Radial Symmetry Improves Image Balance

Draw Your Viewer's Eye to the Center

Use radial symmetry to create well-centered
digital photo compositions.

Radially symmetric images repeat the same pattern around a central point. Think of a perfectly-sliced pizza - starting from the center, each slice is the same. The radiating lines and patterns will draw your eye to the center of an image while also creating rhythms that please the eye.

You may also want to see examples of simpler, bilateral symmetry.

Mother Nature graces us with a myriad of radially symmetric examples in flowers, such as the clematis pictured above.

Aside from their wide variety of petal shape, size, and color, flowers vary in the number of petals that radiate from the stem. Imagine building a photo portfolio of flower photographs arranged by the number of petals. Start with the tiny kalanchoe with four petals, nicotiana with five, the clematis with six... and work your way up to daisies and sun flowers with dozens of petals. See the Gazinia page for an example of 8-way radial symmetry.

Architectural Examples

If you were to lie on your back directly underneath the center of a state capitol or county courthouse rotunda, looking straight up, you'll see elegant patterns created by the structural beams or ribs that support the dome, often with decoration or leaded glass between the ribs. If you are truly under the center of the dome, the ribs will appear perfectly straight as they radiate from the center. If you are off-center, then you will see the curvature of the ribs, as in this example from the Washington County, Pennsylvania, courthouse.

Nikon D300, 18-200mm VR @ 18mm ISO 1600, 1/50s, f/3.5 Washington County Courthouse, Washington, PA Twelve-point radial symmetry. Note the curvature of the structural ribs because the photograph is off-center.

In more modern architecture, the decorative interest in domes may not be as pronounced, but the simple elegance of line takes over to attract the eye. The skylight over the entrance to the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany, demonstrates the elegance of simplicity by setting up rhythms in its ribs, doubling the number of ribs in each ring moving away from the center. For those who are inclined to think in binary terms, this repeated doubling creates a nice irony in its parallels to the technology behind digital photography.

Nikon D300, 18-200mm VR @ 18mm ISO 800, 1/6400s, f/8 Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany. Simple lines create strong, radially symmetric rhythms.

Rose Windows

Architecture presents many forms of radial symmetry. In addition to the example of the courthouse rotunda, above, you might look to circular tile patterns below a rotunda or, outdoors, to circular piazzas.

Minolta Dimage 7Hi, Built-in Zoom @ 51mm ISO 200, 1/180s, f/3.5 Basilique Notre-Dame, Montreal, Quebec. Not all radially symmetric examples need to be centered in the image frame.

However, one of the most common examples can be found in the stained glass rose windows of churches and cathedrals. The rose window in the Basilique Notre-Dame in Montreal, Quebec, presented a unique challenge because of uneven lighting - more than half of the window was in shadow from a building next door. So, instead of the expected, or normal, circular composition, this photo features only a segment of the radial symmetry - just enough to bring out its rhythm and reveal that it is a rose window.

Just as with the off-center orchid shown on the bilateral symmetry page, it is not necessary to center the symmetrical subject in the image boundaries.

For another example of off-center radial symmetry, look at this example in the weekly photography compositions: