Portrait photography tip: Use lines in your composition

Saturday 9 July 2022, 22:44 by Elja Trum | 3,446 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Lines in a photo guide the viewer's eyes. You can make the best use of one or more lines in your photo when a line starts outside the frame and leads towards your model's face. This creates a leading line that guides the viewer straight to your main subject.

Anke - f/2.8, 1/250s, 100 ISO @ 70mm
In the photo above, the walls of the corridor lead your eye towards the centre of the image. This is also where the most important subject in the photo can be found: model Anouk. Although the lines technically lead to a spot behind the model, the principle still works.

Sarah - f/4, 1/2.000s, 100 ISO @ 57mm
So you can use a corridor, but also, for example, the lines of a fence or a wall. Several lines generally work better than a single line. It works especially well when the lines start in the corners of your photo. So bear this in mind when deciding on your composition.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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