Why correct converging lines

The truth about converging lines is somewhere in the middle—converging lines can be used creatively , strategically, and beautifully to elevate photographs and allow the photographer to send a message to her audience. Anything we can do to make a two-dimensional photograph have the appearance of popping into a three-dimensional image will significantly elevate our photography.

Converging lines can help us do that. When combined with a wide-angle lens, an increased depth of field, and an exaggerated viewpoint such as shooting while lying on the ground, for instance , converging lines can become powerful tools for adding dimension to your shots.

Instead, allow them to become supporting actors which elevate the true focus of your shot. This framing technique is another powerful element of composition that, when combined with converging lines, can lead to some truly outstanding results. Instead, we want our compositions to be intentional. First, ask yourself if you want the lines to converge at all.

Letting the lines converge out of frame may add a desired sense of imbalance to your photo. On the other hand, you might consider placing a point of interest at the spot of convergence. The only way to do it when when you're pointing the camera up is to tilt the back to keep it parallel with the building. Tilting the lens alone won't do it. Excellent explanations. Concise, going from the simple to the full answer. You people should be writing the textbooks!

Brian: "With the camera aimed up i. You usually also tilt the front to keep the lens parallel with the building" That's rather like a Super Rise, in effect.

Parallel is parallel. If you want to take care of converging lines, and you have a tall, flat object in from of you, you can angle the camera back and then tilt the front and back to be parallel to the flat plane.

This is the same thing as lifting the front only, while they are both parallel. Many lenses can't handle as far as the camera can physically correct.

I find that thinking in planes as in geometry helps a lot. Focus is another matter. If you are looking straight out at a landscape everything within the depth of focus should be in focus. There is a plane parallel to the front and rear, usually perpendicular to the ground, that is the area of critical focus and will be what is in focus when you are wide open. When people talk about increasing focus, they are often talking about shifting the plane of focus so that its along the ground, or angles from the foreground to the height of the trees or small building, instead of some vertically-aligned plane at a specific distance.

Tilting the front lens does not "increase" the focus, it moves it. This can be seen inside the camera with a loupe fairly easily. I tilt the lens on occasion, but its often very little.

There are some people that like to have things out of focus in the image, and have one sharper area, to draw someone's attention. This is a reason to shoot wider open. Diffraction is an almost non-existent factor in the final print. I prefer to have as much in focus as possible, so I chose down to the smaller apertures, f45 or f You get to choose your own personal aesthetic.

Hope this helps. It's even simpler than the great explanations you've got so far. To eliminate converging parallel lines the camera back must simply be parallel with the lines that you want parallel on the film, either horizontal or vertical.

You should be able to see this on the ground glass use a grid! That should be step one in setting up a shot like this. Sometimes a picture is just not possible. Any moving of the back will destroy your nice parallel lines.

That's it. Shoot away and have fun. Another option if you run out of rise is to tilt the camera base or rail up at the front, then reset the front and rear standards vertical.

This has the effect of increasing the available front rise. Think about how you can use them to effectively direct the interest onto a certain part of your frame or subject. In the photo below, I used the converging lines of the pavement to draw the viewers eyes up towards the eyes of my subject.

The convergence on the eyes, with the eyes looking down the lines, creates an opposing sense of direction and an interesting balance to the photo. When you place your subject in the foreground with lines converging behind them, you create multiple, contrasting points of interest. In my photo below, your eyes are drawn to the subject first, then led down the path behind her into the distance. This creates a strong feeling of depth and intrigue — much more interesting then a simple photo of a model.

This is a good way of making lines appear stronger, demonstrated in the photo below. If you really want to accentuate a set of converging lines, use a wide angle lens. As we discussed in my post on focal length, telephoto lenses compress the image, causing lines to appear straighter. The same is true for your distance from the point of interest: where the lines converge. Have a look at the photos below of a path at a castle. Here are some more photos to help demonstrate the different types and uses of converging lines.

Composition Related course: Intuitive Composition.