Visual Elements in Art & Photography

Introduction
Over the past 2 weeks I have been researching the visual elements in both art & photography. Throughout this presentation I will share my findings and demonstrate with images how I have incorporated my new found knowledge on the visual elements

Visual Elements
Line
Shape Form

Pattern
Texture Tone/Value

Think of these elements as tools, they can help make an amazing photograph/image. What makes a good photograph? Combining the above elements can create depth and feeling to a seemingly flat picture. I will explain, in detail how each element can effect an image if added in the correct way.

Line: The direction & orientation of a line can produce

different emotions & feelings in an image: Horizontal Lines evoke tranquility, peace and stability

Vertical Lines show strength, power and growth.

This image in particular is an excellent example of portraying strength and greatness with horizontal lines. The vertical lines of the rock face creates greatness, strength and power. The climber puts the size and greatness of the rock into scale. The horizon in the background portrays a calm peaceful feeling

as discussed in the previous paragraph on HORIZONTAL LINES.

The two put together create a strong but also peaceful image.

FORM
Form refers to the shape & depth of an object due to light & dark areas, giving contrast that creates volume making the object appear to be 3d

Factors that are involved are the direction of light, above, below & behind.
Placing the light source to the left of The subject created volume and Accentuated the tummy. The highlights & shadows created a beautiful Outline & created a beautiful contour. This technique is also known as the Rembrandt lighting technique. One of my

Favorites in maternity shoots as the

highlights/lowlights create shape & form but it helps add softness to the shadows.

SHAPE
Two dimensional objects can be used to create feeling and atmosphere in an image Triangles are known as a symbol of magic, strength, creativity, whilst squares & rectangles portray strength. Circles when unbroken symbolise eternity, wholeness and protection.
Silhouettes are a great way of highlighting your shape in your photograph. In this image I tried to portray me and my girls unity and us embracing the beautiful sunset, I think capturing this image as a silhouetted strengthened our shape as being the main focus

Colour
Colour affects humans. I also discovered that men & women respond to colours in different ways Colour affects us emotionally, different colours reflect different emotions. In short, colour is quite capable in affecting our nervous systems. I now make a conscious effort to manipulate colours to reflect different emotions in my images. HUE: is primary colours RED, BLUE and GREEN VALUE: is lightness & darkness (amount of black & white added) INTENSITY: the saturation (brightness of colour) or purity of colour I understand that colours can compliment each other and colours can be harmonious (ANALOGOUS). They can be

Warm (appearing advanced) or cool

(move to the distance/background)

Tactile Texture: 3d, can touch to feel what the given texture is.

Texture & Pattern

Visual Texture: 2d, giving the illusion of what of a texture in something we see. I learnt that LIGHT is the important factor in how we SEE texture in images and seen as though we cant feel the texture of an image of a brick wall, as photographers we rely on light the help highlight the different depths and levels of the objects surface. PATTERNS are everywhere! Patterns create depth and texture to an object, or if you want to just highlight the natural pattern of one object, cropped field, be sure not to add a beautiful hilly background into the scene as this would draw the viewers eye away from the patterns created in the cropped field. If taken on an overcast day or at night, without LIGHT you would find it difficult to see the affects of the plough as there is no light to create highlights and shadows.

Elements in unison
Having learnt in depth the visual elements, I now have to learn to put them altogether like one big happy family into an image (or maybe a few, the odd one can be left out, we all have an uncle *@o$ head dont we?) One word that springs to mind is coherence, belonging together in relation to shape, colour & size etc. Visually this can be done by using analogous colour, tonal colour and similar shapes, sizes and textures, Too much of one can lead to boredom leading the viewers eye astray, hence why I said its a must to include at least a few visual elements together. You can use a particular element to dominate an image or particular object in the image eg.
The image on left uses colour to dominate the main object shape and size. Complimentry colours are used to create Contrast and to add to the size & shape, warm colours are advancing and cooler distancing.

Summary
I have been given a project on self portraits, taking into account the visual elements. I thought I would add a twist by doing a collage of symbolic self portraits instead, I mean, who wants to look at my ugly mush!??

Symbolic Self Portrait based on the visual elements