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What are the Elements of Art?

The Elements of Art are like the architecture of a building. The elements help build an interesting composition.

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Elements of Art

in Photography

Point
Line
Shape / Form
Texture

Color
Value / Tone
Space
Plane / Layer

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Point

A point marks a position in space.

A mass of points can become texture, shapes or planes.

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Burning Candle, Natalie Rose

Where is the

point in this photo?

How do we know?

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Burning Candle, Natalie Rose

The glowing tip of the candle wick.

The contrast between the dark wick and bright flame

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Line

A path that is made by a moving point.

Can vary in length, width, direction, curvature, value or tone and color.

Types of lines include horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved and zig zag.

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Strings, Taylor Dahl, 2011

What kind of lines are shown in this photo?

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Strings, Taylor Dahl, 2011

Lines are straight, of various widths, and change in value from beige to brown.

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Lonely Spftball, Maddie Addington, 2019

What kind of lines are shown in this photo?

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Lonely Spftball, Maddie Addington, 2019

Straight and curved

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Line

An implied line is a line that you can see but can not touch.

A discrete line is a line that you can touch.

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Add Image here...

Where are the discrete and implied lines?

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Urban Ramp, Mitchell Mylius, 2011

The discrete lines are the railings

The implied lines is the graffitti

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Shape / Form

Shape is an area enclosed by a line.
Shapes can be organic or geometric.
2-D is a shape
3-D is a form

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Pine Cone, Allie Christensen, 2019

Is this shape

organic or geometric?

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Pine Cone, Allie Christensen, 2019

The pine cone is organic even though it’s repetitive shapes give it a geometric appearance.

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Around the Bend, Mitchell Mylius, 2011

What geometric shapes can be seen?

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Around the Bend, Mitchell Mylius, 2011

Triangles, diamonds, squares, rectangles and many more.

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Texture

Texture is how an object looks or feels.
Real texture can be felt.
Implied texture is created by changes in the surface of an object and is visible to the viewer.

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Corny Lane, Lindsey Philips, 2019

How many different types of texture can you see?

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Corny Lane, Lindsey Philips, 2019

Rough cement

Prickly leaves

Bumpy pine cone

Smooth acorn

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Gourmet Pancakes, Allie Christensen, 2019

How many different types of texture can you see?

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Gourmet Pancakes, Allie Christensen, 2019

Smooth glass

Soft napkin

Wet strawberries Squishy pancakes

Powdery sugar

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Color - definitions

Hue is another word for color
Primary colors are made of one hue
Secondary colors are made from equal parts of two primary hues
Tertiary colors are made from equal parts of one primary hue and one secondary, analogous hue

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The Color Wheel - Primary, Secondary & Tertiary colors

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Primary colors: Red, Blue, & Yellow

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Secondary colors: Orange, Green & Violet

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Tertiary colors: Yellow-Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue-Green, Blue-Violet, Red-Violet, Red-Orange

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The Color Wheel - Primary, Secondary & Tertiary colors

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Color - terms

Complimentary colors are opposite on the color wheel and when mixed together create a gray or neutral hue.

Analogous colors are close to each other on the color wheel and share a common hue.

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Complimentary colors

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Golden Gate Bridge, Emily Bell, 2018

What complimentary hues are present in this photo?

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Golden gate Bridge, Emily Bell, 2018

Orange in the bridge and blues in the water and the sky.

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Analogous colors

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A Little Rusty, Katherine Terry, 2018

What analogous hues are present in this photo?

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A Little Rusty, Katherine Terry, 2018

Yellow, orange, red and brown

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Color - families

Cool colors are violet, blue and green.

Warm colors are red, orange and yellow

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Cool colors

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Warm colors

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Color - families

Monochromatic color schemes are one hue plus black or white
A shade is a hue plus black
A tint is a hue plus white

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Taylor’s Purple Eye, Gabe Emfinger, 2018

What hue is used for this monochromatic color scheme?

Where are the tints and shades?

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Taylor’s Purple Eye, Gabe Emfinger, 2018

Sepia or brown is the hue.

The tints are on the highlights of her skin.

The shades are on her hair.

