p.2 #2 · Back facing and long leading line - is this working at all?
When you create a leading line in a photo you need to put something interesting at the end of it to reward the viewer for following it. That's not happening in your shot. It would work better if the guy in the foreground was shooting an attractive model located at red dot.
p.2 #4 · Back facing and long leading line - is this working at all?
One of insights I've gained about composition and human perception is the dominant role contrast plays in leading the eye around a photo. I created this tutorial to illustrate this: http://photo.nova.org/Perception/
Contrast in a photo comes in many forms: tone, color, relative sharpness, relative size... and what contrasts from background will attract the most attention. It you have two areas of equal contrast with the background they will compete for attention with each other. The further apart they are in the frame the more the eyes will dart between them.
So in that sense contrast trumps leading lines. Your eye finds the guy in the foreground because he contrasts. That would be true if the fence wasn't there. So what does the fence bring to the party? Not much in terms of finding the focal point. Even if there was a focal point where I put the red dot above your eye would find it if it contrasted with the background . What if there was an attractive model in a white coat on the fence at the red dot? Then the leading line of the fence would work effectively to lead the viewer to a focal point that they wouldn't otherwise find with contrast alone.
The eye movement dynamic in photos containing people is influenced by the instinct to make eye contact. So in that sense shoulder and arms will usually be leading lines away from the face, not towards it. That's why poses where hands are connected work better than those where the hands are apart. The viewer looks at the face, follows one arm or the other to see what the hands are doing then travels back up the other arm to see the face again. If you pose the hands up under the chin the viewer will stay on the face because its not necessary to wander off the face to see what the hands are doing. If you crop the photo as a H&S and don't show much of the arms or the hand the viewer stays focused in the face because there's no compelling lines to lead them away.
The take away here is to try to make your focal point contrast in tone, color, sharpness, etc... with the background because that will trump just about everything else in term of attracting attention. On a white background the eye will gravitate to the darkest / most colorful spot. On a dark background the lightest area will pull the eye to it naturally.
If you put a leading line in the photo ask whether it will lead the viewer away from the contrasting focal point as it did here. If it does make sure it leads to something equally interesting in the photo and create a different path back to the main focal point.
Two focal points in a photo create a ping-ping dynamic. Three focal points in a photo will lead the viewer back to the main focal point. So look for triangular pattens of focal points. If they contrast strongly with the background the eye will find them and "connect the dots" winding back at the focal point. For example of you had something interesting in the background between two people at the fence the viewer would likely start at the larger figure in the foreground, follow the fence to the second figure, jump to the object in the center in the background then jump back to the guy in the foreground...
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