For those of you who live here in Flower Mound, I am teaching a free beginner's photography class at the Flower Mound Library on Jan 30. There are about a million things I could talk about but I am having to pick my favorite tips for people who want to quickly improve their photography and take meaningful photos of family life. So, since I can't touch on all my favorite things for photography there, I thought I would take a minute to share a tip here on the blog today!
Two of my favorite composition tools are framing and shooting in different angles. I also love leading lines but just won't be able to squeeze that in next weekend during the class. So, here is a smidge of info on leading lines in your photos. Leading lines are exactly what you might think they would be- lines in the photo leading your cute little eyeballs around, ideally leading to your subject. One reason I am not going into detail on the subject in my class is because it isn't as easy to right away especially compared to framing and shooting at different perspectives. At least for me it took some practice to getting the hang of it and being on the lookout for it when photographing my kiddos.
So let's just look at some examples, shall we?
In this example, the edge of the pool is a leading line which guides is right to my husband who is listening to an enthralling story as told by Matty B. To take this, I had to get pretty low to the ground (and not topple into the pool!).
The movie chairs serve as a leading line to the boys getting ready to see a movie, as does the lights along the stairs.
Paths are great ways to get a leading line in your photo.
By taking this photo slightly to the side of Thomas, the pole is a leading line to him at a Halloween party.
The shoreline is a leading line to Thomas at the lake on a foggy morning.
Here the ropes are leading lines to the boys on their swing.
To me, the curb and sidewalk are leading lines in this photo and lead us to the people. I also think the line of people is a leading line to the ice cream truck.
The outstretched arms here are leading lines to John John getting ice cream, along with the line of the curb.
An exaggerated lighting scene can give leading lines. I plopped T Bone here and tried to get him to sit still for at least 5 seconds for the photo!
The grout lines in the tiles lead us right up to the little girls in their boots. I am pretty sure I had the camera on the ground for this photo.
Here the ice cream freezer leads us to the family. Getting the camera close to the freezer helps with this photo.
Lastly, another edge of a pool leads us to some silly antics.
I hope this helps a little and gets at least the thought put in your head to be on the lookout for making more powerful photos with leading lines! And remember to come out to my class on Jan 30 if you are close by!
Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.
They are gorgeous!
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