{"id":111841,"date":"2018-08-29T13:25:32","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T20:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=111841"},"modified":"2018-08-29T13:44:57","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T20:44:57","slug":"photography-composition-which-direction-is-your-subject-looking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/29\/photography-composition-which-direction-is-your-subject-looking\/","title":{"rendered":"Photography Composition: Which Direction is Your Subject Looking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear friend,<\/p>\n

A simple technique we can integrate into our photography — let us draw imaginary red arrows whichever direction our subjects are looking, or the direction they are walking!<\/p>\n

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Vectors:<\/h2>\n

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Essentially what we are doing is creating vectors<\/a>— little arrows that point in different directions.<\/p>\n

Vectors are interesting because they show us which direction to look, and vectors are dynamic– they have force and power!<\/p>\n

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Vectors and eye direction<\/h2>\n

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This is the interesting and fun thing:<\/p>\n

\n When we look at a photograph, our eyes track the direction in which the subject of the photo is looking at.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For example, if I have a picture of Cindy looking upwards in the photo, my eyes (the viewer) will also look upwards.<\/p>\n

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And what we can do is draw an imaginary vector — a red arrow which goes the same direction as the eyes of Cindy.<\/p>\n

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Vectors and three-dimensional reality<\/h2>\n

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Vectors start getting tricky when we deal with three-dimensions. For example in this photo below, we have a picture of a poster looking directly at us, with a woman looking to the bottom-left of the frame:<\/p>\n

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But if we draw in the red arrow of the eye looking directly at us– we cannot really show (in three dimensions) that the face in the background is actually looking directly at us.<\/p>\n

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It is very difficult for me to try to illustrate in three-dimensions the depth between the woman in the foreground and the poster in the background. In a future essay I will address this.<\/p>\n