In this project we investigate the role of visual balance for the aesthetic appreciation of pictures. Usually, pictures whose composition is perceived as balanced are liked more than pictures with an unbalanced composition. This phenomenon motivated researchers to invent formal measures of visual balance, most of which rely on physical concepts and analogies such as the symmetry, distribution of ‘mass’, or the deviation of the center of ‘mass’ (DCM) from the center of the picture (see Hübner & Fillinger, 2016). For demonstrating the DCM, we provide the following demonstration.
In this demonstration you can compute and show (red cross) the center of 'mass' of the picture. By also plotting the center of the picture (yellow cross), you can see how far the two centers are apart. The formal DCM value gives the distance in percent of the image. You can also upload (or paste) your own picture. Usually, the DCM makes sense only for gray-level pictures. Because brighter pixels have more 'mass' than darker ones, you should assess whether the background is more bright or more dark and eventually invert the gray levels. You might also adjust brightness and contrast, or even convert the picture to binary black-and-white. By clicking on the 'CoM per Row' or the 'CoM per Column' Button, you can see the center of 'mass' (red dot) for each row or column, respectively.
Brightness: Contrast:
Fillinger, M. G., & Hübner, R. (2020). On the relation between perceived stability and aesthetic appreciation. Acta Psychologica, 208, 103082. <doi> <pdf>
Fillinger, M. G., & Hübner, R. (2020). The relations between balance, prototypicality, and aesthetic appreciation for Japanese calligraphy. Empirical Studies of the Art, 8(2), 172-190.. <doi><pdf>
Hübner, R., & Thömmes, K. (2019). Symmetry and balance as factors of aesthetic appreciation: Ethel Puffer’s (1903) “Studies in Symmetry” revised. Symmetry 11(12), 1468. <Open Access>
Hübner, R., & Fillinger, M. G. (2019). Perceptual balance, stability, and aesthetic appreciation: Their relations depend on the picture type. i-Perception, 10(3), 1-17. <Open Access>
Thömmes, K., & Hübner, R. (2018). Instagram likes for architectural photos can be predicted by quantitative balance measures and curvature. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. <Open Access>
Hübner, R., & Fillinger, M. G. (2016). Comparison of objective measures for predicting perceptual balance and visual aesthetic preference. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. <Open Access>
Thömmes, K., & Hübner, R. (2019). Can Instagram Likes be used as a proxy for the aesthetic appeal of photographs? Poster presented at the Visual Science of Art Conference [VSAC], Leuven, Belgium.<pdf> (Best-Poster-Award winning poster!)
Thömmes, K., & Hübner, R. (2018). Investigating online liking behaviour for dance portraits on Instagram. Poster presented at the Visual Science of Art Conference [VSAC], Triest, Italy.<pdf>
Hübner, R., & Fillinger, M. G. (2017). Does ‘pictorial balance’ have different meanings depending on the picture type? Poster presented at the Visual Science of Art Conference [VSAC], Berlin, Germany. <pdf>