Lines

Lines

A line represents a path between two points. A line can be straight, curved, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or zig-zag. Lines can also be implied.

The direction and orientation of a line can also imply feelings;

• Horizontal lines - imply tranquillity, peace and harmony.
• Vertical lines - imply power and strength.
• Diagonal lines - imply movement, action and change.
• Curved lines or S-shaped lines - imply quiet, calm and sensual feelings.
• Lines that converge - imply depth, scale and distance, (a fence or roadway converges into the distance and provides the illusion that a two-dimensional image has a three-dimensional). 

The photos below support this:

 

Research (of artists and techniques)

A photographer that I chose to research was Peter Keetman. Peter Keetman was a German photographer (1916 - 2005), who started to study photography, in Munich, in 1935, and was a central figure in German post-war modern photography. Peter Keetman's portfolio combined nature and motion studies, experiments, industrial and applied photography. He explored the cameras potential to 'create' rather than just capture images.

In these photographs Keetman used parts of cars as well as other man made objects to create his pictures. He tried to position his camera in order to explore his camera's potential and create abnormal looking, but interesting images rather than just capturing images. He also used the reflection of water to enlarge the focus of  the object as well as it's reflection.

As shown below:

The above images where taken with a variety of lenses. All of Peter Keetman's work is in black and white (by using a black and white film), this exaggerates the differences in light hitting the objects, therefore enhancing the clearly defined lines. The manipulated light implies movement, and that the machinery in the photos is part of a working car. His bold black and white, high contrasting photos become abstract as a result of looking closely at unusual details of different items, often including mechanical structures with reflective surfaces.

Image bank 

The following images were added as part of my visual research.

The above collection of photographs (pictures by other photographers/artists) represent some images that I felt I could capture myself. They represent a variety of lines and most of the images are closely cropped, an approach I thought I would adopt for my work.

My contact sheet

In the first contact sheet, the photos were taken in Harlow town centre. Here there is a lot of buildings so it was difficult to find anything interesting or out of the ordinary. The setting was not ideal as it was very overcast and windy, which made focusing the camera on some of the objects very hard, especially the plants and bushes, and creating a nice image difficult because of the lighting. If I were to re shoot these I would use a tripod, to get a better focused image and ensure that I have the right /better exposure.

Contact sheet 1

Contact sheet 2

The contact sheet above was taken outside of Harlow. I had more time to photograph and used a different camera which resulted in some higher quality photos and some more interesting images. In this sheet I played around with angles, and experimented with focusing the camera on different parts of the same scene. I also tried to take some photos in the style of Peter Keetman by photographing some metal work.

My best photographs 

With my best photographs, I have decided to put them into black and white as it helps to focus on the lines instead of the colour.

Here I have added some of my best photographs. Whilst I was taking these photos, I relayed that the style of photography I like is very different to Peter Keetman's. Keetman's work is very harsh and rough, whereas my style is soft and focused. Because of this, I have tried to incorporate similar objects and techniques into my work, but still keeping it my my style.

I feel that this photo (below) is one of my best because of the focus. It shows the clearly defined lines of the leaves, whilst having some elegance.  It purposely chose to focus on the two leaves instead of having a entailed background as well. When taking this photo, I tried to experiment with the use of water (like Keetman's photo of the feather) although this did not turn out exactly like his, you can still see the water droplets which I thinks adds to the whole photo.

Photographs that need editing

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The photographs that I have taken are in colour, however since we are focusing on lines and I am trying to photograph in Peter Keetman's style, I feel like most of my images would look better if they were in black and white. This would draw our attention onto the object/lines instead of drawing your eye to the colour, for this reason I have added some black and white photos. In some cases, I have had to adjust the brightness and contrast whilst editing them due to the lighting being different as some  photos have been shot in brighter lights, whilst others are too dark when converted to black and white.

