Rule of thirds, composition

1. *With the rise of digital cameras, quality crisp images are becoming more and more common. But there is still something that sets beginners from the pros…..composition. *Technical and aesthetic knowledge of photography is crucial. Composition “the action/process of putting certain objects together; the formation or construction of various ingredients”

2. *The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts, as follows; *With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image. *The theory behind the rule of thirds works due to 3 reasons. Studies have shown; 1, When the eye first sees an image it nearly always looks at one of the four intersection points. 2, The rule allows the image to be balanced 3, The rule follows an audiences natural process of viewing images therefore gives them more visual pleasure. Composition “the action/process of putting certain objects together; the formation or construction of various ingredients” Rule of Thirds 1 2 3 4

3. This image has purposely placed the head of my subject on one of the intersecting points – especially his eyes which are a natural point of focus for a portrait. His tie and flower also take up a secondary point of interest Portrait

4. In a similar way a good technique for landscape shots is to position horizons along one of the horizontal lines also as I’ve done with the following shot Landscape

5. In learning how to use the rule of thirds (and then to break it) the two most important questions to be asking of yourself are; 1, What are the points of interest in this shot? 2, Where am I intentionally placing them? Lastly – keep the rule of thirds in mind as you edit your photos later on. Post production editing tools today have good tools for cropping and reframing images so that they fit within the rules. The Rule of thirds; in summary

6. Keegan Gibbs- There will always be another summer