rule of thirds

[UKBob]

Found a great link on the rule of thirds with some fantastic photo samples
www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php?lesson=1

[_dobbo_]

rule of thirds.... less than one third of my photos will be any good?

[fergusd]

Rules, schmools . . . if taking good pics was a mathematical equation then you'd be sh1t out of luck and computers would yet again rule your world . . .

thankfully that's not the case . . .

any pics from the weekend ?

Fd

[UKBob]

_dobbo_ said:

rule of thirds.... less than one third of my photos will be any good?

Its people like you who give people like me inspiration

fergusd said:

Rules, schmools . . . if taking good pics was a mathematical equation then you'd be sh1t out of luck and computers would yet again rule your world . . . thankfully that's not the case . . . any pics from the weekend ? Fd

Ahh yes. But, for a fleeting moment, envisage yourself as photographer extraordinaire, fergus the fantastic, and all your images are crackalackin! As I see it, the rule of thirds is the icing on the cake in the portfolios which shine for an infinite number of other reasons. Theres something to it, im sure.

No exciting pics to show. Ive been reading, practising, and submitted my oldies to a stock library. I manged a few boring corporate style retakes, nothing exciting, nothing you havnt seen before. And the crappy £50 tripod I bought is working well

[fergusd]

Why is complying with percieved rules the icing on the cake ?

Don't you think it all becomes very tedious . . . all this complying with rules ?

Fd

[UKBob]

fergusd said:

Why is complying with percieved rules the icing on the cake ? Don't you think it all becomes very tedious . . . all this complying with rules ? Fd

For starters, they are not 'rules'. You wont get pulled over, given a ticket, or sent directly to jail without passing GO if you fail to obey them.

As I see it, photos dont need to comply with rules at all. There are billions of great photos which testify this. Besides, rules were made to be broken.

Thats not to say that there are no instances of the principle of thirds which work especially well due to their composition.

[_dobbo_]

Is it not the case that rather than conciously and deliberately trying to follow the "rules", photographs which do will generally work better than those that don't?

In the article, the author appears to sell stock images, and mentions that her most successful ones are those that follow the rule of thirds.

I haven't read the whole thing but scrolling down she appears to start going on about the "divine proportion" malarky and it felt too much like I was reading the DaVinci code again!

[UKBob]

_dobbo_ said:

I haven't read the whole thing but scrolling down she appears to start going on about the "divine proportion" malarky and it felt too much like I was reading the DaVinci code again!

[EmmaP]

The rule of thirds is about balance and proportion. Rules can be broken to good effect.

Symmetry:




Extreme imbalances of scale work too. This is about the best I could find upon a brief search.

[V6GTO]

I agree...it's just a guide.

Rule of thirds used...



...and ignored...



Martin.

[doodah]

martin your noble is a third from top to bottom.

mmc.