Balance can be precarious. On the edge perhaps.

How do we know we are balanced when we stand or walk?

Many would say it is innate. Some would say it is a reptilian response that is in a part of our brain that was developed well before we could walk. You could also say it is subconscious.

We do know that we have a floating bone in our ear that we use to measure our balance.

So lets simplify it.

Balance is felt.

It can also be measured, scientifically.

Like learning to stand and walk as a child, we need to develop, learn and practice our balance.

The biggest jump in my rockcliming ability in my twenties came with learning to balance on a slack rope. It took days, that led to weeks or regular practice, as well as some handy hints by others who could do it.

Balance in the visual arts is incredibly important for aesthetic reasons.

It is worth concentrating on and developing.

A good metaphor to use is visual weight.

Another great concept to remember is the tipping point. Taking something so far that it stops working to work out where it does work. Focusing the camera manually is like this. I focus by going back and forth between the out of focus areas, through the focused spot, this isolatting between the two ‘not in focus’ areas leads me to find the spot where my photograph is in focus.

When you are playing with balance, take it to the extreme and see where it stops working to figure out where it does.

To have balance you need at least two or more elements to be balancing off each other. See how you can balance two elements within the picture frame by moving their placement around in the space. Take multiple photographs of each and post three in a row that show you are playing with the balance, show where you have broken the balance and created unbalance.

Repeat this exercise three times with different components. You have so many things that you can play with for balance.

• colour

• saturation

• line

• tone

• objects

• shape

• transparency

• edges

• textures

In my first example bellow the balance I am playing with is between the flower and the background. The figure and the ground. Notice the flower isn’t changing, but my exploration of the background is.

In this next series I am trying to get a balance between the colour red, the reds and the blacks, textures, tones, shapes and edges. There are clear failures in this batch to me.

Keeping it simple will teach you more than going for complex balance. Figure out and work with subjects, techniques and styles that are close to you, your loves and your current work.

Post your photographs in the forum and we will discuss how we react to them. This will be a great discussion as we will have lots to talk about. When posting please put all of the photographs in the set in one image so we can see all of them at once.

https://lensclub.discussion.community/post/ex92-balance-11249164?pid=1321445540#post1321445540