Project 11 - Balance

This project required selection of 6 or so photographs, to decide how the balance works in each one. The selection process was quite difficult in itself, although the rule in the notes about fewer and more distinct elements making the balance more obvious definately applied.

I couldn't work out how to draw a weighing scale for this blog, however I have highlighted the main components affecting balance and will discuss each one in turn.

Starting with my favourite image, "Puppy Love". This is a perfect image for this exercise as it has 2 key components, which are of marked different sizes, against a plain background. This image was taken back in May 2009, and was cropped at the time. In hindsight, this was probably to achieve a balanced pleasing composition. The big dog (a very old man) occupies a central position about the fulcrum, but with the majority of his body on the right hand side of the frame. Ruby, the little pup, is placed close to the edge of the frame thereby enabling her to exert more force from a balance perspective.

I haven't marked the plain rose. I considered this to be a symmetrical and balanced composition, with the lines of the petal edges curling around this centre. I took a lot of "rose" shots earlier in the year, and I naturally composed them all in this way. Although static compositions are often discouraged in other situations, I feel that rose close ups work best when symmetrically arranged like this. I'm uncertain why this feels to be the case, but perhaps it is the beauty of that flower itself that drives the rules for its composition.

"The Butterfly Proboscis" was my first butterfly shot, earlier in 2009. Photographing butterflies on buddleia is commonplace, but it still feels good to get your first one! Again there are 2 key components, and a non descript background, so the balance is obvious. The buddleia has more weight in the image, by virtue of it's position and size. Therefore this is not a balanced image. The question is whether unbalanced tension adds sufficient interest to an ubiquitous subject, or whether this image should be improved by cropping closer to the butterfly so it exerts more weight and balances the image out. I have tried such a crop, and it probably does improve the image, but it still remains unbalanced.

"The Bee" had 3 key components as shown. The flower that is a different colour to the rest stands out and occupies a fulcrum position. The off-centre bee is then balanced by the expanse of flowers in sharp focus on the right. This was also a crop undertaken prior to the course, unwittingly to achieve balance.

"The Groyne" . I considered that there were 2 key components in this image, namely the groyne itself and the empty expanse of beach beside it. The distant sea, horizon & sky did not affect balance in my opinion, as they run through the back of the image in a strip and are therefore neutral. I think this is a balanced image, as the larger and heavier groyne is balanced by the fact that the expanse of beach beside it (the empty space) extends right to the edge of the frame and therefore exerts more force, to use the weighing scale analogy.

Finally the chocolates. I considered that the 2 milk chocolates and their reflections were actually one component because they were not sharply in the focus. The sharp focus however makes the white chocolate a single dominant component. In this particular image, my feeling is that the area in sharp focus has more weight than the areas which is out of focus, it is "denser". Therefore, with that assumption, I consider this image to be balanced and I think it works for that reason.

It has been interesting to revisit some basic laws of physics that I haven't done since school, and apply them to images taken!