Landscape photography tip: Balance in your photo

Thursday 4 February 2021, 20:02 by Nando Harmsen | 3,768 views | 2 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

It is good to choose a clear subject in your landscape photo. This gives the viewer something to look at. But make sure you position that subject well in the frame. Create balance to prevent the photo from becoming unbalanced.

We do not like being off balance, because then we fall. Strangely enough, this also applies to a photo. If a photo is unbalanced, it will not look pleasing. So make sure you almost always find a good balance in your composition. This prevents the photo from appearing to tip over. So to speak.

You often hear about the rule of thirds in photography. It is a rule based on composition technique, which tells you that a horizon or subject should always be positioned at 1/3 from the edge. If you follow this very strictly, there is a risk that one part of the photo will be filled, while the rest becomes empty. The photo is then unbalanced.

By placing everything on the right, with the sun at 1/3 from the edge, the left side is completely empty. This is a typical example of an unbalanced photo.
You create balance by adding a counterweight to the photo, filling that emptiness. If you have a subject on the left or right of the frame, make sure there is something else in the background in the empty part of the photo. It does not even have to be in sharp focus, as long as it acts as a counterweight.

The mountain in the background provides a counterweight to the tree on the right. This balances the photo.

A counterweight is not always necessary or desirable. You can also avoid this by not rigidly placing your subject at 1/3. A central composition is not wrong, and can work more often than you might think. Do not let yourself be influenced too much by others who say you should never put anything in the centre of the frame.

Having your subject in the centre, or almost in the centre, is absolutely no problem.
Balance and filling empty space are not always necessary. As with all the 'rules' in photography, you are free to deviate from them. Just as you can deviate from the rule of thirds to fill empty space, you can also make deliberate use of empty space. Just be careful not to lose balance when you look at the photo.

The Landscape Bible, with 101 tips for wonderful landscape photos

This tip is part of the book De Landschapsbijbel, in which I share 101 tips for wonderful landscape photos. The book, full of beautiful photos, gives you all the information you need to start taking your own fantastic landscape photos.


Don't have De Landschapsbijbel yet? Order it via the order page and buy the book separately, or at an attractive discount in combination with a membership of Photofacts Academy.

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