Another very traditional approach that I learned when I was first starting out with Lenormand was that all the columns "in front" of the person card represent the future. Equally, all the columns "behind" them would then represent the past. Most often, in front is seen as reading to the right. However, because some of the people cards face different directions, many readers will choose the direction the Lady/Woman or Lord/Man is facing to define what counts as "in front". For example, in the image below I have left clear the columns that are "in front" of the Woman.
A different approach I was recently introduced to struck me as quite interesting, too. In this way of reading, you normally treat the cards laid out before you reach the person card as being the past, and the cards laid out after them as the future. So, laying out the cards in lines, all the rows before you get to the person card will be the past, all the rows after (below) the person card will be the future. Equally, this can be turned around depending on the direction the person card is facing. For the GT used here as an example, that would mean that the future for the woman would be just the cards shown below:
For the Man, though, his future would be all the cards in the clear here:
Obviously, these different approaches can give quite different results! For example, in the GT shown next, applying the "traditional approach" would give an equal distribution of past and future to read for the Lady. On the other hand, applying the second approach would give an almost entirely past-oriented reading, with only the final four cards as her future...
As with any technique, it may be useful in some readings, not in others.
What reasons can you think of to prefer one approach to the other? What are the situations in which one might give more useful information than the other? Or is it just a case of doing what you were first taught...