Why This Photo Works: A No-Nonsense Guide to Composition
Right, let's talk. You and I both know that feeling. You take a hundred photos, maybe a thousand. You get home, load them up, and pour a coffee strong enough to dissolve a spoon, only to find that most of them are… fine. They’re just fine. But one of them stands out. It has a certain something.
So, what is that something? Is it divine intervention? A fluke? Did the photography gods smile upon you for a fleeting moment? Probably not. It's usually because, whether by accident or by design, you nailed the photographic composition.
Today, I’m putting one of my own photos on the operating table. No fluff, no nonsense. We're going to dissect this long exposure of Brisbane's Riverside Expressway and figure out, in simple terms, why it doesn't suck.
The patient. A long exposure of Brisbane, Australia, at golden hour.
1. Asymmetrical Balance: The Art of a Tense Standoff
Before we get into the fancy stuff, let's look at the big picture. An image needs balance, but balance doesn't always mean perfect, boring symmetry. Sometimes, the most interesting images are like a dysfunctional family dinner: full of tension that just works.
Asymmetrical balance in photography occurs when two sides of an image have unequal visual weight but still feel balanced. This is often achieved by balancing a large, less detailed area against a smaller, more complex one, or a static element against a dynamic one.
This photo is split into two distinct personalities:
The Static Top: The cityscape. It’s solid, permanent, unmoving. Each building is a sharp, defined anchor in the frame.
The Dynamic Bottom: The highway. It’s a river of light and motion, completely fluid and ephemeral.
The top half is solid and static, while the bottom half is pure motion. It's an intentional visual conflict.
The heavy visual weight of the sharp, detailed skyline is balanced by the energy and implied speed of the traffic below. Neither one overpowers the other; they create a tension that makes the whole scene more compelling. It’s the visual equivalent of pairing a rich, dark chocolate with a sharp, acidic espresso. Perfect.
2. Leading Lines: Your Eye's Personal GPS
Okay, so we've established the scene. Now, how do I make sure you actually look at it properly? I don't want your eyes wandering off the frame to wonder if you left the oven on.
Leading lines are compositional elements, such as roads, paths, or rivers, that are used to guide the viewer's eye through the frame, typically towards the main subject. They create a sense of depth and visual flow.
In this shot, the light trails from the cars aren't just pretty blurs; they are bright, curving paths that act as a visual GPS. They pull your eye from the bottom of the frame, sweep it through the curve of the highway, and point it directly at the main subject: the city.
The light trails literally draw a map for your eyes, leading them straight to the skyline.
It’s a visual "hey, look over here!" It gives the photo a sense of purpose, turning a flat image into a journey. Without these lines, the connection between the foreground traffic and the background city would feel weak and disjointed.
3. Colour Harmony: Less is So Much More
Let's be honest, the world is a chaotic mess of colours. A good photo often brings order to that chaos. You don't need a whole rainbow to make an impact. In fact, a limited, controlled palette is often more powerful.
Colour harmony is the use of a limited and complementary colour palette to create a visually pleasing and cohesive mood in an image. Common schemes include analogous colours (next to each other on the colour wheel) or complementary colours (opposite each other).
Instead of a riot of competing hues, this image is built on a family of related tones: warm oranges from the fading sun, muted browns, soft greys in the buildings, and deep blacks in the shadows.
A simple, unified colour palette. No screaming blues or greens to distract from the mood.
These colours work together. They don't scream for attention. They create a unified mood—warm, a little bit moody, and quintessentially late-afternoon. It feels intentional, not like a random snapshot. It's the difference between throwing every spice you own into a pot versus carefully selecting a few that complement each other perfectly.
4. Contrast: The Secret Ingredient
Last but not least, contrast. And I'm not just talking about cranking up the contrast slider in Lightroom until your eyes bleed.
Contrast in photography refers to the difference between elements in an image. This can be tonal (the difference between light and dark), colour (the difference between hues), or conceptual (the difference between ideas, like static vs. dynamic).
This image uses contrast in a few ways:
Tonal Contrast: The bright light trails pop against the dark asphalt and shadowy buildings. This is what gives the image its punch.
Conceptual Contrast: As we discussed in point #1, the core of the image is the contrast between the static buildings and the flowing traffic.
Textural Contrast: The sharp, crisp lines of the architecture clash with the soft, blurred lines of the cars.
It's not just about light vs. dark; it's about sharp vs. soft, and still vs. moving.
Contrast is what gives the photo depth and stops it from feeling flat or, dare I say it, boring.
The Short Version for the Caffeine-Deprived
So, there you have it. This photo "works" not because of some magical secret, but because of a deliberate recipe.
Asymmetrical Balance: Pitting the static skyline against the dynamic highway creates engaging tension.
Leading Lines: The car light trails guide your eye directly to the city.
Colour Harmony: A limited palette of warm tones creates a cohesive, professional mood.
Contrast: The interplay between light/dark, sharp/blurry, and motion/stillness adds depth and interest.
Once you understand these ingredients, you can start looking for them everywhere and using them in your own work.
Now, I'm sure you have your own compositional tricks up your sleeve, or maybe a rule you love to break. What's the one technique you always find yourself using? Let me know.
If you'll excuse me, all this talk of art has made me thirsty. Time for another coffee.
Right, you've made it to the end. You're probably wondering who the caffeine-fuelled bloke dissecting photos is. I'm Christo Brits.
When I’m not writing these breakdowns over a dangerously strong flat white, I run my business, CB Photography. I'm a brand photographer based in Australia, and I use every single one of these principles—story, contrast, balance—to help businesses create images that don't look like they were pulled from a stock photo catalogue from 2004.
P.S. Want the shortcut to my editing style? If you dig the moody, clean look of the photos on this blog, I've packaged my entire editing process into Lightroom Presets. They're the quickest way to get a professional look without the years of tweaking sliders until your eyes bleed. You can grab my presets right here.