LINES IN COMPOSITION What are spoken of as lines in the composition or arrangement of a photograph may not exist as actual lines at all. For instance, the tops of a row of trees would not be connected by a line, but they would none the less suggest one. Simi larly, various masses suggest boundary lines which roughly enclose them, while detached objects, which carry the eye along from one to another, also suggest a line of direction. More or less clearly defined lines may also be actually present—the horizon, the banks of a river, the edge of a path, tree trunks, hill-sides, roofs, and so on. The principal lines, present or sug gested, are generally most evident when the print is viewed from such a distance that minor de tails do not obtrude themselves. The position, arrangement, and direction of these lines decide whether the general composition is satisfactory or otherwise. Even the points where certain lines reach the margins play an important part. A good arrangement generally results when the lines indicating the masses of the principal object, or objects, are grouped somewhere near the middle of the picture space, with the other principal lines radiating therefrom. The lines are unsatisfactory when they tend monotonously in one direction ; when they are too symmetrical ; when they lead the eye out of the picture towards the edges ; or when they lead the eye to a part of the picture that does not contain the main objects.
Although no very definite rules can be laid down on this question of the lines of a subject, it is a good plan to make analyses of pictures in this way from time to time. No skill in draughtsmanship is required for the purpose. It is sufficient to mark out a space proportionate to the print under study, and mark, in their relative positions, the general (not detailed) outlines of the principal masses, and to add any lines that attract the eye, whether those lines are actually indicated or only suggested. The sort of pattern thus formed should then be studied, noting the way in which the eye is attracted to, or led to, certain points, and the effect that the lines have in suggesting harmony, monotony, contrast, stability and so on. By degrees a sort of instinctive perception of the principal lines of a subject will be acquired. (See also " Pictorial Composition.")