What are Leading Lines and how to use them in Photography
Leading lines are an essential photo composition technique. By using them in a photo, you'll guide the eye of a viewer through your photo towards the main subject. As our brains love lines and directions. So, when using leading lines, the eye of the viewer will follow those lines through your photo and notice every detail along and especially at the end of the leading lines.
In this tutorial, I'll explain the concept of leading lines, and you’ll see some example photos using leading lines that I took during my trips.
Table of Contents
- What are Leading Lines in Photography?
- Types of Leading Lines in Photography
- Human-Made Leading Lines
- Light as a Leading Line
- How to use Leading Lines in your Photos
- Summary
What are leading lines in photography?
- Any kind of paths like a road, a country lane or a trail
- Natural lines like shorelines, a line of trees, rocks, or cliffs
- Human-made structures like buildings, boardwalks, bridges, a row of pillars, or poles
- Even light (in contrast with shadow) can act as a leading line
In the next two chapters, we’ll take a look at the essential types of leading lines and how to use them.
Types of Leading Lines in Photography
Natural leading lines
The photo I took at the famous Marshall’s Beach in San Francisco is a great example of a composition using natural leading lines. The first one is the shoreline in the foreground that’s emphasized by waves breaking at the shoreline.
Shorelines acting as natural leading lines
The second leading line is the seashore in the background. These two lines basically form a triangle pointing to the main subject, the Golden Gate Bridge. The photo is an example for converging lines.
Human-Made leading lines
You’ll find human-made leading lines basically everywhere in a city. I used the converging lines of the stairs and walls to guide the viewer towards the victory column (a popular Berlin landmark). I’ve highlighted the lines in red. As you can see, this photo contains multiple converging leading lines of different length.
Walls and stairs are excellent human-made leading lines
Light as a leading line
You may know this photo from my blog post about how to use the framing technique. It uses light as a leading line to guide the viewer from the bright opening at the top of the frame towards the old dentist’s chair. The edges of the light cone from the window act as diverging guiding lines to draw the attention of the viewer to the chair.
The contrast between light and shadow as diverging leading lines
How to use leading lines in your Photos
Use converging leading lines to convey depth
Converging lines are the most commonly used form of leading lines. Photographers typically use them to add and convey depth in a photo. I used this concept for a photo of the Manhatten Bridge in New York. The facade of the two buildings to the left and right form several leading lines converging at the main subject.
Facades work great as converging leading lines to convey depth
If you want to use converging leading lines, make sure they start at the edge of the frame and converge towards a central point. Then, place the main subject at the point where the leading lines converge. For such leading lines natural or human-made lines work quite well.
Use lines as directional lines to highlight a small subject
The main subject of the photo is definitely the saxophone player I spotted in Central Park in New York. But as the main subject is rather small, I zoomed out with my feet and included the bridge in the frame. The arch of the bridge forms two curved directional lines pointing and highlighting the main subject.
Leading lines don’t have to be straight. They can be curved.
And yes, the arch itself is also a frame emphasizing the main subject of the photo.
Use leading lines to convey distance
The difference between conveying depth and distance in a photo composition may sound academic, but it’s fundamentally different. By conveying distance, you tell the viewer that there’s still a long way to go or drive, while depth means the opposite: almost there. To communicate distance, use one or more simple lines that vanish at a central point in the background and do not place any subject there. The invisible subject is the distance.
I used that composition technique in the photo I took at the Liechtenstein Klamm (gorge) in Austria. It should convey that I still have to go for a while until I’ve reached the end of the gorge.
Use converging leading lines towards a vanishing point to convey distance
Tips for using leading lines in your photo composition
In this guide, you’ve seen a few essential concepts for using leading lines in your photo composition. But don’t just follow them, but experiment and try a few concepts and advanced tips on your own:
As I’ve mentioned, leading lines don’t have to be straight. Look out for curved leading lines
They can be interrupted by a subject or even other leading lines. This can create a wanted irritation
Try to use leading lines that disappear or suddenly stop with no main subject. This can also create wanted irritation or even a sense of mystery.
If you can’t find a dedicated line, look for points or objects that form an imaginary and implied line.
I specifically want to highlight the last tip: If you can’t find any obvious leading lines, look for implied lines. And is a general tip for photography. Once you master the basics that I’ve outlined in this tutorial, experiment and try different approaches.
And finally, if there are too many leading lines in a scene, use that to your advantage to create irritation on purpose.
Summary
Leading lines are a great photo composition technique that will draw the attention of the viewer to a main subject or concept. They don’t have to be straight and you can use almost anything you’ll find in nature or in a city as leading lines. And once you've mastered using leading lines, check my blog post about another important composition technique: how to use framing in photography.
