Space or Negative Space
With people and animals, it's often best to have them looking into the frame. On that note, if the subject is looking away from the camera, it’s helpful to have them looking into the negative space, rather than away from the space.
If there's action in your picture, leaving more space on the side of the frame where the action is heading looks more natural.
The space in the image is just as important as the subject itself because it gives the subject “breathing room” and can set the mood or convey an emotion.
Negative space helps eliminate distracting elements in an image and gives the subject space to “move” when motion is involved.
Although the following image has negative space it is not helpful to the image as the swan family have no room to move into the picture.
The next crop is much better;
