Shapes: Real and implied triangles

I have now moved on to look at the shapes that are involved with composing a photograph, whether they are real or implied, and how they contribute to the structure  and organisation of a shot.

I was asked to look at triangles and compose three shots of real and implied triangles and explain how they help with the photographs composition.

As you can see these first three images contain real triangles as they have definitive lines to suggest the shape of a triangle within the shot. The effect a triangle has on perspective is very great, in that if the apex of the triangle is at the top, it draws the eye upwards creating height, but also creating stability at the bottom of the image. The same can be said of placing the apex at the bottom of the frame, for example the photograph of the book, leads your eye down the frame, creating the perspective of looking down into the image. It works very well for making thing appear much higher or imposing than they are if the apex is placed at the top, or emphasise the feeling of falling down if placed at the bottom.

Implied triangles I feel make an image much more active as they not only create the above feelings in perspective, they also create movement between points or lines, and having both types of movement within an image can make it a very lively one.

             

These next three images are implied triangles. There is no definitive edge to form the triangle, yet your eye is still drawn to the apex of this imaginary triangle, creating the dynamics I explained above. For example in the bike shot, the parts of the metal frame draw you upwards by the two most dominant and in focus parts of the frame, where as the picture of the shoes leads you down to their elegant points, making the viewer feel like they are standing tall in them already!

The last shot of the three boys (work colleagues!) creates a triangle between their faces, always returning to the face in the middle, but creating movement between them all, keeping the image active.

Triangles appear more regularly in architecture, and is useful to create the perspective of height from above or below, but when using implied triangles I like that it bring in other dynamics such as movement between points or lines that give other emotions to the photograph.