Rule of Thirds
Hey folks! Long time no talk! I’m a bad, bad blogger! (I promise, I have a really, really good excuse!)
Here’s the first topic of our series on how to improve your photographs. So let’s talk composition in regards to (cue echo-y announcer voice)… The Rule of Thirds…
Do you tend to center your subjects in the frame? You do? You’re not alone! While it is not ‘wrong’ necessarily, it can sometimes be…well…boring! Want to break out of your rut once in a while? Read on.
The Rule of Thirds is a common principle of composing your photographs. To do this, you would split your image into thirds, both horizontally and vertically so you have 9 symmetrical sections.
The theory behind the rule of thirds is to place your subject(s) or main focus on either one of the 4 intersecting points made by the lines, or on one of the lines itself. This will create both an interesting and balanced image.
Lets talk about the image above. It’s “OK” right? It is a nice image, the colors are nice, the subject is nice, it is nice and in focus. Do you see a pattern? It’s NICE. Sometimes, you just have to go for that WOW factor. Throw things off kilter a bit!
So let’s bring in our rule of thirds. (there are some other ‘rules’ of composition in place here, but we’ll save them for another lesson). Now take a look at the image. More interesting, right? Notice how your eye moves directly to the subject’s face (this is Bailey, by the way, my Lab) and not sort of all around the image.
In a well composed image, your eye will move right to the subject, and back out through a predetermined path, not wandering all around, wondering what to focus on.
So go forth! Try composing things differently! Practice makes perfect! Once you’ve perfected the Rule of Thirds, you can then BREAK it! Rules are made to be broken, right? Some of the world’s most influential artists/photographers got where they are because they broke the rules. Just remember, you can’t break them until you know them inside and out!
