Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 5

Lesson 8

The Elements and Principles of Design: Photography

The beauty of Gods design, seen through one photographers eye. (Photo by Kayleigh Palmer)
There are some good reasons to become familiar with the elements and principles of visual art:

It helps us see/notice the beauty and design all around us, even in ordinary things.

Familiarizing ourselves with the vocabulary of design creates access for us to freely talk about, connect with, and appreciate artwork made by ourselves and other artists.

The more we notice the elements and use design principles as guidelines in our own work, the more aware
we become of the artists unique voice through visual communication and composition.

If you have other reasons you can think of yourself, write them here:

The study of visual elements and principles is not to make the process of creating and consuming art into a dry and
mechanical exercise. Far from it! A student of jazz will slow down and pause recordings of her favorite musicians in
order to marvel at and record the intricacies of the music in full wonder, and put it together again for herself. Her
study will feed excitement at the complexity shes discovered and foster a thirst for deeper exploration.
Likewise as visual artists, slowing down to really examine and take in the visual beauty all around us will only
sharpen our appreciation of Gods genius in the creation of His design. It will attune our attention and result in our
awe-struck worship of the Creator of all things!

Lesson 8

The Elements and Principles of Design: Photography

The 6 Elements of Design


What does ELEMENTS mean? Both answers below are good descriptions:

Physical attributes of things you can see with your eyes that you could possibly use, or possibly leave out,
in any work of visual art.

The basic building blocks, or raw ingredients, of visual art.

The 6 elements of design are:


Line, Value, Color, Texture, Shape, Space.
You can remember them with this phrase, or you can make up your own phrase to remember them:
Lovely Velvet Cupcakes Taste So Sweet.
RECIPE ANALOGY:
A selection of raw ingredients that a cook has the option to use in cooking, or to purposely leave out.
Not every recipe has every kind of ingredient in it. Not every piece of artwork has every element in it.
The elements are really all you need to know for this lesson!!!
However, if you also want to know about or review the principles of design, here you go:

Bonus: The 7 Principles of Design


Some visual guidelines you can use to arrange those visual elements into a certain composition.
The 7 principles of design are:
Emphasis, Balance, Contrast, Depth, Repetition/Variation, Unity/Harmony, Movement.
You can remember them with this phrase, or you can make up your own phrase to remember them:
Every Bad Child Doesnt Really Understand Math.

RECIPE ANALOGY:
Principles are like tried-and-true recipes to mix your chosen ingredients (elements) into a certain
art form, following tips handed down to you, yet still you make it your own.... and season to taste!

Arranging the basic elements according to certain principles you want to use is called designing (in other
words, to arrange on purpose). The visual result of this arrangement is called the composition. Even if
youve never thought about elements and principles before, you intuitively use them already! You evaluate and
try out different principles with your eyeballs all the time, and you predict how certain arrangements will affect and change what you make, even while trying on clothes. You adhere to certain guidelines, and you break
other guidelines on purpose, when youre searching for that certain feeling or effect you want to convey.

Lesson 8

The Elements and Principles of Design: Photography

Your Photography Assignment (due in one month; see date on syllabus)


NOTE: If youre using a FILM (old-fashioned) camera, take only 3-5 photos to represent each element rather than 20 each. Your total
will be 18-30 photos instead of 120. Youll have to print them, and then scan your 6 best prints to upload to your group.
If using a DIGITAL camera follow the instructions as written.

Instructions:
Dont use any flash for this assignment, unless you have a fancy external flash that can be used off to the side.
Turn OFF your cameras built-in flash. Youll have to rely on natural light or enough interior light for each shot.
Camera type: A simple point-and-shoot camera, camera phone, iPad, or a fancy expensive camera.
Time frame: Dont use photos youve already taken. Do the whole assignment fresh, from scratch.
Tip: Take more than one photo when you see an interesting subject. If you take just one shot, it might be blurry,
and wouldnt that be a shame? Instead, take 4-6 photos of EACH subject that captures your interest. Vary your tilt,
distance from the subject, vantage point (high & low), and different ways to crop your subject in the viewfinder.
Before you know it, 4-6 photos of that subject will be stored in your camera! We COUNT all the duds (the ones
that didnt turn out) in your 20 shots. For example, while out shooting subjects for Line, you notice:

a cluster of sign posts. You take 5 photos of the cluster of sign posts from different angels to portray Line.

some venetian blinds. More lines! You take 5 photos, and you tilt your camera for some of them.

a stair railing. You take 5 photos. Oops, 3 are really blurry. Thats okay, they still count! 15 down, 5 to go.

sun-drenched library shelves. You cant help yourself; you take 15 photos, theyre just so awesome!

Choose ONE assignment from these options (Options B, C, and D are given on the next page).

