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Rule of Thirds Vs Leading Lines

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About a month ago I wrote a reasonably incoherent piece (https://steemit.com/photography/@colmedwardsphoto/the-only-ingredient-for-good-photography-is-a-good-camera-right) about beginner's mistakes. Beginner's mistakes are those things you sometimes think about fixing after 15 years. One of the comments asked me to discuss composition errors further, so I'm finally getting around to that. *

This is Part 01 of Probably 01.

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When you're at the very start of your photographic education, you will learn two things.

1. People with very very expensive cameras and studios will tell you that gear doesn't matter.

2. You will learn the Rule of Thirds.

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^{Be sure to click on the image to view full screen!}

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There's good reason for this, the rule of thirds is an very useful tool for achieving a well balanced composition, and it requires no special training or a talented eye - once you spend 10 seconds to understand it, you can immediately begin to use it.

The principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine splitting up an image into thirds (both horizontal and vertical) so that you have nine sections. For me, I find it easier to visualise 2 horizontal lines and 2 vertical lines. The plan is to place the most important subject of your image onto one of those lines. Really important bits, like eyes, should rest where two lines intersect. (Landscape photographers often use the rule of thirds to know where to put the horizon in their photo).

Lets apply it to my image and see if we've obeyed the rule.

Success! The model is standing exactly on one the lines, and her eyes are slap bang where two lines cross each other. Throw in a bit of lingerie and what could possibly go wrong?

Damn you leading lines!!! Damn you to hell!

Leading lines are another important, but much less used (correctly), rule of composition. As the name suggests leading lines guide the viewers eye towards an important element of the image. Thinks roads, fenceposts, traintracks... At one point in July 2003, images of models sitting on traintracks quite possibly overtook porn as the most viewed thing on the internet. It was everywhere. It still is everywhere. It needs to be killed with fire. But I digress..

So, leading lines are great. However, if they're in your image unintentionally and you don't spot them, they can potentially ruin your image. Scroll back up and take a look at the main image. Where do your eyes end up?

So let's look at how leading lines ruined my image:

See how the road takes control of your eyes and forces you to look up the image and come to a dead-end in the the right corner? What's worse, there's nothing of interest in that area, and no more lines to bring your attention back to the model.

It gets even worse! Leading lines don't have to be roads or traintracks, arms and legs make perfectly good lines. In the western world at least, we read images from left to right, top to bottom. Our eyes will tend to enter an image from the left at the brightest point (in this case her chest). The contrast between the pale skin and black bra creates its own line, which naturally follows to her arm, and to her fingers - which are pointing straight up the road.

What hurts most about this, is that it is so easy to fix. If I had dropped down a foot to bring her head up to the level of the road, and moved myself a few steps to the left, the road would now create a leading line straight to her face. At this point her body would become a leading line which we would follow to her feet. Turning her toe back into the image would effectively create a triangle of lines...

...you're eyes would never be given an opportunity to come to rest, and the resulting image would have been so much better.

Hope this is of interest to someone out there, and would love to hear any feedback and questions :)

Category	Model portfolio shoot
Settings	1/180 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200
Camera	Fujifilm X-T1
Lens	XF 50-140 F2.8 R LM OIS WR @ 140mm
Location	Meath, Ireland
Model	Marta Misiak