Angles and Edges: Striking Lines give Photo Motifs Shape

Lines have an important function in photography: They direct the viewers’ gaze to the focal point and help them absorb and understand the picture’s message more quickly.In an earlier post we addressed the gist of how lines do this and their modes of action. Now we’ll to take a closer at the specific ways angles and edges function in a photograph.

The technique of managing lines is particularly relevant with motifs from the areas of architecture, technology, and mobility. These motifs show man-made structures and systems. They’re distinctive – in contrast to, say, portrait or landscape photography – because of the frequent presence of mathematically precisely mapped, straight lines. According to the angle at which these corners and edges traverse the image and where they’re placed within its internal structure, they have a more or less powerful dynamic effect.

Diagonals are edges that, depending on their direction, have a positive and emergent or a falling and downwardly pitched effect. An oblique line like this usually awakens an impression of agitation and momentum. This effect is multiplied when such lines are combined with a moving subject, such as a running athlete.

© DANIEL INGOLD/Westend61

In many photos of buildings taken from a worm’s eye view, we encounter diagonal edges in the form of plunging lines, which augment the feeling of overwhelming size.

© SEBASTIAN GAUERT/Westend61

On the other hand, horizontal edges have a rather static effect and can easily appear boring. This is why they’re often combined with more horizontal lines or the photo is enlivened with an object of irregular lines or with a stormy sky. In a photograph of architecture, speeding clouds are a favorite means of opening up and invigorating austere forms, since here the sky’s shapes set up an interesting contrast between the manmade structure and the surrounding, untamed nature. This method of composing an image can be seen in countless variation, each of which has its own appeal: Clouds reflecting in the glass facade of a skyscraper;

© SEBASTIAN GAUERT/Westend61

fluffy white cumulus sailing by on a breeze, loosening a severely geometrical image structure;

© CARMEN STEINER/Westend61

or the tattered shapes, torn by the wind, that blow by a hulking temple of finance and its imposing, almost frightening profile with the message that nothing lasts forever.

© SEBASTIAN GAUERT/Westend61

For those who can’t quite tell heads from tails, perpendicular lines in an image’s structure will set them right, since these edges produce an impression of stability, vitality, and energetic forward momentum. This image is an interesting example, combining a moment of stability, expressed by the centrally located pillar, with a moment of rapid movement, here the moving train that extends to the right and left. Diagonal lines that come at the viewer from behind the line of a hidden vanishing point produce additional tension by placing an invisible question mark for the viewer at the image’s center.

© STEFAN KUNERT/Westend61

Where there are edges there are usually corners and it’s at that spot where lines change direction or meet in a particular angle. This design tool is also a good choice for building tension. This is particularly the case when two lines going in opposite directions meet up, such as in the descending and ascending lines of the building’s edges in this image.

© VISUAL2020VISION/Westend61

Here the effect is heightened still more by the vertical line that expresses less stability than dynamism in the center of the image, at the bottom, and the jet hurtling by overhead.
In contrast to this somber straightness and singularity of purpose, curved edges convey a feeling of calm and comfort. This is because curved lines with an opening aimed upwards have a receiving and open effect and with the opening aimed downwards, a protective effect of closure. In this image, both forms are harmoniously united.

© HUBERSTARKE/Westend61

It’s appealing when straight and curved edges work together or side-by-side – above all when they contrast with each other’s perspective and coloring, as here.

© TIMO WEIS/Westend61

Lines at right angles, on the other hand, are constructive, exact, and arouse in the viewer an impression of mathematical precision and sober calculation. So that they don’t seem too static and therefore boring, they’re best combined with diagonal lines – or with a person, such as the one carrying out their life in such a sad hovel.

© JO KIRCHHERR/Westend61

It’s the opposite in this image, with a seeming willy-nilly jumble of lines and edges whose structure can only be recognized upon close inspection. In the viewer it arouses disquiet and the sense that the woman is trying with her smartphone to reclaim some sanity from a day crammed full of appointments and responsibilities.

© JO KIRCHHERR/Westend61

Straight lines with color separation come across to the viewer like optical edges, like in this image, where warm tones make a dull wall eye-catching and complement the young woman’s apparent good mood.

© VALENTINA BARRETO/Westend61

Even the lines of a straightforwardly functional arrow on the asphalt can become an attractive backdrop when photographed from the right perspective.

© DANIEL INGOLD/Westend61

It’s apparent that meaningfully traced lines, striking fractures, and optical separations are not just useful for “cleaning up” an image and placing the fore- and background in their places, but can make for an outright more interesting composition. What’s true for people is also true, to some extent, for photos: Those who have just a few corners and edges have a fully developed profile. And it’s something good photography must have to stand out from the glut of more average material.

More images on that issue can be seen here.

Hubertus Stumpf

As an experienced newspaper editor, Hubert Stumpf knows that a good text is only half the job when it comes to attracting the attention of readers - just as important a great imagery. The studied Germanist is a professional writer with a passion for the possibilities of digital photography.