Photo tip # 3 - Follow the line

How to find a guideline, and follow it, to improve your landscape photo.

I told you about the rule of thirds in my first photo trick. Then I mentioned to you the importance of finding something interesting in the foreground and in the background. A line can often be interesting and important to join these two elements together.

Find a line

What is a line? Anything that will naturally guide the gaze from one element of the image to another. When cycling, the natural line is often a road. But nature is full of elements that can play this role: cracks in the ground, a stream, buildings. There is no shortage of choice.

The lines, whether straight or curved, are usually vertical, running from the bottom of the photo to the top. 

Winding the cycle paths of Austria. Click for the original text.

My friends Pierre and Freddy, side by side in the Pamirs. Click for the original text.

The famous line doesn't even have to be a real one. Sometimes objects, patterns or shapes are enough to direct the gaze. Like this piece of building which sends the gaze of the ancient bricks of the fortress to the old cathedral further afield, and then to the neighboring mountains. The gaze will then slide to the left to return to the starting point by the river.

Tbilisi, the old and modern capital of Georgia. Click for the original text.

In the following example, both the river and the road bring the view from the front to the back of the photo, towards the valley which closes.

The region of Vang Vieng in Laos. Click for text in La Presse.

There you go, it's not more complicated than that! For those interested, I also have a photo shop.

And you can of course create your own. Keep an eye out for your lines!