This is the second part in a series of tips looking at the “rules” of photographic composition.

While these “rules” are by no means exhaustive or compulsory, learning how to use them will help make your images more aesthetically pleasing and help you move from taking “snapshots” to more professional-looking photographs.

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The use of Leading Lines in your photographs can have a very powerful effect.

• They can create depth and perspective to an image.
• They can convey distance and provide a relationship between the foreground and background of the image.
• They draw the eyes into a picture, leading them through a scene or directing them to an area in the image that the viewer would otherwise not have noticed.

Before composing your picture, it’s always worth looking around to see if there are any lines you can use. A footpath, fence, shadows, a plowed field, a winding set of stairs… all can be used to enhance your photograph.

They don’t even have to always be straight parallel lines either.

A gentle S-curve meandering through a scene can lead the viewer through several areas of the photograph in sequence, whereas converging lines can draw the eye into a very specific point of the image.

Leading Lines do need to be used with caution though. Watch which direction they take - you don’t want them to distract the viewer or lead their gaze away from your main subject.

It’s worth experimenting with different types of lines: diagonals are good for introducing a dynamic feel, whereas horizontal or vertical lines can be quite static.

Taking the line through one of the corners of the photograph can help prevent a feeling of division, but in other cases you may prefer to emphasise contrasts either side of the line as well as taking the eye through the picture.

Have a go and post a link to your photographs using Leading Lines in our comments. Most of all, have fun!