Digital Storytelling

The Center of the Image - Interaction of Centers

When there are several centers in one image that all interact with each other (see image b), it is important that you compose the frame without too many important subjects 'fighting' with each other for the viewer's attention.

Here there are three areas where our attention goes: first is the woman's face in the foreground, who 'focuses' our attention even more by using her arms and hands to frame her head in the center of them. The second center is the woman in the middleground who looks at her hands. Third, you get a glimpse of two dancers in conversation in the middle lower third of the image.

There is a hierarchy of centers here, both because of the relative strength of each person's expression, as well as because of their ordering from foreground to background. All the centers build an imaginary oval and keep the attention balanced within the center of the image.