Composition Guide #8 | Lead-in Line

Lead-in Lines composition technique aims to draw your viewer’s eye through the photograph.  This is a very useful and powerful technique to draw your viewer’s attention and hold the viewer’s interest to the main subject in your image.

The lead-in line formed by the road and the building lead the eyes into the the main subject at the background which is The Petronas Twin Towers

Lead-in Lines are lines found within an image that leads the eye to another point in the image, and sometimes out of the image. Anything with a definite line can be used as a lead-in line. For example; fences, bridges, roads, rivers, repetitive objects, even a beach shoreline can be used to lead the eye into your image.

The fence and part of the platform lead the viewers’ eyes into the picture and eventually to the main subject that is The Crystal Mosque

I try to use lead-in lines in my photographs as often as I can. They help to lead the viewer through my image and help add impact to the image as well. The use of lead-in lines is a technique often used when composing landscape images. When you look through your viewfinder or on the LCD screen on the back of your camera, you’ll need to organize and put all the elements in your image together in a way that is attractive for the viewer.

The more detail that the scene that you’re capturing has, the more important that this becomes. The most common ways of doing this in photography is to add a visual path in the image which the eye of the viewer can follow, and the easiest way of doing this is to include lines in your image that links the foreground to the background in your image.

The S-curve formed by the aisle between the tea crops acts as the lead-in line to lead the viewers’ eyes deeper into the picture to create a sense of three dimensionality.

The goal when using lead-in lines is to make sure they lead you through the image, or toward the primary point of interest. But not out of your image, as you’re trying to draw you viewer into your image and not out of it.

The use of lines in your image can be used to direct the viewer’s attention to the main point of interest in your photograph. These lines can be straight, diagonal, wavy, S-curve or any other creative variation. Just be very careful when using lines that they don’t lead the viewer away from your point of interest in the image.

However besides leading the viewers’ eyes to the main subject the lead-in line also creates an illusion of three dimensionality and depth.  An illusion of three dimensionality and depth are essential in photography to represent the reality around us which is three dimensional as opposed to two dimensional medium of photography.

The lead-in line that leads the viewers’ eyes to the main subject, the Putra Mosque.

The historic Beach Street of Penang

The rocks and the shoreline form the lead-in line to the mosque as the main subject.

The pathway acts as a lead-in line to the majestic Old Palace of Seri Menanti.

 

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Composition Guide #7 | Vary Your Camera Angle

A beginner in photography usually tends to shoot almost everything at eye-level. It is only natural since we tend to take pictures while standing most of the time and the camera is placed at our eye-level when we peek at its viewfinder. The resulting pictures, though, may look unexciting and familiar.  This is because it is at this angle we normally view the world.

Simply changing the camera angle we can introduce a different perspective, sometimes a unique angle and a fresh view that can make a world of difference in the impact of our shots.

How to change the camera angle to the level other than eye-level can be as easy as lying low on the ground or climbing up a flight of steps. However, an unusual camera angle can imply various meanings that affect how a viewer interprets the shot. It also has a direct effect on compositional perspective.

Shooting lower than eye-level will make everything seem larger in size. The viewpoint seems to be coming from someone small in stature  that’s why it is normally called ant’s eye view. In order to get that ant’s eye view you can simply lie on the ground or adjust your tripod to the lowest level if the camera is tripod-mounted.

Penang City Council Building

I chose an angle lower than eye level to shoot this majestic colonial building and tilted my camera upwards to make it look more dominant and perhaps larger. The passing motorbike was included to give a sense of scale.

My daughter Aishah while she was 2 years old

When photographing kids always shoot at their eye level. By doing that they will respond better to you because you are at their eye level instead of looking up at you.

A lotus bloom

Sometimes, when a subject is surrounded by distracting elements which cannot be physically removed from the scene, shooting it at low angle is a good trick to keep the subject in the shot while keeping those distractions out of the frame.

Conversely shooting higher than your eye-level gives the opposite impression that the photographer appears to be very tall, while everything around is smaller or shorter than normal. This elevated angle can be achieved by using a stepping stool, walking up a flight of stairs, or shooting from a second-storey window.

Subjects taken from a high camera angle can appear smaller, and this can be used to convey the impression of insignificance or weakness. This illusion of shrunken size is even more dramatic when the subject is known to be large. From a high angle, houses, boats, and cars can look like toys, and people may look like lilliputians.

