What could be more obvious than shape? We identify things by the way they look like most of the time. A kid can recognize her parent from a distance without even making out the facial details or caring about the color of the dress.
Shapes play a key part in photography too. The circle, the triangle, the diamond, the arc, the square,the oval – all these are ingredients available to the photographer for cooking up a recipe. So it important to know how to use shape in photo composition.
How many shapes can you identify in the picture of the bales of hay? Two circles are obvious – but can you also see the triangle created by the clouds. The placement is perfect – the sides converge to the inverted apex between the circular shapes. The viewer may not realize it or break it down this way, but this interesting interplay between shapes is working to hold her attention,
Unlike exploring form, where we explore the three dimensional qualities, or unlike texture where we explore the surface qualities, shape is about exploring the outline. Thus it plays a usual role in silhouettes or in fog where the quality of light removes all the details, drawing our attention to the outline.
Shapes are all around us and those are one of the easiest visual elements to use in photo composition. So shape up and ship out some winning shots.
