Lines: Horizontal and vertical lines

I have now started to look at how lines play a role in composition and what effect they have on the way the photograph comes across. I will start with the shots I have taken to represent horizontal lines:

In this first shot the horizontal line is very obviously the natural level of the water in my fish tank. It gives the frame a good sense of balance and helps to show the fish under water.

With this next image it is the natural horizon of the sea meeting the buildings in the background that creates the horizontal line. It is very strong and plays for dominance in the frame over the boat in the foreground, proving that lines can be very strong in an image.

In this photograph I placed the camera on the floor to give the impression of a horizontal line running underneath the dog. Because he is laid flat on the ground it makes him appear he is balanced on a line, and also the pattern on the carpet helps to enforce the idea he is laying on a horizontal line.

This last shot has two elements that create horizontal lines within the frame. The edge of the water is a natural horizon, but the row of trees all at the same distance from the camera also creates another line above the waters edge through the middle of the frame.

I found Horizontal lines give the frame of the picture balance and makes the image feel quite static and still. Its quite difficult to always find other examples of horizontal lines which were not natural horizons already.

My vertical photos I felt were much more striking:

The strong lines in this chair back make it feel very strong in appearance when photographed with a fairly plain background.

 

 

The great thing about shooting in portrait mode is that it can instantly make something feel much taller, and when used in conjunction with vertical lines running trough the image it has a very dramatic effect on how those lines appear. The lines that were reflected in this champagne glass and the glass itself would have appeared much more static in a landscape orientation and so changing the frame to a portrait style has made the vertical lines of the piece stand out more.

Although at first this shot looks quite average, the first thing the viewer will notice is that they are drawn to looking up and down the bodies of the people in the shot, even though it is shot in landscape. People actually make quite dramatic vertical lines when they are stood upright.

Again like the champagne glass, by taking this image in portrait orientation the height of the trees is amplified, and the many vertical lines in the frame cause the eye to travel rather than become static, even though the trees themselves are static objects.

 

It is clear to me now that horizontal lines help to create balance for the viewer and have a strong impact on how static the image may look, where vertical lines create movement within a piece. A combination of the two within a frame could create a very dynamic photo through tension of the two types of movement, depending on how balanced the two elements were.