Known alternatively as informal balance, asymmetrical balance is a bit more difficult to achieve. The more you are consciously aware of asymmetrical balance in your own personal compositions, the easier it will become in your daily practice.
Many professional photographers prefer asymmetrical balance due to the complexity of the image. When an image is symmetrically balanced, that symmetry is initially obvious to the viewer.
However, when an image is asymmetrically balanced, the viewer has to spend a little more time looking at the image in order to realize that fact. Instead of mirror images or an equal weight on each side of the photograph, the image is balanced by the creative use of size, tone, and form of the subjects within the composition.
Each side of the photograph, in turn, becomes equally weighted regardless of their differences. When considering tones within your image, begin to think of highlights as weighing very little, with shadows weighing much more. In order for asymmetrical balance to be achieved, you need to have a perfect balance between both light and heavy. Asymmetrical balance is also commonly achieved when one main subject commonly located in the foreground is balanced out by another, less important subject commonly located in the background.
While the stones, being darker, hold a lot of weight, the brightness of the mountain in combination with the area it covers holds an equal weight. The range of highlights and shadows in the rest of the composition only reinforce this balance. Without the rocks, there would be too much negative space in the foreground. Without the mountain, there would be too much negative space in the background. Even though this photograph is not symmetrical, it is still equally balanced.
Whenever an element stands out from the rest of your image, it holds some level of visual weight. The amount depends on a number of factors. Perhaps the most obvious factor, bigger objects hold more weight than smaller ones, and therefore attract the viewer's attention more. In general it's best to make your main subject the biggest object, and support it with smaller ones.
As the largest object in the scene, the boat in the foreground carries the most visual weight, with the city and sunset providing extra interest and balance. Image by Amine Kaytoni. Darker items have more visual weight than lighter ones. If your subject is a light tone, watch out for distracting shadows and dark objects, and reframe your shot to exclude them if necessary. This is particularly noticeable in black and white photography.
Similarly, areas of high contrast naturally draw your eye. A light object on a dark background, or vice versa, is a great way to focus the viewer's attention on your main subject. Here, the dark foreground objects carry the most weight and draw the eye. The contrast of the lighter background adds interest without overpowering the scene. Image by Ian D Keating. Bold, bright colours stand out more than subtle, neutral shades.
A burst of contrasting colour against a more monotone background provides a strong focal point in your photo. The brightly-coloured paper boats in this shot act as an effective counterbalance to the extreme positioning of the woman. Image by Helga Weber. Patterns and textures are visually interesting and therefore become natural points of interest.
Strong textures in supporting areas of your photo will help balance an off-centre subject, but beware of textured backgrounds which detract from the main focal point. The texture of the water gives it extra weight, helping to counterbalance the strong imagery of the cliffs.
Objects in sharp focus hold more weight than those which are out of focus. This is particularly useful for reducing the impact of unwanted elements in your scene. Adjust your depth of field to blur distractions and pull attention back to the main subject. The brightly-lit building has been thrown out of focus to reduce its weight and prevent it drawing too much attention away from the main subject.
Image by Matthias Ripp. We are powerfully attracted to living creatures in a photo, particularly if we can see their eyes. This can be a blessing or a curse. If your main subject is a person, other people can appear distracting, whereas in a landscape scene they can provide an interesting focal point. The husky in this image breaks up the expanse of featureless land and balances the mountains in the background. Image by Markus Trienke. If your image includes a person, viewers will naturally follow the direction of their gaze.
This lends weight to what would otherwise be empty space and can be an effective counterbalance on its own. Balance is a way of using the composition of a photo to create a sense of unity, giving a viewer a feeling of satisfaction. All of the elements within the photo work with one another, making the image complete and cohesive. Alternatively, you might want to create a sense of imbalance to instil a feeling of disharmony, purposefully creating tension that will put your viewer on edge and disrupt their sense of how a photo should sit together.
Not only do our brains naturally like these conventions, but they also teach us how to understand every new image that we see. How we choose to juxtapose the various competing elements in our photo will determine the sense of balance and there are several ways of understanding how this balance works.
For more inspiration, check out these examples of juxtapostion photography used recently. Formal photos are symmetrical, typically splitting the image using an imaginary, vertical line down the centre so that the left and right halves are fairly close to being identical, or at the very least hold equal amounts of visual weight. Some small details in the scene might disrupt this symmetry, but the main subject has enough symmetrical balance that it gives an overwhelming sense of evenness in the photo, with each side of the image feeling even.
This is how many of us start out in photography : putting the subject of the image right in the middle of the frame so that there is even space on each side. This is a basic and understandable way of creating a photo: you want to capture something in an image and it makes sense to position it in the most important part of the frame: the middle.
Symmetrical photographs surround us, often happening where an image just needs to be simple, such as in a portrait, or as a means of conveying or illustrating a basic message. While we might be keen to move on to more complex means of composing photographs, the simplicity of symmetrical balance can make it a powerful tool.
A perfectly centred face taps into our understanding of symmetry as something that is desirable and attractive, feeding on our own subconscious feelings that a symmetrical face is a beautiful face.
Formal photography draws heavily on fine art, going all the way back to paintings from the 15th century, or even as far back as Greek temples from BC. Symmetry gives us a feeling of stability, calmness, tranquillity, and formality. Sometimes, a sense of balance symmetry can be implied, and it can even occur diagonally:. Because of all of this, a formal photo can be childishly simple in its approach, or perhaps painfully obvious in its construction, or carefully constructed to give a strong sense of balance and harmony — or possibly even a mixture of all three.
It is the relationship between the different elements that create a sense of balance in photography, drawing again on how as a society we have learned to see images, shaped by a history of art and the images that surround us every day. A photograph with asymmetrical balance often ties in closely with the rule of thirds.
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