The document discusses the key visual elements that make up images - line, shape, form, tone, color, space and texture. It provides examples of how different visual elements like lines, forms and use of space can impact the mood, meaning and three-dimensionality conveyed by an image. Specific techniques like balancing elements, framing, cropping and aspect ratios are also covered in the context of how they influence the composition of photographs.

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Composition 2
The Visual Elements
The visual elements (also sometimes called
design elements) are the ‘things’ which make up
an image - line, tone, shape, colour and so on.

2. 2
List of Visual Elements
the ‘things’ that make up an image
Line – actual or implied lines within the composition
Shape – areas defined by their edges within the piece.
Form – the three dimensional quality of an object or shape – its
length, width and depth.
Tone – describes the darkness or lightness of a particular area in
an image. Shading from light to dark tone is often used to
emphasize the form (an object’s three dimensional quality).
Colour - hues with their various values, intensity, and saturation
Space - the space taken up by objects or the space in-between
objects (sometimes called negative space).
Texture - surface qualities of the artwork.

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Kasimir Malevich, The Black Square,
1915
Kandinsky, In the Black Square, 1923
This abstract painting by the Russian artist
Kandinsky is composed of lines, geometric
shapes, and solid colours.
The Black Square is a painting which, as the name suggest is just a black painted
square. The image is therefore composed of the visual elements colour, tone,
space and shape. However, when we study the painting more closely we discover
that the surface of the painting has texture, we see that the brush marks have left
lines, and even the black colour seems to reflect other colours from the room.

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Line
Line is a really useful visual
element when constructing
images.
Lines are formed by the
edges of things when there
is an apparent contrast
between light and dark
areas or between different
colours or textures.
Lines can also be
suggested or implied by
patterns or repetition.
In this image where are the
implied lines and where do
these lines draw the
viewer’s eye?
Henri Cartier Bresson

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Line
Line is a really useful visual
element when constructing
images.
Lines are formed by the
edges of things when there
is an apparent contrast
between light and dark
areas or between different
colours or textures.
Lines can also be
suggested or implied by
patterns or repetition.
In this image where are the
implied lines and where do
these lines draw the
viewer’s eye?
Henri Cartier Bresson

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Horizontal And Vertical Lines
Horizontal lines can suggest
a feeling of stability,
calmness or tranquillity.
Vertical lines can suggest
power and strength.
Chris Monaghan

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Horizontal And Vertical Lines
Horizontal lines can suggest
a feeling of stability,
calmness or tranquillity.
Vertical lines can suggest
power and strength.
Chris Monaghan

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Paul Strand
Study this urban landscape by Paul Strand. Discuss what Strand might
have been saying about the society … would you like to live there?
How do the strong vertical lines and dark shadow areas affect your
interpretation of the image?

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Diagonal Lines
Diagonal lines tend to be visually dynamic – suggesting
movement, a ‘visual tension’ and/or excitement.
Chris Monaghan www.hjk.co.uk

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David Bailey

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Curved Lines
Curved lines often suggest organic (living, breathing) things.

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Your task:
You will have 15 minutes to take a series of photographs where you have
considered line and form in your composition.
How could you change someone's perception of a place by the way that
you have composed your image?
Think about the angle that you are taking your photograph- compare them.
How does this change the outcome?
Photos will need to be printed out or sent
to me to be printed for the next lesson.

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mkertrestel@stratfordschool.co.uk
Photo of the week….
Send to:
By period 4 tomorrow!!

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Masolino, St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha, 1425
The added black lines show the use of a ‘vanishing point’ to create a
realistic impression of three dimensional space – commonly referred to as
‘realistic perspective’.
Form
(The three-dimensionality of the artwork)

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How does the photographer suggest three-dimensional space (i.e. depth)?
Film still from The Manchurian Candidate

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1. Man’s head is larger than woman’s so our brains interpret this as suggesting that he
is nearer to the camera than the woman.
2. Background is out of focus suggesting depth
3. The lighting creates shading suggesting three dimensional form

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Fay
Godwin
What visual
element(s) help give
this photograph
‘depth’ and a three-
dimensional
character?

