Mastering Photography Composition: How to Guide the Viewer’s Eye

Photography is more than just capturing a moment—it's about telling a story, evoking emotions, and guiding your viewers. One of the most essential skills in photography is directing your audience’s attention to the subject. Whether you’re capturing a portrait, a street scene, or a landscape, how you control focus (not the focus of your lens) can make or break an image.

The human eye naturally seeks structure in an image. That’s how our brain works, we focus on what are the most important and then ignore the rest. If all the elements in your photos are roughly equally important, the viewer normally treat them as equally unimportant. This is why many technically perfect photography work just seem off or boring or confusing. For this reason, every single photo needs a clear structure a visual hierarchy that can guide the viewer to the focal point, ensuring that your message is clear and your photo is impactful.

I believe many photographers, at this point, will say oh that’s easy, just shoot shallow depth of field. Telephoto lens and wide open. Melt the background and boom your subject stand out. I agree that’s one way of managing it but not only way.

Super blurred background is actually just an example of a technique called negative space. Buy surrounding your main subject, it can be a person or a building or any subject with empty space your subject will easily stand out but this empty space can be created in many different ways like a solid colour background or sky. This technique can be applied to any type of photography.

I’m not against using lens blur, I just don’t over do it. Because it will kill the story. Too much lens blur will eliminate some critical information, like the time, weather, location and other important background elements that is needed to build the story or mood. Just use enough lens blur so you can create enough contrast using different level of blur to make your subject stand out without break the story.

Talking about creating contrast. There are many other ways to achieve contrast. For example, use lighting to create contrast.

But keep in mind, it’s not necessarily, the brightest elements are always the focus of attention. Sometimes the opposite is the case.

You can also create contrast by using colour. Vivid colour always attracts attention. If your main subject sit the only one that are colourful it will easily stand out.

Talking about colour, we can also use compliment colour to something more stand out from another.

Ok. other than negative space and contrast, anything else we use do to direct focus? Yes, of course. use lea. Science studies suggest that the human eye naturally follows paths, lines, and curves to move through an image. When there is a structured path exists our brain instinctively trace it’s direction.

Anything else? Yes, of course. If we want to highly something on a photo in a most straight forward way what do we do? We use a pen to circle it and it’ll immediately draw attention. Of course, as a photographer we can’t do it that way, but we can incorporate something in the photo to do exactly the same thing. It’ll look much more natural.

Ok. That’s all? Well, what if I tell you there are actually hundreds of more ways to control focus? Here is why, you can combine any of these techniques that I have mentioned on a single image. Let’s take a look at some examples.

In this photo, we use the entrance of the hall way as the frame to draw attention to our main subject the young girl. At the meantime, we use contrast, because the lighting on her is very different from the lighting on the background, this makes her more standout. At last we use negative space. The background behind her is not a solid colour background but in a perfect pattern this will work exactly like a solid colour background.

In this photos, the windows on the building creates multiple invisible leadings lines which point to the main subject of the photo which is the top of the building. The lighting on the top of the building is brighter and warmer than the bottom which creates a contrast. At last, we surround the building with blue sky and use it as negative space to make the main subject stand out.

In this shot, I used leading lines and contrast to guide the focus to the main subjects which is the pedestrians at the centered of the frame. Can you see it?

This image utilizes two types of contrast to create a compelling composition. First, there is a contrast in lighting and color—the Capitol building is brightly lit and vibrant, while the carriage appears darker and less saturated, making the building stand out even more. The second contrast comes from motion and sharpness—the building remains stationary and in sharp focus, whereas the carriage is in motion blur, adding a dynamic element to the scene. These two contrasts work together to create balance while complementing each other. Lastly, the Capitol building is framed by a clear sky, which acts as negative space, ensuring that the subject remains the focal point without distractions.

Before I wrap up, there’s one more important point to include. So far, all the examples I’ve shared focus on highlighting a single subject. But sometimes, an image requires multiple focal points—for example, showcasing both a person and their surrounding environment. In these cases, it’s crucial to establish a clear visual hierarchy by defining the primary and secondary subjects. This requires a more advanced level of composition, where each element is given a distinct visual priority while still working together harmoniously. The key is not only to separate their importance but also to integrate them in a way that enhances the overall image, ensuring they complement rather than compete with each other.

Final Thoughts

Great photography is intentional. Every choice you make—from focus to composition—affects how an image is perceived. By understanding and applying techniques that direct attention, you can create images that captivate, inspire, and leave a lasting impression.

No matter your photography style, mastering attention control will elevate your work. So next time you’re out shooting, think about how you can guide the viewer’s eye—and watch your images transform.

What to learn more photography composition tips? Check out my other photography composition blog