St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Let's balance this out and see where TEN's Chapter 5 leads us! S-

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

What To Do Next:
- Read the fifth lesson “Get Balanced”
- Carry out the Creative Exercise at the bottom of the lesson
- Select one of your images to post and discuss the questions
- This should be informal and interactive. So talk, talk, talk!
- I’ll give a go ahead when we’re ready to move to the next lesson
- But feel free to cheat and read ahead if you want!

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Personally, balance is the ultimate criterion to be satisfied in any image I produce, so, of course, I am surprised when my images elicit comments relating to a need for "better balance". It may be because I see and attempt to achieve balance among features other than "mass" or "positive and negative space". I may focus on color( complementary...warm vs, cool) , on perspective ( close and distant) , emotional "density"/ennui (when I mention that, most eyes glaze over...), restraint versus/incipient action, fight/flight, and often what I see as balance others perceive as contrast...
So, here are some of my examples of balance:

1

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2

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3

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4

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Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Outstanding intro and examples, Dave. I'm inspired to get out with camera tomorrow! Can you elaborate on the emotional density/ennui mention, please?

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Beautiful examples, Dave, and good explanations as well. Like Linda, I'd like to see some more about the emotional density part. Balance seems to describe the concept you're illustrating best.

You've set a high bar for this assignment, which has had me a bit muddled.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

This was a captive okapi showing considerable hyperactive anxiety due to temporary enclosure in a far-too-small enclosure. Before her condition was relieved with a darted tranquilizer, her expression from my perspective seemed one of resigned despair...yeah...so try not to anthropomorphize..just try....

the second image is of a killdeer that was totally oblivious to my presence until the moment just before making the exposure. As I made the exposure I thought from her immediate, startled posture was : "she's outta here!... and, indeed, she disappeared into the featureless green beyond.
Dave

anxiety...sadly, the space that would have relieved her anxiety was not available.

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Killdeer...on the cusp...

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Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

And another example of anxiety in spite of seeming "breathing space is this image of an osprey who got to take her bullhead to a perch where she could eat without risk of being robbed by the bald eagle overhead.

Dave

Beat it, eagle!

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minniev Loc: MIssissippi

This was the hardest of the chapters for me. I don't know if the concept is just outside my thought process or if I'm simply too distracted with some other things going on in my life to pay proper attention.

I understand Dave's submissions - when I look at them I see how they illustrate the concept. But when I tried to shoot with this concept in mind I had problems.

Because I wasn't sure I'd get another chance to shoot before this chapter rolled out, I tried to kind of combine the Balance Concept with the Depth/Perspective Concept from the prior chapter while I was in New Orleans.

Here's one I'll let you tell me whether it has balance or not. My goal was to have the image of the central character in the foreground, balancing that whole horse and carriage operation, all receding with the perspective. Whether that has ANYTHING to do with balance I shall have to leave up to you. I concede my brain is foggy on this one.

I shot some more efforts in the swamp yesterday but haven't processed them yet, will wait for the questions.

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pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

Dave, I am really liking number 3...

Minnie, I am where you are with this one. I am thinking that Dave's idea of negative space has merit. The author did not go too deep explaining what he was talking about - and his teeter-totter example confused me. I guess if "empty" has weight, then it makes more sense, but I find it confusing to think about weight be countered by non-weight.. I guess it is a anti-matter vs. matter type of thing, but to me, that is "contrast", not balance... !?

edit - sure, symmetry is balance, yin-yang is balance of opposites with mirrored symmetry holding it together.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I'm going to chat a lot about what both Minnie and Piet have said, but wanted to post this first.

Shot this morning for the exercise. I feel there are two instances of visual mass (per author) that balance the image in that regard. And my deliberate placement of horizon line is an example of imbalance (we hardly ever want the horizon line directly in the center of the frame anyway, right?) which focuses our attention on the field, and emphasizes how much work this farmer has ahead of him.

Please feel free to disagree with my analyses :)

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pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

I like how the tractor is on (close to) the horizon. I see a triangle where the tractor is the main subject with the trees to the left and the foreground detail grounding and "balancing" it.

Not mentioned was "threes" or odd numbers which I suspect is a principle that provides a natural balance between objects more easily. And I like much how the lines bring us from object to object. Lines go to the tractor, then horizon to trees, and then we drop down and do it again.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

For me this was the hardest assignment, so far, to produce examples “on demand.” It occurred to me, after much contemplation :) that generally balance is something along the lines of “we know it when we see it” and that when we compose, it is more an internal, automatic action, rather than deliberate. Also, balance may not always apply (close-up of one subject) or may be more readily identified by another term (contrast or negative space). Any thoughts on these thoughts?

Minnie, for me balance would come more into play if there is space between the central subject and the horse/carriage. I think your photo posted yesterday Lucky Dogs is a good example of imbalance and Frank alluded to same: the visual weight of the left side is much greater than the bit on the right. I'm using visual weight here to describe the size of the elements within the frame. Let me know if that's wrong!

Piet, I had to go back and look at the author's image again because I had seen it as a balance between the static man on cart and the purposefully striding man on the right. I hope more folks will talk about this conundrum!

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

It's interesting how much we do on an instinctual basis based on the bias of out unconscious. Thank you for starting this! S-

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I think it is born from training and experience, however :)

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

You are probably right, but I think we have a natural tendency to instinctively look at things a certain way, and then with training and experience we hone it ever more. It's interesting when you think about how much goes on at the sub-conscious level and makes me appreciate why autistic kids have such a hard time coping with the world. Our brain is a marvelous thing! S-

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

yet he said: Tunis, Tunisia, 2008 – Canon 5D, 17mm, 1/1600 @ f/4.0, iso 800
The man on the left has a great deal of visual mass - from his dark suit to his scowl and his size in the frame. Placing him on the right third allows the space of
the leftmost two thirds to balance him. Without the man on the cart I think I‘d like the image less but it would be an even more dynamically balanced image.

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he must have flipped the image... since the dark clothed man is on the right. What I find interesting is that he thinks it would be more "dynamically" balanced -- perhaps he is saying empty balances heavy. I'm sure he understands balance perfectly, but I don't think he is explaining it well.

I agree about your point about Minnie's shot. I think when the horses, wagon, and man overlap - they effectively become a single object with a single heavy weight.

Also I want to say - to me, the weight thing is not all that different from the light thing. If an image has a lot of light, we might say that it is a high-key image. Perhaps there are also "heavy" and "light" images. I would call Minnie's shot a "heavy" image.

Anyway, so perhaps the author is advocating "medium" weight images - heavy, offset by light. (just rambling in my confused way). I was disappointed in this chapter. I am sure balance is important, I just don't feel that it has been explained.