The document discusses several key principles of design in photography including balance, perspective, juxtaposition, shape, space, value, lines, texture, and volume. Balance refers to how visual weight is determined by various factors such as size, darkness, sharpness, importance, and depth. Perspective involves linear perspective, aerial perspective, and apparent brightness. Juxtaposition is the placement of objects near each other to allow physical or conceptual comparison. Shape, space, value, lines, texture, and volume are additional design elements that influence a photograph's composition, focus, depth, and meaning.

1. PRINCIPLES
OF DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY

2. BALANCE
• Visual center is above geometric center.
• Visual weight is determined by many variables
• Size
• Darkness – A strong difference in the contrast of objects will
influence its weight. The darker an object is, the heavier we
perceive it to be.
• Sharpness - Sharp edges that contribute to the contrast and give an
object a defined edge, have more visual weight than an object with
less of a contrasted edge.
• Importance - determined by both placement within the frame and
how recognizable an object is. If you consider the effects that a
human face has on an image, when present, regardless of size or
density, it will have more visual weight and more impact on the
balance than other objects of similar size or density.
• Depth – when a picture has a long depth of field, the image has
more detail, recognizable features, and frequently, has its most
dense areas of weight near the bottom of the image, so that the
visual weight is heavy, but there is a little to no visual movement.

3. Size
BALANCE

4. Darkness
BALANCE

5. Sharpness
BALANCE

6. Importance
BALANCE

7. Depth
BALANCE

8. PERSPECTIVE
• Linear Perspective - the further away that parallel lines get from
the viewer, the closer they appear to get to one another.
• Aerial Perspective – the further away that something is the
softer (blurrier) and blue and less intense that it gets. The blue
eventually fades to gray.
• Apparent brightness – increases the closer an object or
reflecting surface is to the viewer. Conversely, the duller an
object appears, the further away that it appears in the picture
plane.

9. Linear
PERSPECTIVE

10. Aerial
PERSPECTIVE

11. Apparent
PERSPECTIVE

12. JUXTAPOSITION
• The placing of one object near another to allow either physical
or conceptual comparison. The naturalness or the strangeness
of the positioning of the objects in the frame will effect, balance,
value, and meaning in the imagery. The relative distance
between objects should reflect their relationship.

13. SHAPE
Space enclosed by a boundary line. Silhouettes, illustrate the
amount of information available from just a shape.
Positive and Negative space. Figures are called positive
space, and the background is called negative space. When the
contour between the positive and negative shapes seems to
belong to both, a figure-ground conflict occurs and the negative
space fights for attention. Discuss placement of things with faces
related to the edges of images. And the power of creating triangles
in images for dynamic eye movement and strong relationships.

14. Positive and Negative
SPACE (SHAPE)

15. VALUE
The range of gray within a picture (every step between black and
white). In black and white photos the amount or variety of values
defines spatial relationships, establishes depth, effects visual
weight, gives shape to objects, and can help move the viewer’s eye
through a picture.
Keys – value is also related to key.
A high key picture is one whose values are predominantly
above middle gray.
A low key picture is one whose values are predominantly
below middle gray.

16. High Key
VALUE

17. Low Key
VALUE

18. LINES
Lines are graphic elements within a picture.
• They can create leading lines that moves the viewer’s eye
through a picture
• They can define depth with linear perspective,
• The hardness or softness can establish quality and focus
*Discuss the power of diagonals in images to create dynamic
images that keep the viewer’s eye moving.

19. Leading lines
LINES

20. Define Depth
LINES

21. Establish focus
LINES

22. TEXTURE
Texture is the surface quality of an object (how rough or smooth it
is). Although textures are tactile in life, in photographs they are
representative of surfaces and patterns. Lighting plays an
important role in textures. The harsher the lighting, the more likely
it is to blow out the shadowy details that reveal the texture to the
camera.

23. TEXTURE

24. VOLUME
Like texture, volume is an illusion in photographs. Volume is the
amount of 3 dimensional space that an object occupies. Volume
appears to have height, width, and depth. Silhouettes or very high
contrast images give good shape, but have little feeling of volume.
Volume can be enhanced by shading on the subject and by the
shadows that are cast on and by the subject.

25. VOLUME