Balance in Photography

Balance is one of the least-discussed principles of good photography, but it is perhaps the most important. Photographers, consciously or not, make an important decision for every image: should the composition be balanced or imbalanced? To some degree, every photograph in existence has elements of both balance and imbalance, which makes this topic crucial for photographers looking to improve the strength of their images at the most fundamental level.

Left-Right Balance

When a photo is perfectly balanced, it means that the left and right halves of the photo draw the eye equally.

The left-right division is the only one in your photos which really matters in terms of balance — the top-bottom balance has little effect on how evenly-weighted an image appears. In the same way, we see other people as roughly symmetrical, even though this is only true on the left-right axis. Thus, you can have a photo where all the subjects are along the bottom, and it can still be balanced if the left and right halves are equal in their visual weight.

Imagine putting a photo on a fulcrum — if the features of each side draw the eye similarly, the image can be considered balanced.

Balance vs Imbalance

Balance, or a lack of it, inherently makes your images appear more or less serene. With a balanced image, the frame is more calm than one which skews visual attention to one side or the other.

Symmetry

The most obvious type of balance is one in which the image is identical on the left and right halves. Perfect, pixel-level symmetry is not possible outside of computer-generated images, but a nearly-symmetrical photo is more than enough for us to notice a balanced composition.

What Attracts the Eye?

To know how to balance a photo, you need to know what attracts viewer’s eyes in a photo.  Here’s a short list:

1. Areas of contrast
2. Items that are in focus (especially if most of the photo is not)
3. Bright spots
4. Saturated items
5. Warm (red/yellow) colors
6. Large items
7. People and (to a lesser extent) animals
8. The eyes of your subject
9. The direction that your subject is looking (even if it is an empty space, it gains visual weight because viewers will want to look the same direction as the subject)

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it’s a good place to start. Any time that an item in the photo stands out compared to the rest of the image, it holds some amount of visual weight. If you are trying to balance your photo effectively, you must arrange the items so that they cancel out each other’s visual effects.

Again, like placing the image on a fulcrum, objects that are near the edges of your photo will carry more weight than those closer to the center. So, to balance two similar objects across the frame, you would place them at a similar distance from the center. Or, if there is just one important object in your composition, the most balanced composition places it along the center line.

Conclusion

If you are meticulous with your compositions, you will be able to control the degree of balance in most scenes. And, if you find a scene that cannot be balanced effectively, you generally can use post-processing to highlight certain aspects of the frame over others.

Ultimately, whether you choose to balance your frame or not, it is important to be deliberate. Ask yourself about the type of image you want, then consider how balance (or imbalance) can help you achieve your goal. If you are subtle — especially when using imbalance — you will be able to make stronger and more intentional compositions, which boils down to an improvement in the quality of your images.

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