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Our basic starting point for composition and design is going to be contrast. Often the aspect that makes an image especially interesting is the contrast inherent within the image. This contrast maybe purely visual - that of colour contrast, light and dark, or it maybe a more symbolic contrast - poverty and riches, good and evil.
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| Point/Line |
Plane/Volume |
Large/Small |
| High/Low |
Long/Short |
Broad/Narrow |
| Thick/Thin |
Light/Dark |
Black/White |
| Much/Little |
Straight/Curved |
Pointed/Blunt |
| Horizontal/Diagonal |
Diagonal/Circular |
Area/Line |
| Area/Body |
Line/Body |
Smooth/Rough |
| Hard/Soft |
Still/Moving |
Light/Heavy |
| Transparent/Opaque |
Continuous/Intermittent |
Liquid/Solid |
| Sweet/Sour |
Strong/Weak |
Loud/Soft |
>/td>
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In the example on this page, we clearly have a colour contrast: blue/gold, but those colours also have a symbolic contrast warm/cold. When the colours are reversed this image did not work so well because the colour contrast was at odds with the symbolic contrast.
In the following pages we will obliquely refer to contrast again and again, of itself contrast is not necessarily the key, but the more the plan to which the composition comes alive.
