Simple Photography Tips - how to lead the eye in photographs

Seven simple photography tips on how to use leading lines to construct an image - Camera and Phone Camera

• Look and see where the leading lines lead to.

• If the leading lines converge, where do they meet?

• Is there interest, a point of focus where the lines meet?

• check the depth of field if you're using a camera

• If there's something in the way,, a distraction, try a different angle

• Grey days, and misty days can add atmosphere

• If you have a choice of lens, experiment

So my wife has started training for one of her 'cold-water' swims - to my mind better called 'cold-water-tortures' - but 'chacun son truc'! The result is an excuse to head to the coast rather than a nearby swimming-pool.

Walking down to the beach, the early morning mist was passing, and the clouds were taking on their own shades of grey.

The track from the road winds down through a cool fern bedecked valley, light appears at the end of the tunnel of trees, then the wooden shed that is Joe's Café, still shut at this early hour, a wonderful fence, and finally the sea.

It is early on a Monday, after a hot weekend, and the National Trust moorings are occupied by floaty things - yachts with masts, and a few 'motor-caravans' (things without masts).

The Simple Photography Tips I want to share with you are based upon a handful of photographs I took as I walked down, and which centre upon using features to lead the eye.

Image One - Path to the beach - South Beach, Studland, UK

The first image uses the edge of the track on the right, which, if you hold a ruler or pencil along the edge of the path, directs the eye directly to the edge of the beach, then to the centre of the photograph.

The wonderful old split chestnut fence on the left, does a double lead, the grass that hides the sleepers below it, takes the eye to the beach at the same point as the leading line from the right.

The top of the fence takes the eye to the yachts in the same area as the line from the right. Double whammy.

As an aside to the 'leading-lines', you may have noticed, if you'd applied 'look until you see' :), that there are four horizontal lines marking different areas of light - the foreground (which has cycle tracks leading to the same point) of shaded sand, then the lit sand. The edge of the beach is the next line, and another where the low-tide mark is, and finally the horizon, where sea meets sky.

In fact, you could argue that the hoizontal sycamore branch adds another line.

The masts of the yachts add to the completeness of this beach photograph, mimicking the verticals of the fence.

Image Two - Path to the beach - South Beach, Studland, UK

The second image, whilst very similar to the first, actually has the leading lines taking you to a different place - whereas the first image has leading lines taking your eye towards the yachts, as a general focus.

With this image, the leading line on the right is a much harder line, and has distraction to the right of it, in the form of a National Trust notice board, an upturned dinghy, and a wonkily hung lifebuoy.

The leading lines all converge on the same area, even the piece of fence to the middle right does. Your eye is led to a piece of blank sea, rather than the yachts, which because I've used a wider angle, are less dominant in the scene.

The track to the sea is also a much more dominant feature.

Image Three - Path to the beach - South Beach, Studland, UK

In the third image I've zoomed in again, which has cut out the distractions to the right, and tightened up on the left, but the angle of the 'edge' on the right leads the eye much further out.

Have another look, or several, at the three images and see which you find sits more comfortably - it may be different for you than me, and see if you can define why.

Image Four - Path to the beach - South Beach, Studland, UK

In the fourth and final image, taken an hour and a half later, the cloud has burnt off, the tide has rushed in, as it has a habit of doing a couple of times each day, taking away another horizontal line. The sun is filling in the shadows and I've more 'stuff' to the right.

I took this beach photograph as a last minute thought, to illustrate the changes that take place in a relateively short space of time. Having overspent our time on the beach by succumbing to a coffee at Joe's, and it was good, I didn't stop and redo all the images.

I took it to illustrate the effect of changes to the overall atmosphere - even on this, the most perfect of summer mornings.