USE DEPTH

Convey depth and distance to help draw in the viewer

WHILE the basic positioning and placement of the elements within a picture is vital to the composition, this is only one part of improving your images. Even when you have positioned your subjects beautifully, you can end up with very flat-looking images, so you need to use some other techniques to add a sense of depth and distance to shots.

There are two main techniques that can help emulate a three-dimensional scene within the constraints of a twodimensional photograph: leading lines and aerial perspective. The first relies on using shapes, lines or curves in the subject to draw the viewer into the picture. This technique can be enhanced by using geometrical rules such as vanishing points and objects getting smaller as they get further away from you, giving a sense of depth that would otherwise be missing from a two-dimensional image.

Aerial perspective is a touch more difficult to use in many shots, because it relies on tones becoming lighter and the reduction of contrast to make objects appear further away from the viewer.