1. Formal Elements are the fundamental elements of photography and the mixture of those formal elements make up photography.
  2. 6 types of Formal elements

Line: There are 3 main types of lines, they are vertical lines (up and down), horizontal lines (right and left), curved lines, and diagonal. lines. Also, they are the most fundamental elements of photography because it creates all other elements especially, shapes. Moreover, another unique type of line is converging vertical lines, photographies with this line usually contain several lines that go toward a direction which makes the audiences feel like the lines are going to meet.

Shape: Shape is the second most fundamental visual element. It means recognition, it helps the audiences to convey the nature of the subject including what the subject is and what the subject is like. Also, shows how well the subject interacts with surroundings. Lastly, the number of shapes affects the number of the focus point. For example, if there is one dominant shape, there will be one clear focus point.

Repetition/Pattern: First of all, those two elements are not the same because the pattern can be repetition but the repetition can’t be the pattern. This is because the repetition is when color or shape or line is repeated, but the pattern has the characteristic of the repetition and the complex pattern (like yellow-red-blue-yellow-red-blue). Therefore, these elements usually corroborate with shapes or lines.

Texture: It usually emphasizes the texture of the subject. For example, rough walls and soft beds. There is usually coraborate of the lines because the lines in the photography show the texture of the subjects.

Value/Tone: The value is the range of white to dark, which shows the darkness/lightness of the photography. Moreover, the tone just represents the mixture of the colors. With these elements, we can describe gradation, which is a change of color but with detailed colors.

Focus: This is used toward the things that the photographer wants the audience to be focused on. Also, one type of focus is no-focus which the audience cannot find the subject easily.

3. Example

Line: This photo is a great example of the line because it includes horizontal lines, vertical lines, curved lines, and Diagonal lines which are the main lines used in photography.

Shape: This photo shows that the shape shows how well the subject interacts with surroundings because the shape of the paper formed the shape of a man’s face.

Repetition/Pattern: This photo is a great example because since this photo is repeating the same windows, it is both repetition and pattern.

Texture: This is a great example because by looking at this photo, we can realize the texture of the photo, rough and bumpy texture.

Value/Tone: This is a great example because it shows the gradation of black to white.

Focus: This is a great example of focus because it well expressed no-focus photo which means that it is hard to recognize what the subject is.

4. I think it is hard to take a photo that includes only one formal element because all the elements are related to each other. For example, if I take a photo of a box, there will be a shape because of the shape of the box, and also there will be a line because of the edge of the box. Even if you take a photo of a line, there is shape and line.