Leading to Balance

Sgt. Maj. Brian Card and Brig. Gen.Gary Beard take a moment to chat on Sicily Drop Zone on September 10, 2010. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   This might be a harder series for me to write about simply because I personally don't often see balance, except in in it's most basic forms. Balance in art and photography can refer to a number of different elements.

   However, if you haven't noticed I have a serious addiction to clearly defined subjects. And in my head when I'm looking for subjects I tend to single them out, this means that I have to deliberately seek out balance. The easiest way for me to add balance to my photos is to simply look for look for two subjects.

No, balance doesn't just mean having two subjects in your photographs. But it's probably the easiest way to understand balance.

   In the above picture there's an equal amount of ground and sky. That in and of itself is balance. A lot of times nature photography has at a minimum that balance.

Did I miss getting one of the soldiers fully in two points of interest? Yes. Are

there more than a few leading lines? Yes, from the sun to the invisible ones of 

eye contact. You could argue the horizon itself adds a line to our subjects as 

well.

   However, you notice my subject isn't, a soldier, but rather two soldiers. By virtue that it's two subjects the photo has balance. However not symmetrical balance. Had I put one soldier on the left point of interest and the other soldier on the right points of interest it would have been symmetrical.

   However, there is one more major element to this photograph  and that is the sun itself. It's tough to compete against the. Sun, it's a big ball of light with leading lines exploding from it. And as we discussed yesterday light naturally draws the eyes toward and away from it.

   Does it compete with our two soldiers? Yes. Does it add balance? Well, a big heavy object like the sun adds weight. Is it equal to our two soldiers? Not quite.

In many respects this photo has asymmetrical balance.

   What else does this photo have? Well invisible leading lines. The two soldiers are looking at each other, and the eyes naturally pull us to other parts of the frame, we want to see what those eyes are looking at.

So in one photo we've used balance, leading lines and paid attention to the rule of thirds. Does adding more elements make this photo better? Debatable. But when you're out and about the first things you should be thinking about are your subject and what element of composition your're going to pull out of your tool box.

Continue reading about balance in these posts:
"Balance with a twist"
"Beach Balance"
"Balancing Act: Light vs. Dark"