One of the well known rules of composition is leading lines. Quite literally a line is the distance between two points. Simple.
In composition, leading lines can be simple or implied, man made or natural. Leading lines lead the viewer’s eye into scene, directing the gaze to land on the subject if done correctly. They can be straight, or curved or even diagonal.
In dog photography, leading lines are wonderful ways to highlight your subject – the dog!
First, learn how to see leading lines.
Step outside, sans dog and look. Your front sidewalk is a leading line, your driveway, the road, the fence wrapping around your yard. All man made and the easiest to find. Paths in the park are also easy leading lines to find and utilize.
Leading lines don’t just have to be vertical! They can be horizontal, diagonal and curved as well!
Keep looking for leading lines – did you notice the curve of the shoreline of the lake? It works as a leading line! As do creeks & streams! Note the leading lines in bridges, brick, stairs, rocks, railings, docks & piers, logs & branches, even hard edged shadows! There are a bazillion different leading lines you can spy as you stroll out and about!
** DO NOT USE RAILROADS! **
The cool thing with leading lines is they can also lend a sense of depth to your image, along with leading the eye to your subject.
Now, there’s another aspect of leading lines to consider. These are implied leading lines and typically come from the direction of eyes. If you position your dog in a path and he turns to look into the trees, your eye will follow the leading line to your dog, then you will follow the direction of his gaze, your brain curious as to what he is looking at. Implied leading lines are lines our brains make to fill in a gap between subject & their gaze.
Utilize implied leading lines and gaze to give your images more curiosity, if not impact.
Is your dog standing on rocks on a shoreline? Looking at you? Then the shoreline leads you to him, a stunning image of a dog on the rocky beach.
Now your dog gazes out to the water. Does he see something there? Is he contemplating life? Or is he working out how to launch into water? Does the mood shift?
Try it with your dog! Let them look up, left or right or down (you may want to use a treat for this). Does the gaze that leads more impactful than the gaze that looks back at you?
Additionally, implied leading lines can be found in things that aren’t actually lines – rows of trees or streetlights, street signs with arrows, in movement direction, human elements that point to the dog, repeated shapes & textures can also create an implied line that leads the eye. (Though pattern & texture are their own elements of composition that can create loads of impact in an image…) Waves, sun rays, clouds, rocks, paw prints & footprints, can also create implied leading lines.
The leading lines point right to Blue. We then follow his gaze to wonder what he is looking at beyond the chain link of the bridge. (It was ducks swimming in the river haha!)
Kris is awesome and a great set of spare hands with Blue. Back when we had snow (and before the subzero freeze) we traipsed out the the Mississippi Regional Park to capture what winter looks like in the trees and prairie. I caught this moment of them together, Blue on his tippy toes to give Kris a nibbly kiss. The trees not only lead us to them but they also frame them. The implied line of Blue’s neck & head lead up to Kris, who is looking down at him creating a cool bond.
Frequently implied leading lines are paired with leading lines. The grass leads us into Blue, then our eyes follow to the further edge of the frame to follow his gaze. Also, the line he is sitting on where the snow meets the grass is another leading line – a horizontal one!
If you want to get super creative with implied leading lines you can play with focal plane to create vertical or diagonal planes of focus that pushes your viewer’s eye into the in focus area. And no you can’t do this with a typical camera lens – you’ll need a tilt shift or a free-lens / freelensing. Or you’ll have to fake it in post processing. Or fake it with a tilt shift effect in post processing.
Botched leading lines.
It can happen. You’ve got a great leading line that leads to nowhere or nothing. Botched.
Your leading line leads past your subject and essentially leads the eye away from your subject. Botched. This typically happens if you have a diagonal line from left to right and your subject is closer to the left than the right. Same for right to left and your subject is too close to the right side.
Implied leading lines where your subject is too close to the edge of the frame and their eyes look out of the image. Botched. If you don’t have enough eye room for the gaze, your viewers will be led right out of the image, your subject & scene hardly noticed.
Same goes for movement. Make sure your subject has enough space to move in your image, to help with the implied leading line of where they are going, not where they have been.
See how the bridge lines don’t work? Then lead us past Blue to the sunlit rectangle closer to the top right of the image. The bridge structure does point to Blue, as does the chain link – those leading lines work. It is a lovely image of Blue, though the main leading lines lend towards some unsettling eye movement. If I would have given more space in front of Blue to put him closer to the top / horizon, then they wouldn’t be botched leading lines.
And nope, I didn’t even think of this when I captured this image. Not until I was gawking at them in Lightroom did I notice that I botched these leading lines haha!
Whew! What a ton of information & examples!
Hopefully this gives you insight into how to incorporate leading lines into your composition, will help you learn to see them, especially the not so obvious ones and how to make sure your leading lines actually lead to your subject and aren’t botched.
Want to learn even more about leading lines?
I’ve written about leading lines before! You can revisit these posts here: “Line” and “Leading Lines” and another “Leading Lines“. (Seems it is a classic composition topic haha!)
If you want to see even more examples visit some posts from my fellow dog photographers: