Photography
Syllabus | Lesson Plan | Grade Scale | Attendance(Subject to change)
Unit I
The Rule of Thirds
Subject Positioning
Spatial Division
Unit 2
Simplification
Eye Catchers
Techniques and Pitfalls
Ways to Simplify
Unit 3
Street Photography
Unit 4
Phony Subject
Unit 5
Geometry
What is it for?
What does it mean?
Unit 6
Light
What is Light?
Various Sources
Different circumstances
Techniques
Available Light Situationals
Unit 7
Post Processing
Levels
Sharpening
Matting and Framing
Curves
Layers and Masks
The Rule of Thirds
Subject positioning
The Rule of Thirds is very simple in principle: you mentally divide the area of the picture into thirds, with two vertical and two horizontal lines, and compose your picture around the nine areas and four intersections.
The simplest variant is to put your subject near one of the four intersections.
[ Example ]
However, this isn't all. For example, the RoT gives a good rule of thumb for where to put the horizon on a landscape.
[ Example ]
Spatial division
Yet another idea is to compose the picture around the regions delimited by the lines, not by the lines or the intersections.
[ Example ]
Often just thinking about the picture in terms of the rule of thirds improves things. It can also be used very effectively in combination with other "rules," and sometimes consciously breaking it leads to very interesting pictures too. However, if no obvious way of composing the picture suggests itself, the Rule of Thirds is usually a good way to go -- and almost always better than the non-composition of just putting the subject splat in the middle of the picture.
Assignment
Present a photo of yours where you've used the Rule of Thirds in some way -- either one of the ways described above, or some other way.
Explain the way you've used it, and why you used it that way and not some other way.
Collins, Laurie
Frank, Timothy
Qadir, Sooraya
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