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Color - in use

RGB - Red, Green, and Blue

Primary colors for light
Used in computer monitors

CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black

Used in printing both home and commercial printing.

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Color - in use

To print a black & white photo using today’s printers it requires:

White printing medium
Equal amount of C, M, Y balanced with black to create the correct values

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Morning Dew, Hayley Thompson, 2018

To print this digitally, it uses equal portions of cyan, magenta, & yellow mixed with black to create the different values of gray seen here.

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Value / Tone

Value or tone is the lightness or darkness of a hue in a work of art.

In photography, value or tone also refers to the highlights and shadows created by a light source to help create contrast in an image.

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Fence Post, Jonathan Biehl, 2011

What extreme values are present in this photo?

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Fence Post, Jonathan Biehl, 2011

Black for shadows and white for highlights.

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Morning Walk, Deb Bailey, 2010

What hue is present in this photo?

What causes the different values of that hue?

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Morning Walk, Deb Bailey, 2010

Green is the hue

Sunlight gives the highlights and shadows.

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Quiet Start, Razia Sadiq, 2011

What hue is present in this photo?

Where are the tints and shades?

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Quiet Start, Razia Sadiq, 2011

Blue-Violet

The tints are on the edges of the petals and the shades are in the interior.

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Space

Space is the empty or open area between, around, above, below, or within objects.

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Space -

Negative & Positive

Positive space is the space filled by objects or the center of interest.

Negative space is the space that surrounds the center of interest.

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Alcatraz,

Uzair Mohammad, 2011

Where is the positive and negative space?

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Alcatraz,

Uzair Mohammad, 2011

The sky, city & water are negative space.

Alcatraz is positive space.

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Josh, Ashley Hagerstrand, 2011

Where are the positive and negative space?

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Josh, Ashley Hagerstrand, 2011

The positive space is Josh’s face and hair.

The negative space is his jacket and the shadows.

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Space - in use

Linear perspective

Objects appear smaller as they get farther away from the viewer.

Aerial perspective

Distant objects appear blurrier and lighter in color.

Overlapping

Objects that are closer to the viewer block the view of objects farther away.

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Japanese Tea Garden, Deb Bailey, 2010

What kind of space can be seen?

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Japanese Tea Garden, Deb Bailey, 2010

Linear Perspective

The trees, posts and the width of the path get smaller in the distance.

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Hume Lake, Lizzy Schwegler, 2017

What kind of space can be seen?

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Hume Lake, Lizzy Schwegler, 2017

Aerial perspective

The mountains get lighter and blurrier in the distance.

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Origami Cranes, Brian Byun, 2012

What kind of space can be seen?

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Origami Cranes, Brian Byun, 2012

The cranes show overlapping space.

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San Francisco, Brian Byun, 2010

How many types of perspective can you see?

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San Francisco, Brian Byun, 2010

All three types are present. Frequently, more than one will be present in a photo.

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Plane / Layer

A plane is an area of height and width that helps define the relationships of objects to each other and the viewer.

A layer is a path of a moving line.

It can be solid, perforated, opaque, or transparent, textured or smooth.

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Around the Bend, Mitchell Mylius, 2011

How many planes can you see in this photo?

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Around the Bend, Mitchell Mylius, 2011

You could propose 5 planes or layers.

Bridge on right
Bridge on lower left
45 mph sign
Bridge on top
Sky

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Plane / Layer - in use

Foreground, midground and background are examples of planes that can be seen in photography.

“Breaking the plane” is when the objects seem to leave the 2-D surface and reach towards the viewer.

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Friends Hug, Lexi Borgna, 2019

What are the foreground, midground and background elements for this photo?

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Friends Hug, Lexi Borgna, 2019

The foreground is the cattle chute.

The midground are the friends, and road.

The background are the hills and trees.

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Lemonade, Tizuc Vera, 2019

What are the foreground, midground and background elements for this photo?

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Lemonade, Tizuc Vera, 2019

Foreground: Cup & hand

Midground: Girl & glasses

Background:

Sign & wall

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Elements of Art

in Photography

Point
Line
Shape / Form
Texture

Color
Value / Tone
Space
Plane / Layer