Sunday, September 6, 2009

SundayStills - rule of thirds

The idea of the rule of thirds is that you should place the key subject one-third of the way in from the edge of the photo, rather than dead centre.

There is a setting on most cameras with a grid pattern (like a tic tac toe board) across an image to break it into nine equal squares. The four points where these lines intersect are the strongest focal points. The lines themselves are the second strongest focal points.

I don't actually remember to use this setting, preferring to "eyeball" it. Then again, I was dismayed when I looked through my photos to find that I don't use this rule quite as obviously as I thought I did (for someone who loves asymmetry!) Too many close ups, perhaps. These were not cropped however - all straight out of the camera shots.

oooh, look, more orange! a leftover from yesterday's post.

see what other contributers of SundayStills have come up with.

24 comments:

  1. Great examples. Nice job. :)

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  2. You're doin' it right! Love these pics! Especially the first one.

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  3. The sign is excellent. Nice job on all of the photos.

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  4. i like them all well done :)

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  5. Rules schmooles. Don't get too hung up on rules. I think they just tell you that as a jumping off point.Your photos are really good. Most of the best art is the stuff that doesn't follow rules anyway.

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  6. I don't like rules. Sometimes hat's a nice way to frame an image (these are all lovely), but sometimes not.

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  7. Thanks all, for your visits and comments.

    I see it as more of a "rule of thumb" so to speak, not a hard and fast rule. Sometimes, centring a shot looks better, sometimes off centre is more interesting.

    I rarely follow rules either, saw, mostly it is a personal, subjective view.

    and, bloggers, these posted photos were just for this particular challenge to produce a photo following this rule, but thank you for the compliment on my photos.

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  8. :) the good thing is that all rules were made to be broken. sometimes the subject demands more attention

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  9. Char, I like breaking rules...

    thank you Nadine and Miwise - nice to see you!

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