Simple Photography Tips - The psychology of Photography - Entering or leaving a picture
- Michael Blyth
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Three Simple Tips for Photographing apparently moving subjects, The psychology of Photography
Put more 'space' in front of the subect than behind it
Use the thirds rule but with directional balance
'leaving' the picture has enormous visual effect
This is not my chosen place to pen a blog: sitting in the recption area of the Juaneda Hospital on Mallorca while out on another trip to capture a different range of images for Simple Photography Tips. Did a nasty to my knee yesterday, which will possibly put paid to much more walking this trip, and restrict image supply! And it would seem, my brain, as I ended up erroneously publishinh this with a date of 5th November!
But let's look at a handful of images taken on the last trip here, which was in the very south of the island.
Just near the lighthouse of Far del Cap Salines and overlooking Cabrera, the scene is a coast exposed to the direction from which 'weather' and waves lands on the coast, along with unseemly and unenvironmentally friendly plastic.
A rocky end to a rocky island overlooking the rocky island of Cabrera. Stunning sky, with perfect skudding clouds, a strong breeze and a yacht with red sails which inevitably becomes the focal point.
Let's go through the images together and look at the effects we can see in the various images, and what can be learnt from it. The psychology of Photography is quite interesting.
Image One is an interesting one to discuss. The line of rocks in the foreground has the boundary with the sea sloping at about twenty degrees to the horizontal, is dark and dominant. The rest of the scene although taking up just over half the scene, is sufficiently colourfull and bright that it pretty much balances the scene.
However the critical part in this article is the yacht, although small in this image, it is the direction of movement that is critical.
It doesn't have to be a boat, it is anything that is perceived to be facing one direction, left or right. If there is a sense of direction then the image loses balance if the subject is in the 'wrong' half of the picture. In this case the boat is facing towards the centre, so is still visually moving into the picture.
There is still more space in front than behind. The psychological effect is subtle but significant.
A moving subject has visual weight plus implied motion. Where you place that weight changes the balance of the picture:
In image two, the boat is on the left 'vertical third' of the image, and is sailing left. So we have a scene where the subject is sailing out of the picture, leaving us behind.
The balance is wrong.
Image Three shows that it doesn't matter whether the image is landscape or portrait. The yacht is clearly sailing out of the scene, it's running out of space, almost the sense of falling off the edge.
Image Four shows the yacht sailing into the scene, on a natural balance as it's on a vertical thrid, but also it has room to go into. A much more visually comfortable image.
The same is true of Image Five, which I've included to show that this stays true regardless of what is going on in the horizontal plane.
In summary; it matters whether the subject is moving into the picture or out of it. In terms of 'story', it changes how the viewer reads the story, feels about the moment and how direction changes this.
Once this becomes part of your mental 'checklist' you can stop it being an accident, and start using it as a deliberate 'policy' when you take photographs.
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