This week we’re taking an in-depth look at The American School of Paris’s free tutorial on composition. If you’re just joining us, be sure to hit the rewind button on your browser and take a moment to enjoy our previously featured segments: introduction, simplicity, rule of thirds, and lines. We’ll wait.
Are you back already? Great. Today we’re looking at the importance of balance. A well-balanced photograph is one where all of the compositional elements — shapes, colors, and areas of light and dark — are working together for optimal visual effect. Who knew taking great photos would be such a tough balancing act?
Balance can be achieved either symmetrically, where the objects in the frame literally appear to balance one another out, as if they were on a scale, or asymmetrically, where perhaps a larger object appears as the focal point in the frame with a number of smaller objects providing balance in the background.
There are many ways to achieve a balanced look in a photograph either formally or informally.
After you’ve worked your way through the slides for this topic, please take a moment to go back and look at the photographs you selected after reading the introduction blog post. Are there any photographs in the “good stack” where you achieved an excellent balance of all of the photographic elements? Which elements specifically are well balanced? Were you aware of that while you were taking the picture? Conversely, are there any where perhaps you would change something in light of today’s learning?
We hope you’ll come back tomorrow when we’ll be talking about the next compositional element in the tutorial, Framing. Until then, may all your photographs — and your checkbook — balance!
