Leading Lines

In photography, leading lines are lines in the photo that lead you to another subject in the photo, or out of the photo. You can use almost anything as a leading line: a road, tree line, pattern, fence, shadow, etc....

Here are a few examples from Stock.xchng:



Using a leading line from the corner of an image, leading to a subject placed in a photo according to the rule of thirds, makes a strong image with nice composition:

Of course, knowing that and actually doing it are two entirely different things. I didn't fully have an understanding of what I should be doing until after my photo shoot when I looked at what I had. But here are the photos I took expressly for a leading lines group photo challenge on Flickr.

The french fry is the leading line here,
although the photo didn't turn out quite the way I'd hoped.

This is the photo I chose to enter for the challenge:


This image is unedited.
In the first round of the challenge, we submit our photos straight out of the camera. In the second round, next week, we are allowed to edit the photos. The skin tone, light, and color all look pretty good here already. I will probably crop it to place the chocolate milk or the end of the straw in the corner of the photo, making it more compositionally pleasing. I'll have to play around with it and see. Of course, I'll post my end result for you to see.

Here are a couple other "leading line" photos I've taken at other times:


This image is unedited. I take so many darn photos, I just never got around to it. I actually took this photo for the silhouette challenge I did for my Flickr group a few weeks ago.
Here's one of Hollis I took the same day I took the photo of his feet:




Here is the classic example of a leading line - the road:



And finally, one with both of the boys: