Photography Article Composition: Leading Lines|Photography Artist Statement

The concept of "Leading Lines" is the second composition topic this month for the Boost Your Photography: 52 Weeks Challenge. (Join the Google+ Community to share your weekly photographs and receive feedback.) The first topic this month was the Rule of Thirds.

What are Leading Lines?

Lines are a powerful element of composition in photography (and in many other forms of art as well). Lines can convey balance, motion, scale, perspective, and more.

The concept in the back of the approach of leading strains is to apply the visual strength of the road to attract your viewers into your photo. The greater someone feels visually drawn into to an picture, the extra time they will spend inspecting and appreciating it.

These columns from the Mayan web site of Chichen Itza demonstrate the electricity of main traces. This composition has a sequence of leading traces, as both the tops and the bottoms of the two rows of columns march off into the gap. As they recede in length, our brain knows to interpret this change as a result of the vast distance and intensity of the original website online.

We are drawn visually towards what's known as the vanishing point, or the seeming factor at which all of those lines converge. This is what gives us the sense of scale and three-dimensional perspective in a two-dimensional photo. (Read more about angle and converging strains in the article Photographing Architecture: Watch Your Lines.)

Leading strains can do extra than upload intensity to an photo; they can also direct your viewer wherein to look.

The historical and current towns of Jerash, Jordan

In this photograph from the historic town of Jerash, traces of columns are once more used to create main strains. Once once more, your eye is drawn in to the center of the photo, as the historical road converges at the contemporary metropolis. The robust pull of these lines directs you to look the contrasts between the two towns, as they appear to seamlessly mixture from the historic into the present day right near the middle of the picture.

Leading strains aren't limited to drawing the eye in the direction of the middle of your composition, however. Lines at robust angles can grasp your viewer's attention to any area within your image.

Here inside the Prague subway system, the strongly angular traces converge towards the tunnel on the far left, developing a dynamic composition. The wider aperture (f/three.Five) creates the shallow depth of subject, and the growing blur as your eyes circulate in the direction of the tunnel further accentuates the feeling of motion.

Think beyond literal traces too whilst you are attempting to incorporate main traces into your composition. In the image of the fort Qasr Azraq, above, the road of Jordanian flags serves to guide the attention down into the photograph and closer to the arrow slit above the signal and most important entrance. This serves as a diffused reminder of the authentic protective cause of the fortress and makes certain that this option does now not cross by means of unnoticed.

Curves as an Element of Composition

While not, mathematically-speaking, lines, curves can serve many of the same compositional roles as leading lines. Curves can also be used to pull your viewer into your image, to establish a feeling of depth, and to guide your viewers' eyes around your photograph. In the photograph below, the curve of the walking path serves to draw you into the image and make you feel like you are interacting with the scene yourself. The use of the tree to block 'what's around the bend' from view adds a sense of mystery and invitation to the image.

How will you use leading strains or curves to your snap shots this week? Consider becoming a member of the #BYP52Weeks Google Community to share your pix and spot what others are developing with for each weekly subject matter.