A penchant for lines
Let’s investigate. Tick tock
Let’s see how the line in these pieces of evidence acts. It’s a fern branch.
That’s strange. I’m sure the fern didn’t move; there was no wind.
- 1. So what do you think did move?
- 2. What kind of a movement was it? Doesn’t that remind you of anything? Find the hint hidden on this page if you need to!
Hint: What do you need to do so that the subject tilts to the side in the picture? It’s one of our secret weapons.
1. The camera moved.
2. The camera swung around and tipped to the side. It leaned over to one side and then to the other. This is secret weapon no. 2.
Deductions. Tilting the frame
In order to take these different pictures of the fern with the subject straight up and tilted to the side, I tilted the camera itself, of course!
Using secret weapon no. 2, you can choose to make a line tilt to the right or to the left! Yeah!
Strategy. Making lines lean sideways
Isn’t it brilliant to be able to decide how much a line will be tilted, and in what direction? You can decide to put the line into the picture on a diagonal, or make it go along the frame, or position it in some other direction!
By tilting the frame, sometimes you run the risk of making yourself feel dizzy or seasick, as we know (see page 39), but it’s still a very cool trick to use in composition!
In order to talk about how the line is tilted in the picture or whether it is tilted or not, you have to ask yourself about its “orientation.”
For example, when I say that two lines are not oriented the same way, that could either mean that one is tilted and the other is horizontal or vertical, or it could mean that they are both tilted but in different directions.
Now you frame it. A line in the sky
Are you ready to tilt the frame to achieve your goal? We are going to play with this stretched-out jet trail running diagonally across the sky.
- 1. When you position your frame horizontally or vertically against the sky, is the jet trail horizontal? Vertical? Tilted?
- 2. Create the pictures that correspond to coded documents A, B, and C below.
Deductions. Abracada . . . line!
In coded document A, the line is tilted the same way as the jet trail in the sky. All I had to do for this composition was hold the frame perfectly straight.
Then, in order to make the jet trail lie “flat” in picture B, I had to tilt the frame so that its bottom and top edges had the same tilt as the line. Shifting the frame could also help us to position the jet trail at the bottom of the picture.
For picture C, it was sort of the same thing, but with a kind of “vertical tilted framing.” I had to work things out so that the line would go through the middle of the picture.
Picture quest. Tilted lines
And now, go get your camera!
- 1. Find a line in your house—for example, an electrical cord, the leg of a chair or table, the banisters on a staircase, the molding over a door . . .
- 2. Now have fun moving AND tilting your line in the picture in different ways. Of course, you can’t touch the subject itself!
- 3. Take the picture when the composition looks most appealing to you.