Exercise: Different positions in frame

For this project, I'm experimenting with placing the subject in different parts of the frame. In order to get a good feel for the different placements, I used a relatively uniform background. Although plain, the white wall is interesting, especially the cracks. But don't they don't take away from the main subject, which is the parking meter.


In this first shot, the subject is pretty much right in the center. It looks somewhat awkward, and given that the subject isn't all that interesting by itself, this picture sort of asks, "why are you taking a picture of a parking meter?"




In this second shot, I placed the subject a little bit to the right of center. It is a little bit more interesting, but still rather dull.


In this third photo, I placed the subject left of center. I like this one the best. It feels more balanced. It feels more natural to read the photo left to right, so having something of interest on the left feels better to my eye. I also like how the weeds are now more visible, and they are pleasant to view and add a nice contrast to the parking meter.

I took some other shots that I haven't posted here, and it's fairly consistent that it is kind of boring to have the main subject right in the center of the photo. It looks boring, frequently causes the photo to appear out of balance, and makes it harder for the eye to move around the picture, so you miss some of the other interesting details. One exception I've come across is that sometimes it's necessary to place the subject right in the center in order to achieve a more balanced photo, or to capture some other part of an image that's important for showing the context.