What is formalism?
Formalism is said to be “the design, composition and Lighting are dominant over Subject Matter. The photographer becomes a visual designer whenever a frame is captured”.
There are said to be 7 basic elements in photography which are:
1)Line-
lines are everywhere they connect shapes they draw you attention to objects in images
2)Shape-
there are multiple definitions of the word shape “the visible makeup characteristic of a particular item or kind of item” is one I like best. shapes are all around in your images you will have loads of shapes.
3)Form-
form is very similar to shape however shape is 2 dimensional and form is 3 so you have that added depth to the image which shape doesn’t have. There are 2 main types of form which are organic and geometric organic is more natural and nature based shapes and geometric are usually harsher manmade shapes.
4)Texture-
texture is said to be the physically appearance of an object. You can have lots of different types of texture like matte glossy bumpy smooth and rough etc… texture is something you can feel. Texture can also change depending on different situations like the lighting.
5)Colour-
colour is said to be “a phenomenon of light (such as red, brown, pink, or grey) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects“. colour has three properties which are hue (description of the colour) value (brightness/darkness) and saturation (intensity of the colour).
6)Size-
size is often described as “physical magnitude, extent, or bulk: relative or proportionate dimensions’. Size in images can be seen either as an illusion or relative. The most used size options are small, medium, and large. There is something called overlap which is when you have multiple objects and their size causes them to block off the other objects.
7)Depth-
Depth can be described as “the direct linear measurement from front to back“. Depth is thinking about the size of the object but also the space around it. The only time you won’t have any depth in your image is if you have a white blank background.