Principle of Design – Proportion

Proportion is one of my favorite ways to create interesting compositions. One good way to achieve an image with great use of proportion is to use a wide angle lens.

This image from St. George Island in Florida emphasizes the sky by placing only a small amount of the green ground in the frame. In this case, the sky is much larger proportionately.

When using a wide angle lens, you can get really close to your subject and make it look much bigger than the surrounding background.

Using this technique and larger proportions in general are a quick and easy way to emphasize a subject that you want to stand out.

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January 19, 2013March 23, 2015

Principle of Design – Movement

Movement is all about moving the viewer’s eye throughout the frame, and creating an illusion that your image is moving. Examples of good use of movement are blurred water, diagonal lines, and stopping motion when appropriate.

The image below uses both of these ideas. The texture gives somewhat of a “vibrating” look, like the forest is moving. The combination of dark and light vertical lines helps to move the viewer’s eye from one side to the other.

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This photograph from Fires Creek in North Carolina uses blurred motion of the water to emphasize the constant flow of the water. This is achieved by the use of a long exposure and a tripod.

Lines create movement of the viewer’s eye all around this piece. The spiral naturally draws you back into the frame, where you land on the last circle.

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January 19, 2013March 23, 2015

Principle of Design – Variety

Variety is about varying elements and objects in your image, to avoid making them boring. Variety can also be varying your angles, exposure, composition, etc., to get a few different looks to the same image.

This image below has variety because each shell is completely unique. There is also unity in this image because each shell is still a part of the whole beach. You can vary color, shape, textures, and any other combination of elements.

This image has variety by introducing another element into the foreground of the picture. Without the rocks, this would be just another waterfall image. The rocks add something new, while keeping the same feel in the overall image.

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January 18, 2013March 23, 2015

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.

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

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

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December 4, 2012March 23, 2015

Principles of Design – Contrast

the principles of design in photography - contrast - a window inside an old cabin in the great smoky mountains national park

The principle of contrast is relatively easy to understand. Contrast adds interest to any photograph. Whether it’s local contrast in specific areas, or global contrast across the entire image, it will almost always add pop to your image.

HDR images that look “fake” have no global contrast. The light is even throughout the entire frame. Personally, I don’t think this looks very natural at all.

An image like this one below has a huge amount of contrast, so much that the blacks go totally black in some areas and the whites are clipped and go completely white. The window is from the inside of the Noah “Bud” Ogle cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This image of the same cabin also has contrast that really makes this image stand out.

Here is another great example of the use of contrast. The natural lighting really made this image, lighting the trees in the foreground.

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November 21, 2012March 23, 2015

Principle of Design – Pattern/Rhythm

The Principles of Design in photography - rhythm

Pattern and rhythm is an easy principle to understand. They are pretty much self-explanatory. I will show a few creative examples below of how it can be used in your photography.

A good example of a pattern and rhythm in an interesting, complex composition.

Pattern of color, line, and shape.

Patterns in nature.

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November 16, 2012March 23, 2015

Principle of Design – Harmony

The principles of design in photography - harmony

Harmony in art is about creating a visually stimulating image by combining similar elements throughout the frame. Some elements that can be used are color, shape, and texture.

The above image uses harmony in a few different ways. The orange color brings together the whole image since it is spread out evenly throughout the entire image. Harmony without contrast, however, is boring. The orange is dark, light, blurred, sharp, big, small, and overall varied infinitely.

The harmony in this image comes from the green moss covering each of the rock. The contrast is added by the light and dark areas on each one.

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November 11, 2012March 23, 2015

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.

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.

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.

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August 16, 2012April 1, 2016

The Principles of Design in Photography

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The principles of design take the Elements of Art and organize them in a single piece of art. While these apply to any media in art, I will be using them specifically for photography.

1. Balance

Balance is arranging the elements in a piece so that there is an equality from one side to the other. A symmetrical image has perfect balance. Balance can also be achieved by asymmetry or radial arrangement. Below are an example of both poor and good balance.

2. Harmony

The dictionary definition of harmony is “a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts;congruity”. This happens in art by using similar elements through out a piece that bring it together in a “pleasing” way. Harmony can be considered simplicity.

I chose this image to represent a good harmony. The orange and yellow leaves are all around the frame, bringing it together in a simple way. The white water is also simple and creates a “harmony”. This is one of the most difficult principles to grasp.

3. Pattern/Rhythm

Pattern or rhythm is simply repeating an element in such a manner. This will cause the viewer’s eye to move around to each element.

4. Unity

Unity is taking the parts of a piece of art and unifying them in to something better as a whole. Composition is a great way to do this. This image could be separated in to each part as its own piece, but together they become a unified composition.

5. Contrast

Contrast is easy. It is similar to adding contrast to an image overall, but this is done by using the elements. You can create contrast in an image by using complementary colors or differences in light and dark.

6. Proportion

Proportion is using the size of an object to give it more or less importance. Finding an image that uses this purposefully was difficult. In this image, the size of the sky was dramatically greater than the ground, giving it importance.

The above image was done through composition. This next image gives importance by lens distortion and placement. The rocks in the lower part of the frame appear huge, giving them more importance.

7. Variety

Variety is exactly what it sounds like, having variety in your elements! The image on the left has variety by combining a sunset sky, the bridge, and the middle ground of the trees. The image on the right has variety in each of the shells. By differing the kinds of shells, I’ve created variety that still maintains unity in that they are all shells.

8. Movement

Movement is one of the simpler principles to learn; I actually used it a lot when discussing the Elements of Art. The goal of creating movement is to lead the viewer’s eye all around the photo and land on the focal point. The image below does a great job of that using line and tone.

In the future, each principle will be explored further with its own blog post. The more detailed posts will go further in to how these principles can be used for photography! Be sure to subscribe with your email to receive updates! If you haven’t checked out The Elements of Art, you’ll want to do that as well!

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