The Embarcadero, San Francisco, California

Contrast in photography is not just about differences in color or light vs dark. The definition of contrast is the dissimilarity or difference between things. To balance a photo, you should have opposing contrasts in your frame. It makes the viewer uncomfortable if your photo is unbalanced. Sometimes they won't be able to tell what is out of place, but believe me they can feel it. Of course, you might be going for that particular affect, but in this post let's just examine the photo above and try to balance it out.

The first and obvious contrast to see are the differences in height of the two men. One really tall and the other really short. Now, it might not have been enough of a contrast if I were to have cut the lower bodies and the ground around them out. Being able to see the ground and the lower portion of the ground next to them gives perspective as to how tall they really are. Then you can see that the man on the right is empirically short and the man on the left is empirically tall. Another contrast to detect is the colorful shirts that they are wearing vs the monotone of the building on the other half of the frame. You could say another contrast would be the two men and their rounder, curved shape vs the squares and rectangles of the building.

That's the thing about contrasts. They make photos interesting because of their content. Here is a list that I started with to practice on:

• Highlights vs Shadows
  
• Tall vs Short
  
• Thick vs Thin
  
• Many vs One (or None)
• Hot vs Cold
• Old vs New
• Circular vs Square

There are obviously very, very many comparisons that you can make. Once you start training your eye to see them and force those comparisons, you start to see more stories evolve in your photos.