Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 9:09 pm Post subject: Rule of thirds
I thought I should share some of the things I've learnt over the past year from various photography forums and courses. Each week I'll post a mini-workshop so please keep checking back to The Darkroom for updates
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is one of the most well known principles in composing photographs and very valuable to a new photographer. By following this rule you are more likely to create interesting and well balanced photographs. Of course all rules can be broken and if you don't follow the rule of thirds it's not to say your photographs won't be visually pleasing.
The way it works is to take your frame and break it into three equal imaginary sections both horizontally and vertically. See the illustration below.
The four intersections (highlighted in red) where the lines cross are the parts in your frame where you should try to place points of interest. This will help you to create a more balanced photo where the viewer can interact more naturally. Studies have shown that people's eyes usually settle on one of the intersections rather than the center of the frame. Using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing a photo rather than working against it.
It may take a little practice before the rule of thirds comes naturally to you whilst composing your photo. Remember to ask yourself these questions when composing your shot:
1) What are the points of interest in the photo?
2) Am I placing one or more of the points of interest in the intersections?
I've included some of my photos below with a grid overlay to demonstrate the rule of thirds.
If you want to, take your camera out and practice with some shots. Post them here so we can all see further examples. You don't need to include the overlay grid.
Alison the online course I did was through Photozo, it's a photography forum who hosts online courses. They're not expensive, I don't remember the price now but it wasn't a lot. I no longer have the link but if you search on google you'll find it. The other course I'll be doing in the Autumn is booked with our local wildlife trust.
I hope some of the info coming over the next few weeks will be useful to her, although if she's done a course I expect a lot of this she'll already know
Now that very intereting, when i was playing with my Digital camera i managed to get exactly that grid to come up on my screen anbd had absolutly no idea what it was for ( I dont do instruction books of more than 100 pages ) I think i will just have to see if i can make the camera do it again...
Is there a way to get hold of that grid so i can try it on my digital photo album as i would quite like to analise some of my pics now and see if it works on mine to?
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) I think i will just have to see if i can make the camera do it again...