Where does your eye go?

OK, so your first thought when you read the title is.... "huh?"  But I'm serious.  When you look at a photograph you eye is drawn immediately to s specific area of the image.  The photographer and / or editor can make this happen in a few ways.  First, remember the rule of thirds?  If not, it looks like a tic tac toe board.  Two horizontal lines and two vertical lines each cutting the image into horizontal thirds and vertical thirds.  The intersections of the lines are the most dynamic positions in the image.  That's where you place your subject..... on one of those intersections.  Your eye will also go to the sharpest part of the image.  That's why you will notice a portion of most images are a bit blurry, it's done for a reason. And lastly, your eye also tends to go to the lightest part of the image.  If you notice on the image above the pestle and stamen of the flower are close to the lower left intersection using the rule of thirds, it's the lightest part of the image and in focus.  Around the perimeter of the image you will notice the other flowers and leaves are not as sharp and have been darkened so they don't distract from the subject.

The composition part can most often be done in camera.  The blur part depends for the most part on your aperture and distance from your subject.  The darkening part will usually have to be done using software, unless you are shooting in manual and providing your own controlled lighting.  The above image was darkened with software.