In this exercise I needed to find four specific examples of horizontal and vertical lines, avoiding repeating the way in which the line appears. The subject matter should be where the line is the first thing the viewer notices. the first four photographs are horizontal lines.
HORIZONTAL LINES
Figure 1: 1/10, f20, ISO400, 24mm
Figure 1 taken in Hastings looking out to sea. I decided on a wide-angle view in portrait to capture the horizontal lines of the cycle path, paving slabs, guard rail and the bench. Firstly you pick up the horizontal lines of the cycle lane but then drawn in by the converging lines of the slabs leading you to the horizontal guard rails and bench.
Figure 2: 1/30, f20, ISO400, 100mm
In figure 2 is a man-made stone groyne at Hastings. The long focal length of the zoom lens helps to crop the image to remove distracting surroundings especially towards the shore to the right. There are a number of horizontal lines created: the shadow on the water, the stone groyne, the guard rails, the headland in the distance and the clouds against the sunset. It is the contrast in the light, colour and shade that forms the contrasts in this image.
Figure 3: 1/50, f5, ISO4000, 50mm
This image, Figure 3, is a bit more abstract and take in a carpet supplier. I like the dominance of the horizontal lines over the vertical lines because the vertical lines are broken and discontinuous, where the horizontal run unbroken edge of frame to edge of frame.
Figure 4: 1/30, f5.6, ISO3200, 155mm
The chrome car grill, the curve of the grill helps to emphasis the horizontal individual bars. Poor lighting within the museum meant that I preferred to raise the ISO rather than using a flash, there was already light reflecting off the chrome and didn’t wish to increase the amount of light bouncing off the grill.
VERTICAL LINES
Having looked at the first primary component of the frame the next is vertical lines. The next photographs concentrate on vertical subjects.
Figure 5: 1/160, f7.1, ISO100, 50mm
Vertical lines are very prominent in this corrugated steel-clad building. Not only do you have the vertical lines of the cladding but also the window frame, mullions and glazing bars and even the number 11.
Figure 6: 1/30, f5, ISO200, 80mm
I took this photograph (Fig 6) on my Christmas trip to Edinburgh and immediately liked the coloured vertical lines. The I have cropped the image to remove unwanted and distracting tears from the poster. The vertical lines are prominent in themselves but this further emphasised by the addition of colour.
Figure 7: 1/25, f5, ISO100, 32mm
Bamboo, the vertical lines of the green, orange and grey bamboo stems against the irregular shapes of the leaves but the stems dominating the image.
Figure 8: 1/4, f5.6, ISO100, 100mm
This final image is of church organ pipes within their timber frame representing a strong image of vertical subject for the full height of the frame. There is a soft focus to the top of the photograph, which if taken again I would increase the f-stop to achieve a sharp image for the full frame.
COLIN MARTIN 