Diagonal Lines across your Photography

I’ve talked about both horizontal and vertical lines: Now it is time to show you how diagonal lines are an important facet of photography.

Diagonal lines both stimulate and excite your viewers. These lines will drag their eyes across your image, from the boundary to the subject, from the dark into the light. Diagonal lines are your best friend when you want to capture more than just the subject!

As viewers, we are more inclined to take notice an image that invites us to follow the lines across the page. It is like reading a book: We want to be introduced to the main characters, see depth across the field (all puns intended), and then see where the story unfolds.

Lines that cut from corner to corner can be the death of an image.

Rather than dissecting a photograph, allow the diagons to curve in from one side and intersect with another, like a parabolic arch. With repetitive patterning, these lines will attract viewers to all aspects of the subject.

Diagonal lines that curve also create triangular and tubular shapes, internal images of a photograph that help define the subject. Guess what tomorrow’s article will be about?