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Principles of Design – Unity

Principles of Design - Unity

Unity is what brings an image together as one piece. A good photograph that is unified is one where everything appears to belong. No elements are added that shouldn’t be there and don’t help with the overall composition.

This image below is unified by not only the bright colors throughout the image, but also the fall leaves that cover the entire frame.

fall leaves in a creek with green and blue reflections

This image of a pile of leaves is unified by the similar shape of the leaves.

black and white image of pile of leaves

This final, multiple exposure image is unified by color and texture. The entire image consists of these similar elements and therefore looks “unified”.

Principles of Design - Unity

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Principle of Design – Balance

The Principles of Design in Photography - Balance

Balance is a design principle relating to the visual weight in the frame. An empty image with just a single subject on one side of the frame would be heavy towards one side. This image of a bird on an empty background shows that well.

The Principles of Design in Photography - Balance

This image of a fishing pier and its reflection on the lake show an image perfectly balanced over a one of the thirds in the frame. Placing areas of interest over a line or cross section that is one-third in to the frame is an excellent compositional rule.

The Principles of Design in Photography - Balance

While it can’t be said whether a balanced or unbalanced image is good or bad compositionally, balance should be used purposefully to achieve what you are trying to do.

Be sure to browse around some my images on the site that are for sale and find balanced or unbalanced compositions!

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The Elements of Art – Shape

Shape

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The fourth element of art is shape. Shape is a two dimensional area formed by the other elements of art.

The photo below is an excellent example of the element of line creating circle shapes. Notice how the way the shapes are arranged across the image helps to lead the eye far back into space.

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The Elements of Art – Line

Click here to pre-order an Elements of Art in Photography physical book! (Discount for bulk orders)

The next element of art that can be used to improve your photography is line. Line is created by shapes, edges of shapes, differences in tone, or anything that makes your eye follow a path.

Line is VERY important to getting your viewer to look at your images the way YOU want them to. Lines naturally lead viewer’s eyes around. There are actual lines such as a rail, a road, or a tree. Implied lines are things like edges of a building, the line of a model’s body, or elements that are in a line but not really connected.

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The Elements of Art in Photography

Tone

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In fine art of any media, there are seven basic elements of art. There are also the principles of design, but I will get to that in another post. I learned the elements of art while studying fine arts at Young Harris College. While we only applied these to other mediums such as painting, charcoal, and pencil drawing, they are just as applicable to photography!

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