June 2023, Lines in Images

Keeping you informed about happenings at Deliberate Light: photos to browse or buy, photography instruction (see also Digital Photo Academy), and artifact services. To get these newsletters by email a month before they are posted here, go to the DeliberateLight.com website and click on Newsletter Signup.

NEWS

Upcoming Workshops. No workshops for me in June. I am scheduled to teach the following workshops next month (and will be offering them in subsequent months at different venues).

July 20, location: 30th Street Station, Philadelphia
(a historic 1933 building with a magnificent classic exterior and art deco interior, great views of the river and skyline, and, as an active rail and commuter hub, plenty of people for street photos)

· Mastering Your Camera Controls (1.5 hours) – DSLR/Mirrorless/Compact cameras (smartphone tutorial available separately)

· Composition in the Field (3 hours) – walking tour around the venue with instruction and hands-on practice composing photos (bring any camera)

Sustainability. I am happy to say that the platform that provides my website, SmugMug (I know, not the best branding in the world), has taken three concrete steps to sustainability.

· Certified by Climate Neutral which means they have taken documented steps to reduce and neutralize climate emissions in their own and their suppliers’ energy usage.

· Members of The Conservation Alliance which provides grants to conservation projects across North America.

· Certified Evergreen by the Tugboat Group, undertaking long-term (100 year) goals for success, rather than the irresponsibly short-sighted focus on next quarter’s financials.

New Photo. A steel frame ghost of Ben Franklin’s house In Olde City. The outlines of the two chimneys look back on the same moon that saw the originals a few centuries ago. For a more detailed, enlarged view, see it in the on my website.

VIEWS

Lines in images (whether in photographs, paintings, or any other image) affect the feel of an image, and they can direct the viewer’s gaze, intentionally or not. Understanding how they do that might help you in composing or editing images.

Horizontal lines connote stability and tranquility, while vertical lines vitality and uplift. Images with lots of horizontal lines are best portrayed in landscape orientation while vertical lines are best in portrait orientation to emphasize what they convey.

Diagonal lines provide dynamic tension to an image because they imply instability, with an important special case being converging lines that convey a sense of distance.

Gently curving lines convey gracefulness or sensuality, while sharply curving or jagged lines imply movement. And best of all are leading lines that draw your eye to something worth noticing in the image, like the bird at the bottom of this picture staring back at you.

Carl Finkbeiner

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