Photography Composition - 12 Composition Rules for Your Photos to Shine By James Carren

So what does that mean for your point of focus? Does it necessarily have to be the more
heavily weighted object? The answer is, absolutely not. Though the eye will naturally be
drawn to the more heavily weighted object, you don’t necessarily want it to stay there. If
your photo is flowing well, then the eye will find the heavily weighted object, focus on it,
and then continue to move around the frame. It can be optimal a lot of the time to have the
weighted objects draw the eye to the lesser weighted object.
It’s all up to you, and as you shoot more and more, you’ll learn what works and what
doesn’t.
Another aspect of weight in photography can be the very border around the image.
Choosing a border is often almost as essential as the image itself in fine art photography,
which is why borderless fashion spreads often leave me uneasy, though I understand that
that is industry standard. If you are a fine art photographer and you are going to print and
hang your images, consider that it might not be the best choice to have an even border all
the way around your image. Even more pleasing is the bottom weighted image.
Experiment with your borders and find what works best for your images.