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So What's Interesting?

23/02/2016
Old Jetty
In the last blog entry I was talking about using lines to direct the viewer's eyes around an image and that a good starting point to achieve this is some foreground interest; so what exactly is "foreground interest"? Well the thing that it is not is an object that has to be interesting in its own right. In many examples foreground interest is something as mundane as a rock or even a lump of grass - not interesting at all. However a rock or stone well positioned in the frame can be a very effective capture point that the viewer's eyes land upon and from there start their exploration of the image. Without a natural starting point there might not be a distinct viewing path to follow and the image will lose impact as a result. If you look at the image above, "Old Jetty" from the Rural Gallery you can see that I've used the near edge of the jetty as foreground interest and by positioning it near the bottom left corner it becomes the natural starting point for the viewer's eyes which then follow the jetty edge into the rest of the image. The trap to avoid is not to make the foreground interest too dominant or so interesting that the viewer doesn't want to look any further into the image, unless that is your intention of course!

The final point of composition in this image is the use of the reeds on the right of the frame to "stop" the viewer's gaze wandering off the edge and keeping it on the central and background zones. As I said previously, composition is a huge subject but these simple techniques will definitely help to add that little bit extra to your images; give it a go and you will see what I mean.