Creating Visual Tension in Your Photos
Potomac River and Georgetown at Sunset
from the Kennedy Center Rooftop Terrace
Visual tension is a compositional technique that uses a variety of framing approaches to create dynamic elements in a photograph to draw in and stimulate the interest of the viewer. It is a way of using the energy and movement available in various features of the image to draw the eye into the picture. Tension is what prompts the viewer’s brain to spend a little extra attention trying to understand an image. The visual elements translate not only into recognizable objects but also into emotions and actions.