25 Pictorial Tension between Two Elements

Two opposing poles create magnetic tension, and something similar happens with pictorial tension. However, how do you provide tension in a photo?

You already saw how a photograph with good composition consciously leads you through the image, and you also learned how photographs can be rhythmically composed. Now I am going to explain how to achieve pictorial composition by concentrating the center of attention in two poles and including some rhythmic elements in it.

If you reflect a bit about composition in photography, you’ll realize you probably tend to choose a particular subject such as a pretty house, a person, or a special tree and then you place the subject either in the middle or (a better alternative) ...

Get The Art of Black and White Photography, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.