In our on-going look at the important role of strong composition in creating award-winning photographs, I wanted to turn again to the interesting use of cross-lines or diagonals in composition.
You may recall that we first looked at how lines can create visual interest in a photograph when we reviewed the six-part series on composition available for free from The American School of Paris.
Today, we’re going to look at another resource on this topic from our friends at Photozone.de, which you can find, along with a lot of other great material, in our Photobird Learning Center.
In today’s featured article, Klaus Schroiff points out that lines can create pictorial interest by providing a guideline for our eyes to follow when taking in a picture, such as in Ed Krimen’s photo “The Embarcadero, near the Port of San Francisco“.
Klaus also points out how visual interest can be sustained even when the rule is consciously broken. His second example, shown above in a photo from Horst Scheider, shows a boat and shade providing just the right amount of visual disruption to the diagonal through-line of the pier.
Consider, too, how the lines in the first example shown in his article separate the plane of the picture into rough approximations of the same three triangles we learned earlier comprise The Golden Mean.
Be sure to check out the Photobird Learning Center to read the entire article and for more great content.
