Photography compositions help make the scenes we shoot more interesting. As a rule of thumb; the simpler, the better. If you need to crowd your scene with composition after composition, you might need a new scene.
Lead room is a simple technique that can help balance your image out and curtail any absurdities. It's all about allowing for enough space for an element of your scene to move into. As humans, we need that to help wrap our brains around the scene and make it more pleasant.
What is Lead Room?
When framing scenes, we’re not only looking at the objects, but the space that separates them. Lead room allows for a room to lead or the space in front of an object. This applies mainly to moving objects; animals, cars, sports players - anything that needs a space to move into. Without it, the brain picks up on the peculiarity.
By applying the same idea to eyes, we develop the lead room technique as a photographic composition. Eyes are the first thing we look at in an image - it’s human. By reading eyes you see an emotion or state. Keeping more space in front of the direction of the eyes can help harmonize a scene.
What we are trying to stay away from is a definite end to the person's direction, as that stops the viewer's eye from exiting the frame. Less ambiguity means the viewer brings less to the viewing.
How to Use the Lead Room Technique
A portrait is strongest with at least a small amount of space around the head. Filling the frame would make it look large. One instance of using the lead room technique by having a larger space in front of the eyes. By placing the subject asymmetrically, you add interest to the portraiture. The direction of his eyes start the story, where the hands continue it.
Rather than having a space entirely around the head, a lack of space makes the portrait larger than life. The face seems lengthened by the lack of a full view of the head. Her hands say ponder, and her eyes cement it. By having the space removed, it makes the face, especially the eyes more prominent.
The lead room technique can be further strengthened by incorporating other compositional elements. In the image below, the woman breaks the rigidness and monotony of the vertical and horizontal lines. Her eyes follow the weaving lines towards the same goal - the two elements mimic each other.
Adding other compositional elements into your scene makes it more interesting - it grabs our attention. The diagonal river enters and exits the frame, cutting the scene and filling much of the repetitive textured white background. The lead room is 2/3 of the scene, placing the focus on what is being looked at - or absence of.
Use many people to strengthen the lead room technique. Here, tourists on a tram all look towards the same direction, off frame. As many people are doing the same action, it places more importance on what they are looking at.
One of the most interesting ways to boost your scene is to use the lead room technique in an unexpected way. In the below image, we first look at the woman in the foreground - larger (and closer) objects need more attention. We can’t follow the direction of her eyes, so our focus shifts to the boy in the background. Our interest peaks because of this break in the flow.
By far the most difficult is using the lead room technique in an abstract manner. A different perspective isn’t always possible, or elements don’t line up. The image below uses a juxtapositioned lead room (people pointing both left and right) yet we aren’t following eyes but rather the shadows.