Exercise 20, Implied Lines,
There are many examples of implied lines in photographs that suggest a sort of imaginary line that is not actually visible. Such as an eye line, where you follow the direction of where someone is looking. Or an extension of a line, or a line that points within an image.
The aim of this exercise is to find these implied lines within photographs, both ones that were supplied to me and within my own photographs. In the exercise brief I was supplied two images initially and finding the implied lines within each. You will see the below the two images side by side with arrows indicating where I believe there to be implied lines and the direction that they follow;
Apologies for the poor image quality, the image was taken using my phone and then emailed across, in retrospect it probably would of been better to scan the page;
The first is an interesting image, as really, the lines are flowing around one another as the bull runs around the matador. In the second, there is a real sense of movement and action as the man is trying to control the two horses running.
Onto the second part of the exercise, doing a similar assessment using a handful of my photographs – unfortunately I do not really have any real action style shots to show off a variety of implied lines, rather just a handful of examples where a single implied line dominates the frame;
This first example of implied lines in my own work shows a single dominant line leading from the front of the boat in the direction of its travel, along the river and under the bridge. The direction of travel is shown via the flow of water at the bottom of the photograph coming from the boat.
In this second example, the mans eye line and direction of travel creates an implied line, heading away from the cafe in the background.
This third example has an implied line leading away from the woman on the bicycle in her direction of travel, towards the bottom right, enhancing the sense of movement without using any other techniques to enhance the sense of movement such as a slow shutter speed or panning.
In the final part of this exercise I was tasked to take two photographs that use the following kinds of implies lines:
An Eye Line
The extension of a line, or lines that point
This first shot depicts an eyeline, leading from the man and woman directly towards the phone the woman is holding up. The fact that she is holding the phone up instead of close towards herself helps to clearly point out the fact that the phone is the focus of both of their attentions. The shallow depth of field helps to keep focus on the couple, presumably lost as they are stood on the edge of a road.
This second example depicts an infinity road with very strong lines leading into the distance. These lines help to lead the viewer into the distance and despite stopping at a certain point before the horizon, it is easy to keep following the line up to the hills in the background on the horizon. The road is the most dominant implied line, emphasised further by the road markings. This dominant line is framed nicely by the lines following the edges of the road which lead and eventually blend into the background and surroundings.