The greater the conflict, the greater the tension.
As I tell my fellow photographers that either take my online classes with the BPSOP, or participate in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops, we want our viewers to stick around as long as possible. The goal is to make them active participants when looking at our images.
I tell them that the greater the conflict, the greater the tension. Tension as in Visual Tension.
In my class on Gestalt, one of the six concepts is Figure-Ground. This is the way to separate the Figure, the subject, from the Ground, the background. If both the figure and the background each carry the same visual weight, it can create tension; as each threatens to overtake the other.
This happens the most when either the subject is dark against a lighter background, or the subject is light against a darker background. A great way to achieve this is to have the negative space as important as the positive space.
Contrast is also one of the ways. Putting bright highlights adjacent to the shadow area. Bright areas against very dark areas.
Diagonal lines have more energy than horizontal and vertical lines. The conflict is in the fact that diagonal lines are perceived as less stable and the feeling of the lines falling forward.
Having the subject either very close to the edge of the frame or partially out of the frame. It creates an uneasiness and draws the eye to it. When we generate Visual Tension, the viewer feels like there’s something going to happen.
As I said, all these examples will make the viewer stick around longer…exactly what we want him to do.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/barabanjoe Come shoot with me sometime in one of the workshops I have listed above.
JoeB
