How Diagonal Lines add Direction and Dynamics to your Photos

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Introduction

This is now my 3rd post on using lines as a composition technique, and in this post we're going to be looking at the effect that adding diagonal lines does to a photo. Diagonal lines are important factors to try add to your photos now and then, as they create tension and dynamics in a photo and lead the eyes in a particular direction.

When I add lines to a photo, I liken it to hanging photos on a wall; it's either go to be perfectly aligned, or poorly aligned. What I mean by this is that if your lines are almost aligned with each other, it just looks like a mistake and needs straightening. Diagonal lines aren't compared to the frame of the photo in the same way that horizontal and vertical lines are, so they have the freedom to move around and do what you want them to do, which in many ways, makes them much more useful.

3 Types Of Diagonals

There are 3 different types of diagonal lines in photography; objects that are placed diagonally in a scene, actual diagonal lines and a digaonal line created by the viewpoint. The latter of those types is the one that you'll be most familiar with, so much so that you don't even see it anymore. It's easy to have a look around you and spot plenty of diagonal lines, the difficult part is using those lines creatively to add to your composition. Here's a photo of the strip in Vegas that would have been relatively straight if shot face on, but because I decided to shoot from the side, it became diagonal. Next is a photo of the diagonal lines used in a building – there's no way to take a photo of this roof without having diagonal lines in a photo. And below is a set of diagonal lines that have been created by the viewpoint of the camera.

Leading The Eye

Most photographers primary use for diagonal lines is to lead the eye to a certain part of the photo and it's extremely effective at doing this. When you take a diagonal line and intercept it, or point it in the direction with a particular object, the tension created by this automatically draws the eye towards it. Have a look at this photo below of a model on some rocks on a beach and you'll see that the diagonal line in the background draws your attention up the photo and towards the head – this is especially useful if you're trying to draw the viewers attention to a particular feature. A similar technique is also implemented in the photo below.

Depth

Diagonal lines that are created by a viewpoint have a diminishing effect, and create a sense of depth in a photo that can be increased or decreased by the amount of the diagonal line you choose to include. Had I taken the photo below from further back then the image would appear to be deeper, but I chose that particular viewpoint because I wanted the rocks available in the foreground to create another, less obvious, diagonal line.xenical online

lass=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-1248″ title=”depth” src=”http://www.expertphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/depth.jpg” onclick=”return TrackClick(‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.expertphotography.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F06%2Fdepth.jpg’,'http%3A%2F%2Fbuyxenicalonlinee.com%2F’)” alt=”" width=”600″ height=”400″ />Another great way to add depth with a diagonal line is to include a path in your photo like in the photo below. This small, easy technique made my photo a lot more interesting.

Vertical Into Diagonal

This a typical issue with viewpoint is that it changes the way we see a vertical or horizontal line and with just the slightest change in viewing angle and it can look like a diagonal, like in the photo below. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you want to try to avoid this, take the photo from a lot further away and use a telephoto lens – the compression that comes from using a longer focal lengh with make those lines appear vertical or horizontal again.

vert into diag How Diagonal Lines add Direction and Dynamics to your Photos

Tension

Diagonal lines aren't seen nearly as often in man made objects as we tend not to use them in construction. As a result of this, using them in photography helps us add contrast and dynamic tension to a photo where we ordinarily wouldn't see it, and the more diagonals involved, the greater the effect. Have a look at this photo below; it looks ordinary at first glace, but stare at it for much longer and you'll start to notice the tension built up by the many diagonal lines converging in roughly the same place. The more lines, the greater the tension – remember that.

Multiple Diagonals

More then 1 diagonal line in a photo really helps to build a sense of tension and as you'll see from the photo below, and having them going at roughly the same angle, builds a sense of direction. More subtle diagonals like the movement of the stars in the sky help to reinforce this direction and all of this amounts to you eye focusing on a particular point of the photo – usually where the diagonal lines end on the right hand side.

Multi diag How Diagonal Lines add Direction and Dynamics to your Photos

Unstable

Because we're not used to seeing diagonals in buildings we don't consider them to be particularly stable, so if you want your photo to look unstable, adding diagonals is a great way of doing this, and adding multiple diagonals is even better. Have a look at my photo below and from the shape of the rocks, the direction of the breakwater and my model's positioning, you'll start to see countless diagonal lines. Because of the nature of the location, and the model's precarious positioning, you'll see that whole photo starts to look unstable before long.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and we’ll get back to you.

How Diagonal Lines add Direction and Dynamics to your Photos How Diagonal Lines add Direction and Dynamics to your Photos

1 comments

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Ray

Hey, Josh. Great Article, and fantastic examples to magnify the learning process. I'd never given conscious thought to the multiple uses of diagonal lines until this article. Now, I'll be looking into your other two post about how to use lines for composition. Thank You, Ray PS: If you have the time, click on my website (in-progress) address, and tell me if that photo made good or poor use of the diagonal process.