Determining whether our images are compelling and visually interesting requires more than a properly exposed, technically correct, tack-sharp image of a wildlife or macro subject. These elements are indeed critical, but they are not all-encompassing. There are many such images that remain visually boring and uninteresting. Quite often, the reason our images fail to excite is that we’ve ignored or violated one or more aspects of composition.
In wildlife and macro photography, visual balance is often poorly understood by photographers, but it is undoubtedly a critical element in achieving a pleasing and compelling image. While visual balance isn’t the same as composition, it is certainly one of the many elements that must be considered under that overarching umbrella. When photographing a living organism, we generally find our subjects in context and relationship with other elements in nature, such as branches, water, rocks, and other wildlife subjects.
However, techniques such as those Joel Sartore employs for the Photo Ark project, and the worldwide photographic style employed by the Meet Your Neighbours project, are unique in that the images are intentionally absent of other elements. Visual balance is then relegated to one of the standard “rules” of composition, such as the golden ratio or the rule of thirds. Key to furthering our understanding of wildlife and macro photography is that it is possible to follow a “rule” of composition, but not achieve visual balance in an image. For example, the subject could be placed on the rule of thirds, but if it is looking into the negative space, it may be visually unbalanced.
Visual balance can be hard to define, but we can be sure that we know it when we see it. It’s obvious when it hasn’t been achieved in an image, though we may not be able to specify the exact reason why. The image will just “feel” off. Visual balance is achieved when the visual weight of elements within the image are in harmony. The elements within an image that may contribute to the visual weight of an image include symmetry (or lack thereof), color, tonal variance, and texture. Bright hotspots in an image will draw the eye. When photographing a bird in a tree, for example, we need to pay particular attention to light coming through leaves and branches behind the subject as it may affect the visual balance of the image.
For wildlife and macro photography, working quickly to capture a subject in a portrait or a moment of interesting behavior may, at times, limit our attention to visual balance pre-capture, such as a cheetah sprinting after prey or Galápagos mockingbirds fighting over territory. There are times when achieving visual balance may require post-capture cropping. We may even resort to cloning or healing elements within an image that are detrimental to the visual balance.
In the two images of the sandhill crane and the moon above, which image has the best visual balance? Why? Take a moment and assess the various elements within each image and explore the concept of visual balance. In the image of the African elephant, which element or elements provide visual balance? Is it color, texture, tonal variation, or some other element? Is it a combination of two or more elements?
In part two of this series, we will continue to expand upon our understanding of visual balance by contemplating how it affects an image when photographing flocks, herds, or groups of wildlife or insects.