Results and Feedback for the "Leading Lines" Weekly Photography Assignment

[keithsnell]

Thank you to everyone who participated in the "Leading Lines" assignment.  The guidelines for this assignment were to compose an image using a strong line in your image, such as a road, river, or some other geographic or man-made feature that draws the viewer’s attention along a specific path through your image, preferably drawing the viewer deep into the scene.

I encourage viewers to take one last look through the images that were submitted for this assignment (they are all included in the post below), and assess which compositions were most successful at drawing the viewers' attention deep into the scene.  In the images that were successful, you can see how "leading lines" and "linear perspective" worked together to add depth to an image.

Quiet Time
The fallen log in this image provides a nice leading line into the image, and at this point the stream takes over and leads the viewer deep into the scene.



The Boardwalk
Starting the leading line from the side of this image doesn't seem quite as effective as starting it from the corner or lower edge of the image.  The line also seems to come to a dead end before the viewer is led very far into the distance.



Building Lines
There are definitely strong lines in this image, but their effectiveness as "leading lines" might be somewhat controversial, since it could be argued that they lead the viewer out of the right side of the image, instead of deep inside.



Showing The Way In
This composition showcases a very effective use of leading lines.  Both the shadows and the fence lead the viewer to the primary subject, and deep into the image.  The combination of leading lines and linear perspective adds depth to the image, and gives the viewer the impression they could step right into the scene.  This image demonstrates the effectiveness of starting your leading line in the lower left corner of the composition.



Fiddle on line
Good start, but the limited depth of field detracts from the strength of the leading lines in this image.  Since leading lines are typically an important part of your composition, it usually works best to keep the entire "line" in focus.  An out of focus leading line can be very distracting to a viewer.


Hammock
The lines in this composition definitely lead to a strong focal point.  This image works well as an abstract composition.


Reaching for the sun
An interesting composition.  In this case, bringing the leading line in from the side seems to work well.  This image doesn't have quite as much depth as some of the others, but it is interesting nonetheless.


Leading to the Chefs
Nice strong leading lines, but the flash on the S3 wasn't quite up to the task of adequately lighting the subjects in the background.



Bar Slide
Nice strong lines leading to the subject; however, they don't carry the viewer very far into the scene, and so aren't as effective as some of the other compositions using leading lines in this assignment.



Back Door
Composing the image so that the leading lines defining the edge of the hallway start in the corners was a good choice.  The lines effectively lead the viewer to the intriguing dark doorway in the distance.



Ceiling
I liked the repeating patterns in this image; however, at first glance I thought "the lines in the ceiling don't work as leading lines since they take the viewer out of the image."  It was only when I looked at the image a second time that I recognized that the pillars were performing the function of "leading lines" by helping direct the viewers attention to the ceiling, which was the primary subject of this image.  Good job.  


Ceiling 2
A nice complex composition that works.  The pillars actually form two sets of leading lines in this image.  The most obvious set of lines lead the viewers attention up to the ceiling.  The second set of leading lines, which is less obvious, but actually more effective at providing depth in the image, is the row of pillars leading from left to right into the far reaches of the ceiling.  Although at first glance viewers might be put off by the dark shadows on the right side of the image, they are actually very effective at keeping the viewers attention from wandering off the right edge of the frame.



Bridge
A good try in tough conditions.  It's always hard to compose a grand scenic when the skies are gray.  The best advice in this situation is to set your sights on more intimate landscapes where you can keep the sky out of the scene.  The bridge provides a nice start at a leading line, but truncates too soon to be very effective.  I wonder if by standing on the very begining of the bridge, the trail on the other side could have been included in the scene, thus providing a continuation to the leading line and taking the viewer far into the scene?



Covered walkway over I-25
This is one of my personal favorites from the assignment (although I voted for a different image, since I thought it was a better example of leading lines).  I like the colors and lines in this image, but most of all I love the fact that Rick was able to take such a "pedestrian" object   and create a work of art from it.  Great eye Rick, and good job composing the image to capitalize on the leading lines.


Autostitch leading lines
This was another one of my favorites from the assignment, with a wonderful leading line that draws the viewer far into the distance.  Good job Lars.  I love the dreamy Christmas card feeling of this image.



Autostitch leading lines 2
It's interesting to compare this image with the one above, and recognize how much more effective the strong leading lines are in the first image.  There's a bit too much going on in this image (including the road splitting off to the left) to make it quite as effective as the first.


Corn Rows
This image is a good example of the concept of "implied" leading lines that we talked about in the assignment description.  In this case, rows of similar items come together to form an "implied" line that draws the viewer deep into the scene (and provides linear perspective as well).  This image has nice depth, and is effective at evoking a feeling of damp cold in the viewer.  This was another great image from Dave.



Vines on the Lines
Again, it is interesting to compare this image with Dave's first image of the Corn Rows, and see how much the strong leading lines in the first image contribute to the feeling of depth.  Although the atmospheric perspective from the fog helps the viewer to perceive depth in the Vines on the Lines image, it becomes obvious when comparing the two images how much more depth the strong leading lines provide in the first image.



Compacted Condos
I like the playfulness of this image.  It also provides an opportunity to talk about a concept called the "vanishing point."  If you imagine that converging lines in your image come progressively closer together, the point at which they appear to meet (or would meet, if you could see that far) is defined as the "vanishing point."  Leading lines almost always lead towards a vanishing point.  If that vanishing point is deep within the scene, where you want your viewer to look, then you have used leading lines effectively to draw your viewer into the scene.  If however, the "vanishing point" is outside your scene, then your leading lines have led the viewer outside the frame, and probably weren't effective at keeping the viewers attention within your composition.  I would have probably tried to compose this scene so that the vanishing point remained within the frame.

Congratulations to Joyce Donaldson, whose Showing the Way In image was selected as People's Choice and Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit.  This was a great example of using leading lines to bring the viewer deep into the scene.

Showing The Way In
People's Choice and Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit
Photographed by Joyce Donaldson

Thank you again to everyone that participated in this assignment.  You all composed some wonderful images.

Viewers are encouraged to respond to this thread describing why you like a particular image, or think it was particularly successful at meeting the guidelines of the assignment.

Keith

[Lars]

Keith

Thank You for taking the time to go through all the contributions
Most constructive

Lars

[keithsnell]

And thank you for the feedback Lars.  I'm glad you found my commentst to be constructive.

Keith

[Becky Jenner]

Constructive criticism is what we live for! We want to know what we've done good or bad...none of us holds it against anyone...It just makes us stive to be better

[marilyn]

I wanted to add my thanks for the specific feedback and suggestions related to each entry, Keith.  I know it took a lot of time but I find that I can learn so much this way!