The idea behind “Lines to Corners” is a simple one: frame scenes so that lines point to one or more corners. Sometimes what goes to corners is not lines but things in a line. Below are some images using “Lines to Corners”.
Eric Kim has an interesting discussion of diagonals. He favors images with one line on the diagonal and a second line perpendicular to it:
http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/10/10/street-photography-composition-lesson-3-diagonals/
Unless noted otherwise, these photos are copyrighted by Danny N. Schweers.
Click here to see all the posts in Danny’s “Take Better Photos” blog.
Sample Images, Lines to Corners
ABOVE: Maine Seashore, copyright 2022 by Kathy Buckalew. Kathy frequently posts to Instagram and Facebook. Used by permission. Is the horizon line 1/3 down from the top? If so, this is also an example of the Rule of Thirds.
Lines to Corners used in a big way here, from the upper left to lower right. There is also a more subtle, shorter line coming from the upper right, pointing to the top glass. Lines do not need to be on the diagonal.
Besides using the Rule of Thirds, this photo of a tunnel in Baltimore uses Lines to Corners in a big way. I was not driving!
Preston Gardens Park at Elizabeth Court, Baltimore, Maryland. Lines can be curved. This one starts in the upper left, bounces off the right-hand side, then continues to the lower left.
The father’s forearms are on a line going to the upper left while his son’s torso is on a line going to the lower left. The Rule of Thirds is also strongly present in this image. Click here to see my “Rule of K” post which combines Lines to Corners with the Rule of Thirds.
I could have cropped this image from the bottom so that the sides of the ladder went to corners. Like the Rule of Thirds, Lines to Corners can be used to crop images, and to rotate them so that lines not quite to corners do go to corners.
Abandoned rail car near New Hope, Pennsylvania, along the Delaware River. Besides the strong line on the diagonal coming from the lower left, the rail car is centered one-third down and one-third from the left while the vanishing point is one-third from the top and one-third from the right.
Lines to corners here in a big way. Another rule of composition is simplicity, to reduce the number of objects in an image to the bare minimum. Another rule is repetition, where one object is echoed by others.
Here I am dancing in front of the neon lights outside Threadgill’s Restaurant in Austin, Texas with the shutter open for twenty seconds. Lines to corners make this image even more dynamic. Again, lines can be curved.