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Balance—the way all the elements are arranged in an image: symmetrical (centered), circular (radial), rule of thirds (off center), rule of odds (three), or simplification.
Symmetrical:creating an even positioning and balance of all the elements in a image with them filling up space equally throughout the image frame. This can be accomplished often by centering your subject. But is also often done by creating mirrored halves of an image by using reflections or by using repeating patterns.
Circular—balance radiates out in a circular motion from the main element(s) in the image. This is often done with flowers, tunnels, and spinning wheels.
The Rule of Thirds is a common technique for achieving balance in your composition. If you subdivide your photo into thirds both vertically and again horizontally, you’ll wind up with an evenly spaced grid (like tic-tack-toe boxes). The sections where lines cross are points of interest. These points are where you want to place your subject, parts of the image where you want attention to be drawn or show points of activity.
The Rule of Odds—also known as “Three’s Company” states that framing your subject with 2 surrounding objects (thus creating an odd number of 3) suggests balance & harmony visually.
Simplification is the technique of reducing a composition to only the most essential elements that support the visual statement. This technique is particularly difficult for photographers.
Balance and Simplification—elements from this image that were throwing the image off balance (light poles, trash cans, people) were removed to balance the image better and make it a MUCH better composition with many less distractions as well.
Include (4) images of your own: (1) image showing symmetrical balance (centering); (1) image showing the Rule of Thirds in a "landscape" orientation; and (1) image showing the Rule of Thirds in a "portrait" orientation; and (1) image showing the "rule of odds"... For each image, explain how and why this balance to made your composition a better composition
This is symmetrical balance
as you can see the fountain is nearly symmetrical and the wall behind it also had some symmetrical balance.
This use the rule of thirds,it has 3 sets of red flower plants that are centered on 3 areas on the imaginary grid.
Here is the rule of thirds again but in a landscape format similar format to the
portrait one.
This uses the rule of odds, in this picture we are able to see that the fountain is off center in the bottom left of the picture,to me this helps the picture out due to the shadows placement,and some of the lighting looks well.
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