In the photo above, i have edited this photo by changing the saturation, brightness and contrast. i like the way this photo has turned out because along with the clearly defined lines of the table, you can see the abstract lines that are on the Peacock feathers. Although they are not 'straight' these lines and bright colours contrast the dull, stiff lines on the table, which in my opinion creates a more interesting photo to look at.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

The artist research was helpful as I realised that the theory on the line meant that I could tackle the subject from a range of perspectives. My research of Peter Keeton helped me to focus on the smaller details of the objects. I found this quite helpful as where I live I have a lot of opportunities to photograph. 

The research on line and emotion/mood was not particularly helpful to this study, however some of the shots were composed using leading lines where the perspective of the object draws the viewer into the composition, so this aspect of research was useful. 

I gained some inspiration from Peter Keeton's work and I produced my own images. I kept Keeton's metallic theme and photographed some metal work in my garden. I also had a look at other hard materials such as wood.

I looked at some metal that was actually used as a garden bench. I especially like the focus of this picture

With the above photo, I edited it to make it black and white like Peter Keeton's work. This highlights the lighter colours whilst creating a tonal contrast with the darker tones.

With the two photographs above I manipulated the setting of the photo. I did this by placing the feathers at a different angle to that of the table and wall. The differences between lines draws the eye towards the intricate lines within the feather.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My idea for recording lines was to photograph the finer details in nature and in gardens, and how the lines can present themselves such as curves, horizontal, vertical and leading lines. I was inspired my Peter Keeton's work, not by his method of taking photos, but by what he had tried to capture within the photo.

     With reference to my best selected images:

     The image of the feathers and table was shot at a canted angle so that the lines of the table ran diagonally, this was done to lead the eye to the feathers and their abstract lines to create an interesting image. This links to Peter Keeton's work as he often slanted the camera angle in order to change the way people perceived the photograph.

      

    The way in which I took the image of the metal bench and the metal basket, was also partially inspired by Peter Keeton as he made me look at the detail in the objects that I was photographing. The fact that I edited the image to make it black and white was also an idea that Keeton had, as it draws the eye towards the lines instead of being distracted by the colour around it.

With regards to some of the images that did not come out as I expected, I struggled to adapt my camera settings as I was unfamiliar with how the camera worked.   Some images lacked focus, whilst in the case of others I struggled to use the cameras exposure meter.   I believe I can overcome these issues through more practise.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

To take my photos I used a Canon E10 1000D, with multiple lenses. The angles that I used varied with the objects. The feathers, I tried to get as close to as possible in order to get lots of detail. The wall was shot at an angle level with the middle of the door but at a slight angle to help capture the lines in the door as well as it's surroundings. The Metal garden ball, was shot low to the ground. I also zoomed in in order to show the contrast between the lines on the metal and the plants next to it,

In reference to my best images in which i have selected, these are the camera settings that I used. 

Photo 1
Lens : EF-S18-55mm F/3.5-5.6
Exposure : 1/85 sec
F/ : 6.3
ISO : 200

Photo 2
Lens : EF-S18-55mm F/3.5-5.6
Exposure : 1/60 sec
F/ : 6.3
ISO : 200

Photo 3
Lens : EF-S18-55mm F/3.5-5.6
Exposure : 1/125 sec
F/ : 9
ISO :1600

Photo 4
Lens : EF-S18-55mm F/3.5-5.6
Exposure : 1/60 sec
F/ : 5.6

ISO : 200

Photo 5
Lens : EF-S18-55mm F/3.5-5.6
Exposure : 1/200 sec
F/ : 10
ISO :1600

Editing:

When editing these images I decided to change them into Black and white to look more like Keetman's work. I also decided to changed the levels and curves to make certain areas darker and to add a better highlight. I then changed the contrast so that the details of each image like texture and shadows are more enhanced.

Above is an example of how I edit the curves to create my final images.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.  

I believe that I have produced a strong series of images inspired by my research of line, composition and the images of Peter Keeton.  The final images produced were refined by developing the contrast and converting them into black and white images.