It’s been an interesting week so far, studying all of these diagonal lines in our photographs! Exploring with a Camera: Dynamic Diagonals has got me thinking and observing how our eye moves in the frame.
How does your eye move through this image? The diagonals are integral to the image, yet they are not part of the main subject, the city sky line. The view through the fence creates a feeling of separation, but the crazy diagonals of the fence give more energy and life. It doesn’t feel like a stiff separation to me. What’s your response?
I’ve also been pondering the whole idea of the eye primarily “left to right” through the frame. I have seen many situations in the linked exploration where my eye does not move this way. I think the subject itself, along with our own perceptions and experiences, have a strong impact on how our eye moves through the frame. “We always read photographs left to right” is too much of a generalization.
For example, in this image my eye moves from the upper left to the lower right. All of the branches are along this diagonal, with varying angles. It feels as if I am following gravity this way, so it is a comfortable flow. Gravity is pulling the branches toward the ground; my eye follows.
I have noticed in images oriented vertically I tend to follow the diagonal top-to-bottom more than left-to-right. That is how I read the staircase image in my original post, top-to-bottom. Many others, however, followed the staircase UP, bottom-to-top. That is in direct opposition to both the premise that we will read a photograph left-to-right, or even my new idea of top-to-bottom in vertical photos.
As another example, I’ve noticed converging lines along a path or a road have a stronger impact on how I follow a diagonal than the expected “left-to-right” reading. My eye is going to want to follow the path to its conclusion, regardless of the orientation within the frame. In this case, my personal experience of walking down a path or road outweighs the other factors that might influence how my eye moves through the diagonal.
Without a doubt, I’m seeing that diagonals are a dynamic and powerful force in our photographs. How we read them, however, may have more to do with our personal experiences and perceptions than any compositional generalizations.
What are you seeing so far? Share with us today.
As I was visiting all the interesting posts linked here, I started thinking about where my eye went as I looked at each photo, and it seemed to vary depending on the diagonal and the context. So I am agreeing with your last paragraph about personal perceptions. (Or perhaps my brain works a little differently.) This has to be one of my favorite Exploring with a Camera topics!
This ‘project’ has really made me more aware of lines in images, especially after going through my own stash of images. It’s been fun to see what others have posted about diagonals, too, because this has increased my awareness even further.
As for your photo here, Kat, my eye finds the diagonals in that fence, and then I focus on the skyline behind all that….then my eye comes back to the fence. I have to really look carefully at the buildings in the background to see the diagonals that are there. Some are in roof lines, some created by the different heights of the buildings. It’s a very interesting, thought provoking photo.
The linked fence makes me want to look beyond to see what’s in the background.
There has actually been some research done that shows that leading lines are a bit of a fallacy. When they tracked eye patterns of people looking at photos, eye movement was concentrated on the centre of interest, whatever that was for that person. (I find that really interesting, because you’d swear when you look at a picture with diagonal lines that your eyes are drawn along the lines!) Your last line says it all – it’s down to personal perception in the end. I love that picture of the snow-covered blossom, although my eye moves from bottom to top.
Interesting Gilly! I’m so glad you left this comment. I find it so interesting that these concepts, like your eye moving left to right or along the diagonal, get into the general consciousness yet when you test them you find that they may not be true. One thing I do believe though – regardless of how our eyes move within the frame, diagonals do provide an energy to our images. One of the many tools we have in our toolbox for creating interesting photographs!
Hi Kat
I love diagonals and I don’t often read pictures from left to right. I tried to share an image, but the button wouldn’t stick on my blog for some reason. Ah well :).
Stay inspired!
You can always put a text link in your post. I’d love to see your diagonals!
Thanks Kat. I managed to get the button to stick in my side bar, but for some reason it doesn’t like sitting in my post. I’ll try the text link. Thanks :).
Stay inspired!