Paying attention to where the lines in your viewfinder lead can improve your composition. Here I’ve used the red lines to illustrate subject relationship. The lines exist even if you are not aware of them when shooting. The purple arrow shows subject contact. The yellow lines show an interesting connection between secondary items in the photo. Lastly, the three green lines show the normal vanishing point of the environment. I could have added vertical lines for the columns but those are pretty obvious and more environmental.
Hidden Lines in Composition
I noticed several years ago when going through my Aperture library (I still limp along with that software for the majority of my cataloging and first round of image editing…) that the vast majority of my images feature strong diagonal lines.
The Back Story: This was for a portfolio shoot. Martina was taking a break as I was waiting for the guy to pass when I noticed them both checking each other out. I grabbed this shot quickly. Not enough time to make it perfect but a good image for what happened in the moment. Even though it was a quick shot my composition worked nicely.
Steve