As with unusual camera angles, a high-angled shot can provide a fresh take on an ordinary scene. Shooting at a high camera angle can also get rid of distracting elements so you can focus entirely on the subject. On the other hand an extreme high camera angle is the bird’s eye view. As the term suggests, the viewpoint is as if it is coming from a bird flying high up in the air. Aerial shots of landscapes are perfect examples of this camera angle. You can also get these kinds of shots from atop a tall building and shooting downwards at the ground-level, or if you are on top of a mountain with the scenery down below.

View from the peak of Genting Highland (about 2000m from sea level)

Shopping frenzy

I shot this at a higher level to show the pattern formed by colourful clothes on sale and the frenetic activities of shopping. I wouldn’t be able to present this scene had I shot it at eye-level.

Tea plantation in Cameron Highlands

I preferred to shoot this vast landscape of tea plantation at higher level to emphasize its vastness. 

A blue bow

You can also get an overhead view or top view of your subject by standing higher than your subject and shooting downwards just like what I did when shooting the blue fishing boat above and the fish silhouette in the picture below.

Fish silhouette

Next time you go out shooting, remember to vary your camera angle and don’t only shoot everything at your eye level.

You may want to read my previous articles on composition as listed below:

• Composition Guide #1: Figure and Ground Flip
• Composition Guide #2: Reflections
• Composition Guide #3: Framing
• Composition Guide #4: Fully Symmetrical Composition
• Composition Guide #5: Rule of Thirds
• Composition Guide #6 | A Sense of Scale

Please also check out the top ten tips on how to take better pictures.

Happy shooting!

Photo Tips by National Geographic

National Geographic Magazine is well known to be one of the magazines that appreciates the quality of photography besides its informative and enlightening articles in promoting and expanding the geographic knowledge. Its staff photographers as well as its assigned contract photographers are considered the best photographers in the world who are always looked up to by other photographers worldwide.

Names like Jodi Cobb, Steve McCurry, William Albert Allard, David Alan Harvey, Michael “Nick” Nichols and Steve Winters just to name a few are modern legends who never cease to come up with awesome images that wow National Geographic readers in its each new issue.  In fact its current Editor-in-Chief, Chris Johns was its staff wildlife photographer, not a writer, before he was promoted to be the Editor-in-Chief.

And to further prove that National Geographic is committed to promoting photography it allocates a large space in its website for activities related to photography and one of the sections that I find interesting is its Photo Tips.

The Photo Tips are divided into categories namely:

• Digital Photography Tips
• Landscape Photography Tips
• Travel Photography Tips
• People & Portrait Photography Tips
• Action & Adventure Photography Tips
• Videos: Photography Tips.

The contents of each article are pretty comprehensive and enlightening but the articles lack photos.

However don’t fret,  there is another section that displays photographs by the renowned National Geographic photographers and each photograph is accompanied by a short note and tip why the photograph was taken and what makes it interesting. The section is categorised into five segment of galleries as follows:

• Gallery: Landscape Photo Tips
• Gallery: Travel Photo Tips
• Gallery: Adventure Photo Tips
• Gallery: Portrait Photo Tips
• Gallery: Digital Photo Tips

Why wait?

The opportunity to learn photography is endless on the Net and what’s more the lesson is provided by National Geographic Magazine, the authoritative party when it comes to photography.

Enjoy your lesson!

BBC Photography Portal

I didn’t know that BBC had a special section for photography until I accidentally found it through Google. Yes again Google wields its power. Anyway BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) dedicates a special section for photography which it calls BBC Photography Portal. It provides lots of pictures by mostly professional photographers and photojournalists in its gallery. Besides it has its pick of the month and its current theme is Genius of Photography. This is a great opportunity to gaze at some legendary works by those photography genius which are not easy to find.

You can also learn a lesson or three in its tips section aptly entitled How To Take Good Photos by a renowned travel photographer Tom Ang. It covers various genre of photography by providing good tips for beginners as well as advanced amateurs. On top of that there is also a gallery of buildings in where else – Britain.

By and large it is an interesting and enlightening photography portal that I would love to recommend it to you, dear readers. It is worth visiting.

