"Gold in the Trees" © Hank Erdmann

Wyalusing State Park, Grant County, Wisconsin

Blog #2 The "Line in Composition” part 1

Friday, January 17, 2014

This blog will focus on the concept of Line in composition.

Food for Thought:

"Manifest plainness,

Embrace simplicity,

Reduce selfishness,

Have few desires." - Lao Tzu (Chinese founder of Taoism)

"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits."

- Satchel Paige (American Baseball Player )

"Grasses & Trees In Winter" © Hank Erdmann Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, West Beach Unit, Porter County, Indiana

The Concept of Line in Composition...

Lines. From my earliest photographs I always felt and knew that line in art is incredibly important. Even

before I learned why line was so important in composition, I had the feeling that it was so. Maybe it's

inherent in the creative psyche, maybe it was just emulation of images seen, but even in the mind of a

young kid with a Kodak Instamatic, I knew lines were important.

This blog will attempt to explore, explain and discuss the use and importance of line in art, and specifically

in a photograph. There are differences with respect to line in other art forms as well as similarities, but

the effect of the use of line as a concept is what is the same. In many drawings and in some painting,

literal lines make up some, most or all of the art work. In photography line is much more representative,

more suggested than literal. In the image above, converting the image to black and white made its

appearance similar to a line drawing, even though it is a continuous tone photograph. In a photograph

almost any image element, be it a trail, a shoreline, a building edge or beam, a tree, a brook, a.....just

about anything you can think of or put in an image, can in effect become line. Line can and often are

implied. Suggested or visual movement can even become line. Line can direct the viewer's eye towards

the center of interest or the subject. Lines can direct the viewer to wherever the artist wants to lead him.

Line can block the eye from leaving a frame. Line can stop the viewer's eye within the frame where the

artist wants the viewer's eye stopped. Line is simply important.

Literal lines may not exist in nature but various image elements create visual paths to move a viewer's

eye. Line can be obvious where a physical object like a tree trunk creates the impression of a line or

suggested where a progression of view through an image, suggested by large objects to small ones, dark

object to bright ones (or their opposites) can create a progression or a line of travel for the viewer's eye.

Such illusions can also help create a linear perspective that produces the further illusion or perception of

depth in an image.

"Grasses Against a Barn" © Hank Erdmann Roadside, Door County, Wisconsin

The power of line is so important all you have to do to confirm this is look at most every business or

corporation's logo. IE: The Nike swoop, Toyota's crossed ovals, The Lexas L, etc. A side note: want a great

explanation of how these special lines are used in nature/outdoor photography? Take Will Clay's

composition class at the Morton Arboretum!

Composition is basically a product of the organization of graphic elements within a frame. It's what we do

with lines, points, colors (or variations of whites, grays and blacks in a B&W image), spaces, shadows and

highlights. Graphics are the interrelationships of the above within the frame of the image. When we

manage those relationships, or when we arrange them (composition) effectively, we might end up with

great images (exposure, depth-of-field, etc being acceptable). When photographers don't understand

graphics, the odds are stacked against the photographer, especially the beginner, in their efforts to make

an image that translates their vision and feelings and the visual statement they wish to make. I've often

thought that persons wishing to get into photography on an educational level should start with at least an

introductory level graphics class; before Photo 101 is ever considered. On the amateur level however, our

introduction to photography is almost always first on the snap shot level, taking pictures even as kids to

document events and travel and happenings in our lives for posterity and remembrance.

Hmmmmmmmm... maybe we should offer a graphics class at the Arboretum!

"Winter Flow" © Hank Erdmann Sawmill Creek, Black Partridge Woods Forest Preserve, Cook County, Illinois

The actual nature of the subject or center of interest is almost immaterial graphically. But subjects do

matter, their nature matters, their size matters, interest in them by a given viewer matters, and a

plethora of other physiological parameters matter and matter an immense amount.

Our eyes are often drawn to bright areas, and that can be both good and bad. A large over-exposed

element with total loss of detail in an image is most always a death-knell to a photograph. The same can

often be said for a large shadow area, but not always. There is a physiological side to loss of detail in

shadows as well but it is different to loss of detail in highlights. Detail loss in a highlight is almost always

viewed as a mistake, but often loss of detail in shadow is not, if fact when used creatively as in a

silhouette, it is viewed as dramatic and exciting. So as long as we control highlights and shadows

effectively, viewer eye travel between them in an image creates a line not visually present but

emotionally present and is very often used by artists to guide a viewer to the center of interest.

So lines can be either illusional or near literal as represented by some physical element within the frame.

For artists it matters not whether line is an illusion or an image element, what matters is that line is one of

the most essential and powerful tools in composition. Line does much more that just lead a viewers eye

around an image. Line can help create the sense or illusion and feeling of depth and dimensionality in a

two-dimensional image. Line can emphasize or de-emphasize a subject. Line can balance for symmetry,

line can un-balance for interest, and when used in-effectively can create boredom.

