Leading Lines...Train Your Eye.

So far I’ve discussed a couple of my favorite types of composition tips; Framing and The Rule of Thirds.


Coincidentally, they happen to be the most basic composition tips in the playbook. I’ve always felt that less is more in photography and none holds true when it comes to composition.  But there are a couple more composition tips that are much more advanced that can really bring your level of photography up. You just have to train your eye. 


Leading Lines:


Leading lines are basically lines within the photograph that lead to your subject. It can be one line or a group of lines or patterns that will naturally send your eye to the subject.  If used right, leading lines can make a good photo a great photo.


Can you see the leading lines in the following examples?

Leading lines are plentiful in this image. When you combine framing, the rule of thirds, and leading lines together, it creates a  great composition.

In this image, the pier is the leading line. This image combines the rule of thirds with leading lines.

Leading lines are something that can be a little more difficult to utilize in the field. That’s because when you use leading lines you have to aware of mergers. What is a merger? A merger is a line, or element in the photograph that comes out of the subject head within the photograph. It can ruin any photograph. A merger happens to be a pet peeve of mine when I see them in portraits or photographs taken by professionals. 

Notice the repeating lines in this image. This is a little more complex composition. You will also see in this image the placement of the Bride's head. This was done to avoid any mergers with the lines.

Training your eye to see leading lines, isn't necessarily hard. The only challenging part of using leading lines is that you have to be very aware of your subject placement. But once you train your eye to notice the lines that can converge with the subjects head, you will be able to recompose your photo to use those lines to your advantage rather than letting a line create a merger on your subjects head.