How to Use Shadows as Leading Lines - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.
Five Simple Tips on How To Use Shadows As Leading Lines
1. Look at what the light is creating
Don’t just look at the subject itself. Shadows, reflections and patches of light can often become part of the composition.
2. Use shadows to lead the eye
Strong shadows can work just like paths, fences or roads, drawing the eye through the frame towards the main subject.
3. Move a few feet before deciding
Small changes of position can completely alter the relationship between foreground, shadows and background.
4. Let the foreground do some work
A foreground does not need to be interesting in itself if it helps create depth or leads the eye into the photograph.
5. Take the first photograph, then refine it
Once you’ve noticed something promising, keep looking. The first frame is often only the beginning.
During the drought this summer, I took a walk into Salisbury along what is known as the Town Path, running from the wonderful old watermill at Harnham across the preserved water meadows. With insufficient water in the river to flood the meadows as in former times, the grass was parched.
The effect this had gave me quite a strong learning point, how to use shadows as leading lines.
The shadow cast by the gate post was much more dramatic than it would have been on green grass. And while the gate and fence form a barrier across the image, the length and angle of the shadow do the opposite: they lead the eye towards the main subject, the cathedral spire.
It is a useful reminder that the conditions around a subject can sometimes be as important as the subject itself.
The same gate, on the same path, in a different season would have produced a very different photograph.
So when something catches your eye, look not only at the obvious subject, but at what the light, weather and surroundings are adding to it.
That looking and noticing, absorbing the scene can bring so many acceptable images.
If you would like inspiration, not just in noticing a photographic opportunity, but in recognising when to take the picture, or leave it. Seeing the small extras that can make or break a photograph, subscribe to Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth and I’ll send you Wednesday’s practical posts and Friday’s reflective thoughts as they are published.
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