Photography is more than an art but rather a skill. Photographers take the time to study and improve on their art. By improving on their art I mean they learn exactly what is required to take an eye-catching photo. Dorothea Lange, an American photographer and photojournalist once said “A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” Photography has to do with what you see around you, your creativity, noticing and capturing good light. It is only recently after being giving an assignment I realized where good or bad, all photos have some if not all of the six elements of art. Wondering what the six elements of art are? Before I go on to mention them, some others might say it is seven elements of art. Six or seven? none of them are wrong. These elements of art changed my perception of how I view things now. Right! So the six elements of art are the Line, Value, Color, Space, Shape & Form and Texture. I am going to talk about each element of art, hopefully it changes your perception on viewing things like it did me and oh! I made sure I composed a photograph that demonstrates my understanding of each of the elements.
LINES
Lines can be used to create a pattern in an image or it can be used in a composition to help lead our eye to a focal point. Lines do not only need to be made with marks and outlines, they can also be abstract. Not gonna lie, the picture below with the plants on the wall I have chanced upon several times but did not notice the beauty in it, I mean I did but I didn’t understand it until I learnt about the elements of art. That was when I really understood and noticed the plant on the wall. So below is a picture of the plant on the wall and then a crack on a wall.
VALUE
Value in black and white photography refers to overall lightness and darkness in an image. When a dark tone is next to a light tone it creates what we call contrast. Contrast can help emphasize a detail in photograph. Here are two pictures of my favorite people. Yeah I know right. :)
COLOR
Color is the most striking element of art. There’s nothing that changes an artwork emotional impact more than color. By working with value, hue and intensity photographers can get into a wide range of emotions. A deep understanding of color helps anyone make better use of colors. Talk about colors.. I had a lot of ideas but Ms.Rona has us locked within four corners. But then I watched a YouTube video of Bryan Peterson where he was limited in his surrounding but managed to take beautiful pictures of a flower and amazing background. So with his idea and my limitations this is what I came out with.
SPACE
It can be either negative or positive. Positive space is an area occupied by an object or form while negative space is an area that runs around, between or within objects. Photographers normally think about the background, foreground
Or middle ground of their work. There are also two types of space which is shallow space where there isn’t much depth in the artwork that is objects are close together without much room to move around and there is deep space where objects tend to disappear far in the distance. Here’s a picture of a tree with it’s weird roots I found interesting.
SHAPE AND FORM
Shapes are two-dimensional object and forms are three-dimensional objects that can be characterized by their recognizable shape. They can either be organic or geometric. I happened to see an old poly tank sit alone minding it’s business and I thought well hello there fellow, you can work with shape and then an old clock that strike 9 could do with form.
TEXTURE
It is an element of art that plays to our sense of touch. It could be the roughness or smoothness of the object. It is defined as a description of the way something feels or looks like it would feel. Honestly I’m not sure of both pictures work here because ermm... well I had limitations. But then again I think it does.
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