and it was noticably  darker. In spite of my usual preference for a vertical format for trees I prefer this option as the image is more interesting and It gives a better feel for the distance one is looking into.




Example 2. 

Here I focused on an image of the tallest object in the playpark and the vertical framing acts to accentuate its height. It shows and interesting arrangement of curvews and horizontal lines and might make a good monochrome image.

A horizontal image shows the whole park but with  less emphasis on the  height. This was also taken with a wider lens and although  I was standing at almost the same spot the playpark is not shown as standing out from the trees in the background and the image is rather confused.

Having thought about it - I decided to do a monochrome version of this, and decided that I reather liked the spooky look of the deserted playpark and the rather science fiction look. I can imagine a story starting from this point.