Exercise: Diagonal lines

The third part focuses on diagonal lines. As the text mentions, diagonal lines can be created easily simply by adjusting the perspective of the photo.


I took this first shot from a corner angle of a houseboat. There are multiple diagonal lines created by this perspective, the main ones being the three sets of lines that form the top of the first floor, the roofline of the main floor, then the roof line of the upper floor. There are a few other diagonal lines created but those are the strongest, and they repeat at essentially the same angles, however they converge at different points. I'm not sure how I feel about the convergence points. I wonder if the photo would seem more "put together" if the diagonals all converged in a similar way.


This photo is dominated by the diagonal lines of the railroad crossing sign. The telephone wires are also at a diagonal but don't have much of a relationship with the main diagonals. I like the photo, I think because it is somewhat offset, with the left part of the sign lower than the right, and the right higher than the left. Even though the diagonal lines of the telephone wires are separate from the sign, they do add some nice action in the upper part of the photo, which might have been dull without the wires there. Now that I think of it, the photo would've probably been stronger if the telephone wires had a stronger role. I need to think about that some more.


The diagonals in this photo are formed by the fluorescent light, the frame supporting the light, and the concrete support beams. Additional diagonal lines are formed by the shadows on the beams, and the highlighted spider webs. I really like this photograph. I like how the diagonals work together in shape and contrast, and the depth created by the upward diagonals formed by the shadows. It also feels quite balanced even though there are many places that the diagonals intersect. It's not busy at all.



The last photo is a stairwell in a parking garage. There are many strong diagonal lines in this photo: the handrails and the stair frames, the steps, and my favorite, the shadows of the steps on the wall. What's interesting about it is that the steps go against the flow of the handrails, but the shadows of the steps are parallel to the handrails. I love that. It's like the stairs are saying they really do want to go with the flow of the handrails and supports. I think that's what I really like about this photo.