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 Pattern

Shape Texture

Form 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.

FORMForm 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.

SHAPETwo 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)

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

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 unisonHaving 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 don’t 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 it’s 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.

SummaryI 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