Using frames and leading lines are really useful compositional techniques. Frames create structure and shape in your image, this makes the photo look more interesting and focuses the eye of the viewer on the main subject of your photo inside the frame.
Here are some ways you can use frames and framing in your photos make them more interesting. Check them out along with the example photos.
1. Look for frames and arches created by buildings.
Find archways, doors, windows or anything else that forms a frame. Then place that between yourself and the subject of your photo. Arrange the photo so that you can see the frame around the edges of your picture and so that you can see the subject of your photo within that frame. Here is a photo I took in Morocco of a man standing within a frame. The frame helps the composition.
2. Be more creative by using a structure in the foreground to create a more abstract frame.
Here is a photo I took in London. It may not be the most interesting picture in the world, but I included a sculpture in my picture and positioned it so that it formed a frame around St Pauls. Frames don’t have to be obvious. You can look for anything you can poke your camera through to make a frame.
Another useful compositional technique is called leading lines.
Leading lines are lines that take your eye on a path through the photo. Look for anything in a scene that can be used to create a leading line. Curved lines taking your eye to a point or subject in the distance work well. Here is an example photo of a railway that shows curved leading line. Your eye is pulled into the photo because it follows the leading line of the railway.
3. Use Leading Lines
This is a photo of a railway in Snowdonia, I thought the railway going off into the distance was a good thing to use in the picture because it gave a sense of distance and the curved line looks interesting. It pulls you into the photo and looks good too.
Leading lines are good in photos because they encourage the eye of the viewer move through the photo along the line. By making someone look along the line it means that you have engaged them in the photo, which means they will spend longer looking at it, and will find it more interesting.
Andrew Mason is a professional photographer and the founder of the 36exp Photographers School plus the London Photo Show.
He shoots mainly commercial portraits for a living, and likes to shoot landscape, portrait and travel photography.
He is a master of lighting and portrait photography, plus leads photography trips with 36exp.