Basic Photography Tips | Using Leading Lines for Captivating Composition

© 2010 Wazari Wazir | Pantai Sawangan Jetty | Kuala Penyu Sabah

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Children Playground | Lake Garden | Taman Tasik Perdana | Kuala Lumpur

Taking picture is easy but to really get a beautiful picture in term of having an aesthetic value that was pleasing to the eye is not as easy as pressing the shutter button on the camera. That’s why it is good if we have some basic understanding about something that we used to called it as “The Rule of Photography” even though I like it to be called as a “Photographers Guide” rather than rules.

In term of composition, there is few guide that we might wanted to know in order to make our picture look like it was taken by the professional even though we just took a picture for our family and friends. In this article, I just wanted to share with you how photographers using leading line to compose their picture and why it matters.

Leading line does not necessarily is a  straight line, it can be curves, it can be zig zag but hopefully not rounded, basically it must have a line, a form of line, does not necessarily a solid line, it can be soft line, the line can be shadows, the line can be rows of people queuing up to buy a movie tickets or just a curves road on the highway or simply a small path in the woods.

By now you should have some basic understanding about leading line, it is a line, it does not necessarily too rigid, it can be soft and it can be straight or curves but it must be have some visible line, doesn’t matter whether it is rough or soft.

Now the question is how are you going to use that leading line? How leading line can improve your photography in term of composition and why photographers always talk about leading line. What’s the big deal?

Nothing big or major actually but by carefully using a leading line in your photograph, you can direct the viewer’s eyes to your photograph and the best thing is that, you can use the leading line to draw or direct a viewer’s eye to the main subject.  Just like my pictures above, I use the leading line to draw viewer’s eyes towards my son or my family. It tells the viewer’s where they should focus on without speaking a words, the line help you to guide the viewer’s towards your subject.

Another good reason to imply leading line in your photographs is that it can act as a tunnel where at the end of the tunnel, you can see the light and the light is your subject matters. The other good things to use a leading line is that it can gives your picture more depth if you do it right, rather than looking at a flat looking photograph, your eyes travels from front to back.

You can put your main subject at the end of the line, at the beginning of the line or at the centre of the leading line just like a picture of my son running at the playground there. No matter where you want to put your subject, it is your choice, just use the leading line to your advantage.

Before I finish my article I just wanted to let you know that any good photograph must have a focal point, a focal point is where you wanted the viewer’s to rest their eyes on, rather than let the viewer’s wandering around from edge to edge of your photograph you must have a focal point in the photograph, where people should rest their eyes on.

The focal point is the main subject or the main interest in the frame, like if you photographing an open sea, a good focal point can be a small ship at the horizon, it can be small but it serves it purpose to direct your eyes to stop there. In this case leading line help the viewer to focus on the focal point more effectively.

If you wanted to take your picture to a new level, beyond snapshot, pay a close attention on composition. Photographers are visual story teller and and among the things that make our “story” interesting is by the way we compose our picture. Any angle can tell the story but a well crafted composition photograph will make a different or be able to hold viewer’s attention a bit longer, captivating them.

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