Design Elements

Learning Guide 5

Published in

Introduction to Photography and Lightroom

6 min readOct 14, 2016

http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Laszlo-Moholy-Nagy.html

“Photography when used as a representational art is not a mere copy of nature. This is proved by the rarity of the ‘good’ photograph. Only now and then does one find really ‘good’ photographs among the millions… What is remarkable…is that (after a fairly long visual culture) we always infallibly and with sure instinct discover the ‘good’ photos…”
– László Moholy-Nagy

Lázsló Moholy-Nagy, born in 1895, would be right at home in the world of today. He was interested in the integration of technology with art and foresaw the rise of photography and visual literacy as crucial elements in modern society.

He started teaching at the Bauhaus in 1923, fled Germany to escape the Nazi’s–his art being labeled as degenerate– and was appointed head of the New Bauhaus in Chicago.

A strong sense of design permeates his photography and many of his pictures could be called “graphic.”

“It is not the person ignorant of writing but the one ignorant of photography who will be the illiterate of the future.”

Skills and Concepts

The basic design elements: spot, line, shape, pattern.
The advanced design elements: balance, movement, perspective, composition, contrast, sharpness
Composition with design elements.
Development of images with design elements

Lecture Topics

Basic Design Elements
Advanced Design Elements

Slides

Baseline Requirements

Design Element Critique (30)

Composition Exercise (30)

Emulation (25)

Design Element Critqiue

Key Readings

Design Elements Part 1 | Part 2 or Composition and the Elements of Visual Design

Essay

Find an image you made this semester, but prior to this learning guide, that demonstrates good use of design elements. Using what you learned in your chosen key reading, critique this image with careful attention paid to the design elements.

Composition Exercise

Read the following article: Tips for Objective Evaluation of Composition

Then you will need to find one picture of your own– it can be any photo you’ve taken this semester, though it would be smart if you found an image that is easily chunked– and work through the steps below.

Make sure that you have an image for each of your steps. I would probably make virtual copies for each step of the way and then export all of those different versions.

The Steps

Find a picture you’ve already taken (1st image)
Create a virtual copy and flip it upside down (2nd image).
Export this image and open it in a tool where you can draw on the image. Then, identify and outline the major “chunks” of the image. (3rd image)
Make a copy of the image with your outlines (4th image) and draw arrows showing how the eye moves through the image.
Back in Lightroom, create a virtual copy of the upside down image and, using your “chunked” and “arrowed” image, edit the image (5th image).
Create a virtual copy of the edited image and flip it right side up (6th image).
Export the six images and put them into your learning guide

Emulation

Read about and look through Moholy-Nagy’s work. Find an image that you really enjoy and that, for you, exemplifies what he was about as a photographer. Emulate that image, remembering that this is a process:

Shooting Assignments

Single Colors (camera phone/iPad OK)

Find and shoot at least a photo for each of the primary and secondary colors (those would be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple). Your frame needs to be dominated by that single color. Small variations in hue are OK.

Color and Emotion

Complementary Colors (camera phone/iPad OK)

Find and shoot pairs of complementary colors (those would be red+green, blue+orange, yellow+purple). Try to find as many as you can and make sure that your frame is again dominated by the pair. Think about whether or not one color is stronger than the others–do you need to have a 50–50 split, or is one color needed in less quantities to have equal weight?

Basic Design Elements (cameraphone/iPad OK)

Spot Remember that the idea of “spot” is that it is a small point in your image that draws the viewer’s attention and that eyes will attempt to connect multiple spots. Keeping this in mind, take 5 pictures where you employ spot as a design element with the intent of drawing the viewer’s attention.

Line Eyes follow lines and different kinds of lines elicit different feelings from the viewer. Take 2 pictures of each of the line types: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, zig-zags, wide curves, converging lines.

Shape Shapes are, in a sense, larger versions of spots. Take images that are constructed from distinct shapes. Don’t worry about about content, just about shape. This is hard. You are to pick a shape, then make a series (5–10) of images that prominently include that shape. Start with squares, then move on to triangles and circles.

Feel free to use your shapes in interesting ways (e.g., framing a subject).

Sometimes shapes appear in the spaces between other objects (i.e., don’t always look for something you know to be a certain shape– sometimes that shape just appears).

Pattern and Repetition Repeating spots, shapes, and lines can be used in a variety of ways. You can add a sense of unity or interest by repeating shapes. You can highlight differences through repetition (for instance, the subject of your picture could be the one element of many repeated elements that is different). You can create rhythm with repetition. Take 5 pictures of pattern and/or repetition.

Advanced Design Elements (cameraphone/iPad OK)

Balance and Movement Experiment with the idea of balance and movement. Take 2 “balanced” images. Take 2 “imbalanced” images. Take 3 images with implied movement.

Contrast Take 3 high contrast images. Take 3 low-contrast images. Take 3 high-key images. Take 3 low-key images.

Shooting Deliberately (cameraphone/iPad OK)

Your goal is to walk around for a long period of time, but to only shoot three pictures– that is, to only press the shutter button three times. Getting the Chimp Off Your Back

Seeing the Shot — Finding something to shoot isn’t the only aspect of photography, you also need to think about how you are going to get the shot that you ultimately want. Where are you going to stand? What is going to be in the frame, and what is going to be out of it? Where is your subject going to be positioned, and what does that say about the shot?

No Review — Part of this exercise is feeling confident that once you have taken the picture, you have what you want. Do not review your shots, do not delete your shots.

The Extra Step — You may want to consider going the extra step, and actually sketching out your shot ahead of time. Sit down with a piece of paper and a pen/pencil and draw what you want your shot to look like. Then frame it that way.

Shoot Your Mood (cameraphone/iPad OK)

We’ve talked about how you can use white balance, color, key (high-key or low-key), and contrast to affect the mood of an image. Pick and choose some of these elements and create three different pictures of three distinct moods. For instance, you can take a “sad” picture a “happy” picture and an “angry” picture.

Enrichment

Most photographers make heavy use of design elements. Find a notable phtographer who uses design elements particularly well. Try to focus on one particular element. Show some examples of their work, and then emulate the work. (10 points)

Choose three older images of yours (any image you took before this learning guide) that you now recognize made use of design elements. Put the images in the learning guide, and write about why the images are effective in the context of design elements (5 points)