The Frame: Project - Dividing the frame

Exercise: Balance

Aim:  The aim of his exercise is to take a number of existing pictures from previous exercises and decide how the balance works in each one.

Results:

The main focus in this picture is the folly.  The other point of interest is the people.  Having positioned the folly left of centre, this picture would have been more balanced if the people had been on the right side.  However, the folly is well balanced against the background in this image.

This picture suffers from the same imbalance as the first.  The larger group of people would be better placed on the right of the picture, or the shot could have been framed with the folly to the right of centre.

 I have used this image as I think it is rather unbalanced.  The rock is too dominant and the folly too central.  Changing position slightly to make the rock more central and moving the folly to the left would work better, separating the rock and the folly.  

 The two images above are more complicated, with more elements to consider.  That said, I think they are both evenly balanced with a number of points of interest.  A'busier' picture tends to look more balanced as any imbalance is harder to identify.

The balance in this image is more to do with colour than subject.  The yellow blue and green compliment each other as do the red and orange.  I think the dominant red bottle would be better placed at the front of the line although there is symmetry with the yellow at both extremes.  I would try and keep the yellow bottles symmetrical no matter what position they were in.

Learning points:

I think that a picture does not have to have an even balance or symmetry.  A deliberately unbalanced picture can be used to highlight a particular subject, creating a bold or dramatic image.

The balance is more obvious in simpler images with fewer points of interest.  This does not necessarily make the image any easier to balance.