1. Composition 2 The Visual Elements
The visual elements (also sometimes called design elements) are the ‘things’ which make up an image - line, tone, shape, colour and so on.

2. List of Visual Elements
Line – actual or implied lines within the composition
Shape – areas defined by their edges within the piece.
Form – the three dimensional quality of an object or shape – its length, width and depth.
Tone – describes the darkness or lightness of a particular area in an image. shading is often used to emphasize the form and an object’s three dimensionality.
Colour - hues with their various values, intensity, and saturation
Space - the space taken up by objects or the space in-between objects (sometimes called negative space).
Texture - surface qualities of the artwork.

3. Line Line is a really useful design element when constructing images.
Lines are formed by the edges of things when there is an apparent contrast between light and dark areas or between different colours or textures.
Lines can also be suggested or implied by patterns or repetition.
In this image where are the implied lines and where do these lines draw the viewer’s eye?
Henri Cartier Bresson

4. Horizontal And Vertical Lines
Chris Monaghan
Horizontal lines can suggest a feeling of stability, calmness or tranquillity.
Vertical lines can suggest power and strength.

5. Paul Strand
Study this urban landscape by Paul Strand. Discuss what Strand might have been saying about the society … would you like to live there?
How do the strong vertical lines and dark shadow areas affect your interpretation of the image?

6. Diagonal Lines
Diagonal lines tend to be visually dynamic – suggesting movement, a ‘visual tension’ and/or excitement.

7. The model was lying on a bed.
How does the photographer make the image more visually ‘dynamic’?
Chris Monaghan

8. David Bailey

9. Curved lines often suggest organic (living, breathing) things.

10. Mario Testino
Spot the curves in this portrait of an actress.

11. Colour
White light is actually made up from just the right mixture of every other colour of light.

12. Primary Colours:
Red, Green, Blue.
(RGB)
Complimentary colours:
Cyan, Yellow, Magenta.

14. Which of these images uses complimentary, and which uses analogous colours?
How does this colour choice help or affect the meaning of each image?

15. Form
(The three-dimensionality of the artwork)
Masolino, St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha, 1425
The added black lines show the use of a ‘vanishing point’ to create a realistic impression of three dimensional space – commonly referred to as ‘realistic perspective’.

16. Film still from The Manchurian Candidate
How does the photographer suggest three-dimensional space (i.e. depth)?

17. 1. Man’s head is larger than woman’s so our brains interpret this as suggesting that he is nearer to the camera than the woman.
2. Background is out of focus suggesting depth
3. The lighting creates shading suggesting three dimensional form

18. What visual element(s) help give this photograph ‘depth’ and a three-dimensional character?
Fay Godwin

19. Some artists completely rejected the idea that a work of art had always to imitate the three-dimensional character of the world, as in this collage by Henri Matisse entitled The Snail.
Matisse

20. Tone
Tone describes the darkness or lightness of a particular area in an image. Very light areas are sometimes called highlights and very dark areas are called shadow areas.
Shading (where the tone changes gradually from highlight to shadow) is often used to emphasize the form and three dimensionality of an object.
Angus McBean

21. Balancing The Visual Elements
Where is the subject placed in this painting?
Images with a centrally located subject are sometimes called ‘formal’ compositions. Having the subject in the middle might create a sense of visual ‘balance’ but can also appear rather boring to the modern eye.
Visual balance is achieved by the placement of the visual elements (lines, shapes, colours and so on).
Note: Not all images are ‘balanced’.
Gainsborough

22. How does the photographer ‘balance’ this image?

23. At first glance this image might not appear balanced, but look more closely ….
How does Shomei achieve balance in this unsymmetrical image?
Tomatsu Shomei

24. Is this image balanced?
If so, how?
If not, why not?
Chris Monaghan

25. Juxtaposition
Juxtoposition is the placing of things close to one another in order to emphasise their difference.
What is the major difference being emphasised here?

26. Framing & Cropping
Togetherness

27. Framing & Cropping Loneliness
This is the same photograph as the previous image but with a different crop.

28. John Hilliard, cause of death, 1974

29. (the ‘shape’ of an image)
Aspect Ratio
(the ‘shape’ of an image)

30. Richard Billingham
Richard Billingham produced a series of photographs about his parents. He used the amateur 6:4 aspect ratio shape for his images (just like amateur 6 inch x 4 inch prints).
Why might he have chosen this aspect ratio?

31. The Gaze
When we look hard at someone else our gaze can sometimes be interpreted as if we are saying “I am the powerful one here”. Manet’s Olympia caused a scandal because he painted a woman in a contemporary setting who seemed by her gaze to be the one with all the power (In 1863 women were meant to do as they were told by men!)
Titian, Venus D’Urbino, 1538
Manet, Olympia, 1863

32. Richard Avedon
Images in which the subject looks directly at the viewer can have a powerful or disconcerting effect.

33. Composition Summary
Visual elements:
Some ‘Rules’ of composition

34. Composition Summary Visual elements:
Line, Shape, Form, Tone, Colour, Space, Texture
Some ‘Rules’ of composition
Juxtaposition
Symmetry
Repetition
Rule of thirds
Rule of odd and even
Rule of space
Simplification
Balance