Leading Lines.

The leading line is one of the strongest ways to lead the viewer’s eye through the photograph to the subject’s position.

A leading line can be anything from a limb on a tree taking you eye to a single leaf, to a quiet stream, leading your eye into the distance to a wading bird.

Leading lines can be strait, diagonal or curved; it doesn’t matter as long as the overall effect of the line is to guide the viewer’s eye to the subject. A leading line can also be used to guide the eye from one point to another even out of the photograph all together, with the eye viewing many different parts of a scene as the leading line guides the eye through the photograph. This is one way to control a scene that otherwise might be perceived as a mish mash of to many subjects, the leading line serving as a unifying force. A way of turning many into one unified subject.