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Fay
Godwin
What visual
element(s) help give
this photograph
‘depth’ and a three-
dimensional
character?
Answer: the
converging lines
formed by the
tracks and ceiling
supports.

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Matisse
Some artists completely
rejected the idea that a
work of art had always
to imitate the three-
dimensional character of
the world (form), as in
this collage by Henri
Matisse entitled The
Snail.

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Tone
Angus McBean
Tone describes the darkness or
lightness of a particular area in
an image. Very light areas are
sometimes called highlights
and very dark areas are called
shadow areas.
Shading (where the tone
changes gradually from
highlight to shadow) is often
used to emphasize the form and
three dimensionality of an
object.
Shadow Mid-tone Highlight

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Texture
An image can create a visual
experience which suggests a
particular tactile sensation.
For example, this
photograph of dry rotting
wood creates an impression
or feeling of dry dustiness,
while the porcupine conjures
up the feeling of sharp
points … Ouch!
Whilst photographs normally only create
an impression of texture, other artworks
such as painting and sculpture can
include actual textures.
How could you make a photograph
include actual texture?

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Space
Space can be filled or left empty (negative space).
Study these two images of urban life …

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Space
Space can be filled or left empty (negative space).
The images are by Joel Meyerowitz and Andre Kertesz and use space
to suggest very different meanings about life in the city.
One image suggests vibrancy, action and the ‘buzz’ of city-life while
the other uses space to suggest a more melancholic, alienated and
lonely feel.

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The positioning of visual elements
(lines, shapes, colours and so on) in
an image can sometimes create a
feeling of visual balance.
Visual balane can create a feeling of
the image just being ‘right’
Images with a centrally located subject
are sometimes called ‘formal’
compositions. Having the subject in
the middle might create a sense of
visual ‘balance’ but can also appear
rather boring to the modern eye.
Note: Not all images are ‘balanced’.
Gainsborough
Balancing The Visual Elements

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How does the photographer create a feeling of ‘balance’ this image?
Norman Parkinson

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Tomatsu Shomei
At first glance this
image might not
appear balanced,
but look more
closely ….
How does Shomei
achieve balance in
this unsymmetrical
image?

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Chris Monaghan
Is this image
balanced?

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Juxtaposition
Juxtoposition is the placing of things close to one another in order
to emphasise their difference.
What is the major difference being emphasised here?

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Framing & Cropping
Togetherness
Chris Monaghan
When you take (or make) a photograph you determine the
composition by choosing the camera viewpoint and what
to include (and what not to include) within the frame.

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Framing & Cropping
Loneliness
This is the same photograph as the previous image but
with a different crop, produced in post-production.

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John Hilliard,
cause of
death, 1974.
Hilliard cleverly
took 4
photographs of
the same scene,
but changed the
camera
viewpoint and
cropping so that
each image has
a different
meaning.

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Aspect Ratio
(the ‘shape’ of an image)
Chris Monaghan
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of image length to width.
Example: 6:4 for 6 inch by 4 inch prints (which also equals 3:2)

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Richard Billingham
Richard Billingham produced a series of photographs about
his parents. He used the amateur 6:4 aspect ratio shape for
his images (just like amateur 6 inch x 4 inch prints).
Why might he have chosen this aspect ratio?

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The Gaze
When we look hard at someone else
our gaze can sometimes be
interpreted as if we are saying “I am
the powerful one here”. Manet’s
Olympia caused a scandal because he
painted a woman in a contemporary
setting who seemed by her gaze to be
the one with all the power - in 1863
women were meant to do as they were
told by men!
Titian, Venus D’Urbino,
1538
Manet, Olympia, 1863

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Images in which the subject looks directly at the viewer can have a
powerful or disconcerting effect.
Richard Avedon August Sander

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Composition Summary
Visual elements:
Line, Shape, Form, Tone, Colour, Space, Texture
Some ‘Rules’ of composition
Juxtaposition
Symmetry
Repetition
Rule of thirds
Rule of odd and even
Rule of space
Simplification
Balance