The Brief
Take a number of shots using lines to create a sense of depth. Shooting with a wide- angle lens (zooming out) strengthens a diagonal line by giving it more length within the frame. The effect is dramatically accentuated if you choose a viewpoint close to the line.
Now take a number of shots using lines to flatten the pictorial space. To avoid the effects of perspective, the sensor/film plane should be parallel to the subject and you may like to try a high viewpoint (i.e. looking down). Modern architecture offers strong lines and dynamic diagonals, and zooming in can help to create simpler, more abstract compositions.
Review your shots from both parts of Exercise 1.3. How do the different lines relate to the frame? There’s an important difference from the point exercises: a line can leave the frame. For perpendicular lines this doesn’t seem to disrupt the composition too much, but for perspective lines the eye travels quickly along the diagonal and straight out of the picture. It feels uncomfortable because the eye seems to have no way back into the picture except the point that it started from. So another ‘rule’ of photography is that ‘leading lines’ should lead somewhere within the frame.
Response
Sequence 1: These are a number of shots taken over the past couple of weeks, showing the use of perspective within a photograph. The first was taken at a place called tall trees
Sequence 2: These are the perpendicular shots taken in and around the home, to illustrate a perpendicular approach to the photograph.
- Aperture: ƒ/5.6
- Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mark II
- Focal length: 35mm
- ISO: 100
- Shutter speed: 1/60s