Basic assignment.
OPTION A. Take photos to represent the 6 elements of design, without conveying a concept or unifying theme.
Take 20+ photos of each element (take 20+ photos representing line, 20+ representing value, 20+ representing color,
20+ representing texture, 20+ representing shape, and 20+ representing space.) Total: 120 photos.
NOTE: You are not going to upload OR edit all 120 photos. Store all 120 photos on your computer under Pictures
(or wherever you want to store them). Then create 6 separate folders, name the folders Line, Value, Color, etc. and
drag each of your 20+ photos into the appropriate folder. Fair warning: It will take a long time to sort the 120 photos
into 6 folders. Dont wait until the last minute to sort them! You might find you need to go out and take more photos
if you discover you took 50 photos representing color, and only 2 representing space. :) Yeah, that happens.
After youve sorted all your photos into those 6 labeled folders on your computer:

Choose the ONE best photograph for each element (one photo for line, one for value, etc.).

Double click (slowly) on that photos file name and RE-NAME each of your best 6 photos, such as Jessie-line, Jessie-value, etc. so we know what elements they represent to you. (I mean, use your name.)

Edit those 6 best photos, if you know how to edit. (Might want to adjust the contrast, saturation, etc.)

Finally, UPLOAD your 6 photographs to share with the rest of us!

Or, choose a more advanced assignment, listed on the next page.

Lesson 8

The Elements and Principles of Design: Photography

Advanced Assignment Choices (choose one to do instead of the Basic assignment on previous page)
OPTION B. Represent the 6 elements of design, AND tie all 6 photos together with one conceptual theme.
Follow all the instructions for the Basic assignment, except also choose a theme that will apply to all 6 of your final
photos. See some potential theme ideas listed on the following page. When you upload your photos, write about
your theme and tell us what it means to you.
OPTION C. Represent the 7 principles of design, without conveying any kind of concept or theme.
Follow all the instructions for the Basic assignment, except substitute the 7 principles of design instead of the 6 elements (you will convey Emphasis, Balance, Contrast, Depth, Repetition/Variation, Unity/Harmony, and Movement).
You will have 20 photos x 7 principles = 140 photos total. Youll only edit and upload your 7 very best photos. Make
sure to rename them after the principles.
OPTION D. Represent the 7 principles of design, AND tie all 7 photos together with one conceptual theme.
Follow all the instructions for the Basic assignment, except also choose a theme that will apply to all 7 of your final
photos, and substitute the 7 principles of design instead of the 6 elements (convey Emphasis, Balance, Contrast,
Depth, Repetition/Variation, Unity/Harmony, Movement). You will have 20 photos x 7 principles = 140 photos total.
Youll only edit and upload your best 7 photos. Make sure to rename them after the principles. See theme ideas on the
following page. When you upload the photos, write about your theme and tell us what it means to you.

Optional additional homework to do on your own:


Memorization exercise
Practice writing or saying all 6 elements of design and all 7 principles of design from memory. Its great to know!

Increase your Sensitivity to Value (dark/light) by Making your own Value Scale Drawing
First, create a rectangular 8-step value scale using a pencil, where 1 = black and 8 = white. Its not easy!
Fill in your value transitions as evenly distributed across the whole 8-step scale as you can. It helps to draw lightly,
slowly building up your pencil marks (graphite) onto textured (semi-rough) paper, using tiny circular motions.
Then, if you want, find a black and white photograph that you admire that has a variety of subtle value transitions, and
copy it using a pencil. Its okay to copy someone elses art (photography is art!) as long as youre copying it for educational purposes and youre not putting out there in public on the internet (or selling it) as if its your original concept.
To save time, you can lightly trace the main outlines by holding your paper directly onto your computer screen
(like a light box). After tracing the main parts, fill in your drawing with grayscale values. Use as many of the same
value transitions as you can detect in the original photograph. Pay special attention to soft edges vs. hard edges.
Hint: For greater accuracy, it really helps to turn your drawing, along with your photo reference, upside-down as
you draw. Thats a great trick from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. It really works!

Lesson 8

The Elements and Principles of Design: Photography

Potential Concepts and Theme Ideas


Below are some ideas if you want to explore one of these or similar through your Elements or Principles photography assignment.
If you begin with a certain concept in mind, its fine to switch to a different concept halfway through.
OR if it turns out to be too difficult, you can always scrap the concept idea altogether and just go
back to a formal (visual) exploration of design, without employing a unifying concept.
anger
brokenness
communion
community
consumerism
creativity
decay
doors
dreams
emotions
freedom
growth
history
hunger
loss
love
hiddenness
journey
joy
music/musical instruments
nature of God/Trinity
politics
reflections/distortion
religion
peace
power
protest
rain
nourishment
sacred
solitude
sorrow
struggle
time
transparency
trust
quenching
worship

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi