Foundations: Visual Balance

Every element in a photograph has a ‘visual weight’ attached to it, and a harmonious composition is one in which these elements are arranged in a way that seems to achieve visual balance overall. Elements that are high contrast, large, dark in colour, placed on one of the key sections of the frame according to the Rule of Thirds or Golden Ratio, or that we know are genuinely heavy, have increased visual weight compared to those that are low contrast, …