Night time shots - lights and balance - Are these photos balanced?

[decklyn]

Hello,

I just ran into a 'good rain photos' thread on noupe.com and I found I was challenged while critiquing some of the photos as they seemed to have questionable balance to me. I'm just starting to read books and am trying to learn to analyze photos a bit better so that I may become a better photographer myself - I'm wondering if you can help me understand why the photographer would have framed the below photos as they did.

View attachment 61832
The above photo has the subject on the right which seems to be fairly balanced by the white police car, given that if the subject wasn't there, your eye would dart at the police car. However, the clear circular shape, size (larger than the car) and brightness of the lights on the right seem to draw balance heavily to that side of the frame. Maybe they balance out the brightness on the left but that seems to then ignore the subject. So I would tend to complain about the balance of the photo a bit and I'm wondering if I'm off in my analysis of this. Perhaps the balance of a photo can actually exclude the subject? so that the white lights on the right balance the car and light on the left, and then the subject is simply off center. So composition and balance are really independent entities - that balance is sort of a meta-concern and composition of the photo is thought about a bit 'on top' of the consideration of where to frame the subject in isolation.

View attachment 61833

The lights here, again, seem to overpower the balance of the photo a bit but I suppose the vertical lines and the sign and the car may help to balance out this a bit - thoughts on this one and on the balance/composition would be helpful.

Thankyou!

 

[amolitor]

Don't worry overmuch about bright and dark by themselves. In both of these the highest contrast is where it needs to be. The dark shape of the man against the bright reflections in the street in the first one, and the dark mass of the car with the bright rimlights and streetlight adjacent.

The lines in both lead pretty much to where you want as well.

You're overthinking balance, I think. Balance isn't really about small forms, it's about larger masses and, more generally, larger scale stuff. Mostly. Ideally you get balance all the way down to the smallest details, but generally you're going to start large and worry about large most. These both seem more or less in-balance to me. The frame does not feel like it's going to tip over (well, the second one kind of leans to the left) and neither one feels "too light" or "too dark" or "too green" or "too many lights" particularly.

 

[amolitor]

As an aside, you're not supposed to post pictures you don't own in these forums, per the FAQ. You might consider replacing the pictures with links to where the pictures can be found on other web sites.

 

[The_Traveler]

The first one is a little off to me because it is damn close to being square, but not, and the person is almost directly in the center.I would have framed it differently so that he is proceeding towards a larger space and there is not so much behind him.http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l61/llorton/rainphotography14llll.jpg~originalsort of the same with the second.There are two things that draw my eye, the car and the person.I would have framed to balance them as much as possible, and that would remove that big thing at the top which attracts attention but contributes nothing.And, holy smoke, post bigger pictures.We aren't charging by the pixel.http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l61/llorton/rainphotography5lll.jpg~original

 

[sashbar]

decklyn - as amolitor rightly says you are overthinking formal attributes of the image.

Composition and balance are there to support the image, not to restrict it to certain rules. Go with the general feel of an image first , then think if the composition supports it, and if the balance is right.

The first image depicts a man in a rainy, desolate street at night. The composition has to support this feeling. So there should be a space around the man, a mood of uncertainty, momentarily loneliness, the feeling of rain, cold etc etc. When you put your subject in the centre here and give him a lot of space around, you support this feeling. Cropping it tighter and putting him at 1/3 creates direction and purpose. It is not desirable here in my view. So generally a centred composition is not the best, but here it works quite well. All other components that you mention are of secondary importance to the main impression here.

As for the second picture - I do not see vertical lines that you mention, the main point to consider here is the tilt. The image is horribly tilted, which I think is intentional. Is it justified here ? I have no certain answer to this question, because on the surfice of it the image must be straightened. But if you look at the straightened one, it may look plain and boring. The lights are alright to me.

So to make it short, do not let the parts to determine the whole, let the whole determine the parts. I hope you catch my drift - my English is limited.

 

[decklyn]

Thank you muchly for posting your replies. I can certainly see I have a lot of learning to do about composition - I've just started to try to get beyond the shutter bug phase (well, with 3+ years of shooting but I'm definitely a hobbyist amateur and will never let myself think I'm more!!).

Really good and helpful analysis to contrast my own with.

Thanks for your time everyone. As for the pictures being posted here, they are linked from an external site which is not the photographer's site and are not actually posted here but I will leave a link as well and will read the faq so thanks for pointing out the rules for me.

Greatfully,
-D

 

[kchoi]

I just think you are thinking too much about balance as amolitor said.
Think photography as an art of deduction and you want to capture the image with your camera. By reducing what you see in the sense to what you left on the photo, you will have a better photo than capturing all the thing.

For photo 1, I am thinking the purpose of taking this photo. Are the photographer like the sense and want to present this view to the reader? If he want to present the nice rainy road, I think it should be much better without the subject in the middle. Or he like the subject in the middle? If yes, I think he can do a more close-up shoot to make the subject stand out.

For photo 2, the view is great, the snow gives the mood, but I think the horizon have some problem.