Many of us aspire to create this kind of picture when we’re out in the British countryside, but despite its apparent simplicity it’s actually much harder than it looks. First you need to find a tree with a clear outline and, preferably, a sense of character. Next you need a line of crops that will lead the eye towards the tree. And then, of course, you need beautiful light! With a bit of planning, this photographer has achieved all three. My only complaint is that it feels a little overworked in Photoshop.
This picture really conveys the feeling of being out on a chilly morning with nothing but the sound of birdsong and the landscape thawing out all around you. The colours are beautifully muted, giving the image the air of painting, and the exposure – which could have been tricky to judge due to the low-angled sun – has been balanced perfectly.
Dungeness, with its battered old boats and fishing equipment, is the perfect place for shots like this one where the elements appear almost sculptural. There are multiple leading lines here: the chain, the rails, the shape of the boat and, of course, the cloud lines created by the slow shutter speed. It’s a cracking shot.
This tree-lined road in Antrim, Northern Ireland is extremely popular with photographers, and it’s easy to see why. The twisting, interlocking branches give it a mystical air – as though they need to part in order to allow someone through. Using a coral filter on the foliage has really helped and the use of a 70-200mm lens has enabled the photographer to ‘hide’ any sizeable gaps in the trees. It’s a great shot – my only complaint is that I would like something for the eye to meet at the end of the ‘tunnel’: a car, figure etc.
The viewer’s eye takes a leisurely stroll through this image - we enter the frame at the bottom, follow the path as it curves towards the church and then leave at the top of the spire. But there are other leading lines here too: the mist that directs our eye towards the main subject (the church), the sweep of the hill on the right and even the contrast created between the green and yellow grass. It’s a masterclass in composition.
This image of Oostmahorn Lighthouse in the Netherlands is really satisfying to the eye – the symmetry is just beautiful, and all of the diagonals have been thoughtfully placed. Using a slow shutter speed has reduced the water to a wash of blue, which juxtaposes well with the metal bannister. The yellow light adds a touch of warmth to an otherwise cold scene.
The composition here is simple, but it’s so effective – the road forms an S-shape with two almost identically-sized bends, slicing the frame in two. At first glance the image appears to be monochrome, but then we notice a muddy tinge to the road and a slight hint of green in the trees. There’s nothing in the frame that shouldn’t be there – it’s completely pared back – and that’s part of its magic
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The weathered wood, brooding sky and limited colour palette really suit the subject matter perfectly here. The boat shed is positioned wonderfully in the frame, with the eye taken towards it using planks of wood forming a track that takes the boat down to the water’s edge. The use of a wide-angle lens has allowed plenty of detail to be included. It’s a really evocative shot.
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Another compositional aid, and theory, for our exploration in this contest. Leading lines will be familiar to most - features in an image that lead the eye from one part of it to another, most often from the foreground to the background, and sometimes converging on the same point. They can help bring the foreground and background together, a pleasing link, as well as being interesting forms in themselves. Landscapes offer leading lines in the forms of rivers, walls and roads. In the urban setting they can be any form of human-made construction, a road or the edges or features of a building for example.
Photographed from the air, this housing community in Dubai looks like a series of little pastel-coloured boxes with a swirly ‘sweet’ roundabout in the middle. There is a satisfying balance to the picture, but there is also something quite unnerving about the strict identikit arrangement. It’s a picture that I would love to see printed large, so you could see all the little details.
I love the movement of the grass here – using a shutter speed of 1/80sec has allowed the photographer to retain detail while still giving it a suitably windblown feel. The colours are gorgeous too, with warm yellows and greens giving the image a spring vibe. When it comes to leading lines my only issue is that it feels as though our eyes are sweeping from one side to the other, rather than settling somewhere in the middle. I’d definitely like to be standing here though!
This picture has definitely got the ‘wow’ factor. I love the way the leading lines come from the top of the frame – in the form of the Northern lights – rather than the bottom, which is usually the case when we think about using this as a compositional device. Using a wide-angle lens has worked well with the lights and the boat, but the house on the right has suffered as a result. It seems petty to complain about these things when you’re being treated to such a magnificent spectacle!, but it does jar a bit.
There’s such a sense of anticipation here – the hurdler readies herself at the start line, focused and composed, while we consider the obstacles ahead of her. It’s an odd privilege to be viewing her from the endpoint, crouching at the finishing line, without having to do any of the work! The horizontal and vertical lines work brilliantly, and the decision to crop to a panoramic was inspired.
It takes a fair amount of planning to get a shot like this and you can just imagine the photographer’s excitement when everything came together! The colour of the light trails contrasts wonderfully with the blue of the fog and the silhouette of the bridge struts and the clump of trees on the right gives our eyes a satisfying end point.
There are so many wonderful diagonal lines that this picture feels full of life and energy, which encourages our eyes to zip about the frame, just like the traffic rushing across the bridge below. Converting the image to black & white enables us to concentrate on the lines and shapes of the structure rather than become distracted by the colourful trucks and cars. It’s wonderfully executed.
When we think about leading lines, we often think about manmade features such as fences, railway tracks or walls, but here the photographer has chosen something quite unexpected: a snaking line of white flowers that direct the eye towards the distant volcano. Maintaining enough separation between the flowers to create a curve must have been tricky, but it was well worth the effort.
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