One of the most essential lessons photographers will learn when starting off in photography is composition. It is one of the key components when wanting to be able to go from taking mediocre photos to truly creating and molding your photographic image.
Often I am asked by clients and people how I take such good photos. And often what I notice is that people either don't make the time for or willingness to learn basic composition. So I will make as short and sweet a lesson as possible to understanding this concept.
Rule of Thirds
When looking through your viewfinder or the LCD screen, imagine a grid is overlayed on that display. This grid divides the photo into three equal parts horizontally and three equal parts vertically. As a results, intersecting lines are also created. This essentially is how the rule of thirds is created.
How to Use the Rule
The lines and intersections on the grid are used for alignment of your subject or framing of your scene. Often, a subject is placed in the center of the frame. This can often be unoriginal and boring. By placing a subject along one of these lines or at one of the intersections, the photo can be of more interest and place greater emphasis on the subject.
To understand this, let us examine the following two images.
Rule in Play
With the first image, imagine how the photo would have been had we not used the rule-of-thirds. If the flower were in the center of the frame, the viewer would have been lead to believe that the idea of the photograph was to capture the detail of the flower. In fact, this was not the case at all. The flower is only telling part of the scene.
Indeed this scene depicts a wedding ceremony setting with several flowers following a line leading up to the one being focused on. Using the rule helps us to compose the scene as a whole as well as eliminate the unnecessary clutter of the pew to the left of the flower.
In the second image, again consider what would have happened had we placed the building in the center of the frame. A certain amount of the sky would have been seen above the building and the water fountain below would have been partially cut out. By having placed the building to align along the upper third of the grid, we have eliminated the unnecessary sky and kept the water fountain whole.
You've Discovered the Magic Formula!
Well not exactly. One thing about photographic rules is that they are meant to be broken! The rule of thirds is not some scientific formula that, when not followed, will not allow us to yield a result. Many experienced photographers do not end up using this rule ever. However, keyword is experienced. As I've mentioned, "before you can create a work of art, first you learn to draw a horse"!
Though this rule is not a yes/no indicator of what makes a good photo or not, it is essential to learn these rules to do proper composition when you first start off. Eventually with time, you'll develop "that photographic eye" to compose photos in unique and creative ways that don't necessarily follow these guides.
No comments:
Post a Comment