"Iced Reflections" © Hank Erdmann Spring Creek, Messenger Woods Forest Preserve, Will County, Illinois

Line also has a place in divisions of an image or allocation of space within a frame. Our minds seek pattern

in the effort to recognize and interpret what we see. This is one of the basic concepts of graphics. When

we recognize pattern of something we know we are satisfied. "I recognize that pattern... I see a river, a

house, a tree!" When we don't recognize a pattern we feel unsatisfied, confused and disturbed. But

"satisfied" can be boring, and who wants to be unsatisfied, confused or disturbed? Great composition

gives us a bit of both, enough recognition of pattern, and relationships of multiple patterns, to be

satisfying, and slight imbalance to disturb but only to a point of creating interest. Balancing such

seemingly opposite elements can definitely be the walking of a fine line in itself, but using line to

proportion an image can make it easier.

If the patterns or graphics within our image balance enough to satisfy we create order. It is the

photographers' job to create this order through composition. This order can follow graphics formulas that

have been in existence for thousands of years and can be expressed mathematically. Oh oh! Hank is in

trouble! Fortunately this is math I can comprehend. Graphic formulas are used all the time. The formula

you'll be most familiar with is the "rule of thirds". Of course I must repeat one of my strongest mantras;

"the rule of thirds is not a rule at all but a guideline". The concept is not to use formulas religiously or to

the point of attaining a mechanical sameness of image construction in all your images, but to use such

formulas as guideline or starting points for composition.

Another such formula less known to photographers is the "Golden Section". The Golden Section is a

rectangle that has a ratio where the length of the short side to the long side is the same as the ratio of the

length of the long side to the length of the long side plus the short side. A bit easier to grasp or explain is

to say it is approximately 8:5. The most fascinating thing about the Golden Section ratio is how

prominently it is represented in nature. Thousands of natural phenomena mirror the same ratio. It was

the ancient Greeks who first described the Golden Section, not because they knew of its prevalence in

nature, they did not, but as they found the ratio pleasing when applying it to their art. Not surprising is

the fact that the ratio is very close to the ratio of a piece of 35mm film. Also of note is that the usual

digital capture frame ratio is a bit longer, closer to 9:5. Maybe that is why I crop so many of my digital

captures lengthwise. I just like the 8:5 ratio more and often I like the more tradition photographic large

format ratio of 4:5 even more. There are many graphics formulas that have been developed over the

eons, but as with the guideline of thirds as I call it, use the Golden Section or any other formula as a guide

versus a rule.

"Winter Spots, Willoway Brook" © Hank Erdmann Willoway Brook at The Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois

One of the base differences for photographers is that other artists start with a blank canvas where

photographers start with a full canvas; the image of what we point our camera at. Our job then is a

subtractive one, we remove or compose out unwanted elements versus painting/drawing/etc adding in in

just what those artists wish to portray. Photographers start with reality, however my goal is much the

same as the painter and other representational artists, to create great art, not a document of the real

scene. Line as the most prominent or important element in many images helps us be selective and guide

our viewer's eye. The great Russian abstract painter Wasily Kandinsky simplified the complexity of graphic

relationship as being fundamentally that of the relationship of point and frame. Kandinsky wrote painting

could be described as the relationship between a point or points of color with the frame they are placed

within. Move the point and it becomes line, enlarge the point and it becomes a circle, vary the

straightness of the line and it becomes a shape. So varying any singular point within a frame, specific

placement within that frame has meaning, placement has relevancy, placement has purpose. Random

placement is less likely to be what the artist or the audience wants and leaves success of the image to

chance. Studied placement can lead to simplicity or complexity, depending on what the artist desires.

Placement near the edge or corner elevates importance which can be good or bad depending on the

element. Proper placement (composition) of all the image elements lead to graphic relationships that

work and succeed or don't work and fail.

The concept and use of line in composing a photograph is a certainly deserving of more than a few

paragraphs and will continue in another segment in my next blog.

Enjoy winter, it is a wonderful season of quiet and tranquility. Yes, I know it is a pain in the dupa to get

around in it, commuting in snow is hell and shoveling is exertion and for many; dangerous. It's cold and

too often uncomfortable. (Admittedly the prior text may not provide a viable marketing vehicle for

bringing snowbirds back early.) But if for only brief moments, get out in winter and try to enjoy it. Rejoice

at the crunch and sounds of walking on real cold snow. Wonder with awe at the beauty of the winter

woods after a fresh snow or on a sunny day with the incredible blue shadows trees create on a snow

covered forest floor. Wander a village sidewalk strung with delicate white lights and the dirty parts of an

urban scene hidden under white. It may not make driving to work any easier, but if you learn to enjoy

winter, winter before you know it will be draining away and the daffodils will be spreading their own

sunshine of yellow.

Allbest, Happy Winter, enjoy it while it's here! Hank

"Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it."

- Ernest Holmes (American writer and philosopher)

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion" - Dalai Lama

"Ice Reflections" © Hank Erdmann Galien River, Warren Woods State Park, Berrien County, Michigan

Lines; Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, and Curved...all in one shot!

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