Sunrise, Sunset, Landscape, Lighthouse, Flowers and Fine Art Photography by Dave Collins
| Vol. 3 No. 1 | April, 2005 |
| In Vol. 2 No. 1 of the newsletter, we had
a discussion of what makes a good photograph. In Vol. 2 No. 2 we discussed basic composition. And in
Vol. 2 No. 3 we started to talk about some techniques to add emphasis to the subject of the photograph.
In this newsletter, we will continue talking about ways to add emphasis to the subject
of your photograph. Continuing our discussion of photographic composition techniques to add emphasis to a subject, let's talk about using "leading lines" which the viewer can follow into your composition and right to the main subject. There are many things that can be used to accomplish this. Some examples include: a fence, a street, a woodland path, a dock. This is a way to use things in a photograph that otherwise might be distracting to the viewer to actually enhance the composition. Look at the following photographs as examples of this technique:  In this first photograph - Sunset with Pier - note how the sunshine on the water leads the eye right to the sunset.
 In this photograph - Fall Colors with Fence - you can see how the fence literally points at the colorful leaves.
 In this final example - Sunset with Dock - notice that the dock takes the viewer's eye right to the main subject - the sunset. You can almost visualize walking up the dock toward the sunset. So, the next time you are looking at a scene and trying to compose your final picture, look at several angles. Maybe there is something that might help to add emphasis to your subject by leading the viewer's eye right to it. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please contact me at: |