Back to Basics – Top 10 Tips On How To Take A Better Picture

I am pleased to share these tips on how to take a better picture for fellow amateur photographers. Especially for the inexperienced ones to expose them more to the art of taking picture. I have gathered these tips from many sources and made it into 10 that I deem most essential.

Here are the top 10 tips on how to take a better picture.

1. Keep your camera ready at all times.

No matter how special the moment is and how beautiful the scene is before your very eyes if you don’t have your camera ready with you it would be hopelessly meaningless. You would just end up cursing yourself regretting not taking the camera along when you are out. Believe me, regretting it later won’t do you any good. So next time you
go out take along your camera to especially capture the spontaneous moment which is impossible for you to repeat.

This picture of the unusual cloud formation wouldn’t be able to be captured if I didn’t keep the camera handy as this unique shape lasted only a few minutes.

Rainbow is also not easy to come by. How many times did you come across it but failed to capture its glorious colour just because you didn’t keep your camera handy?

2. Get Close.

The world-famous war photojournalist Robert Capa once said “If your picture is not good enough you are not close enough”. Getting close means you focus only on your subject and by doing this you eliminate unnecessary elements and distracting background
and show the subject clearly. In general the closer you get to the subject the better your pictures will be.

3. Keep people busy

When taking picture of people, keep them busy. This will result in more relaxed and natural expression in their faces as well as lively spontaneity in their action instead of stiff and static poses.

4. Choose a simple background.

Background can make or break a picture. When composing your picture do pay greater attention to the background. Clear, simple and uncluttered background will make the subject more prominent to the viewers and this will result in a strong, more interesting picture. If the background is crowded choose the biggest aperture to throw the background out of focus, this will clearly define the subject and make the picture more interesting.

5. Place the subject off-centre

When composing your picture you can place your subject either at the centre or off-centre. However placing it off-centre can make the composition more dynamic and the picture more interesting.

One of the popular methods in placing the subject off-centre is by observing the rule-of-thirds and the golden rule.

Both of the above pictures were composed with the rule-of-thirds in mind.

6. Include foreground in scenics

Do include foreground when taking scenic pictures. If you notice carefully foreground is almost always essential in scenic pictures as it adds a sense of depth, distance and three-dimensionality in an otherwise two-dimensional picture.

7. Look for quality lighting

Although light is essential in photography without which a photograph is impossible to be produced, good and quality light is important to come up with a picture which is better than average.

Quality lighting can be found normally one hour just after sunrise and one hour just before sunset which is in photographic term it is dubbed “the magic hour”.

8. Hold your camera steady.

There is nothing worse than blurred or soft picture resulting from camera shake after so much money has been invested in good camera and good quality lens. When pressing your shutter make sure your press it gently without abrupt jolting and ensure your hands hold the camera very steadily.

As a rule of thumb your camera is hand-holdable as
long as your shutter speed value is greater than or at the very least equal to your focal length. e.g. if your shutter speed is 1/125s your focal length should not be longer than 125mm, otherwise using tripod or resting your hand and camera on any support like car window, a wall or anything steady is advisable to avoid risking camera shake.

9. Use your flash.

Use flash when the need arises especially the built-in flash that is fitted to most of the
camera nowadays. Flash can provide extra light indoors when you need it. Besides flash
can also freeze action and make the picture sharp. However be sure to stay within the flash range. The distance of flash range can be found in the camera manual for built-in flash and in the flash manual if it is an external flash unit.

Flash can be used not only for indoors when the light is low, but also outdoors to soften the shadow when the contrast is high, which is called fill-in flash.

Flash was used here to illuminate the foreground signboard while the twin towers in the background was illuminated by the ambient light since the towers in the background were not within the flash range anyway.

10. See others’ photos.

For song composers and musicians, they need to listen to as many songs and as various songs as possible in order for them to write more songs and arrange music. The same goes to photographers. Photographers should see more and more photos by other photographers to learn, to get inspired as well as to obtain some fresh ideas in producing own pictures but not to imitate other photographers’ composition. A good photographer will always look for new angles whenever composing his/her picture and will try
his/her best to be different from the rest of other photographers.

I welcome any feedbacks and comments and I would be more delighted if you could share your photos here after following any of the tips recommended. To share your photos, you can email them to me at mzabdullah[AT]gmail[DOT]com. The selected photos would be published here.

Happy snapping