The Rule of Thirds is Wrong? Yes... Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!

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Blacktop

Senior Member
Here is an example. I took this image thinking that the dome would look nice just a little off center with the city showing in the background.
After I processed the image it looked fine to me. After looking at it for a while (I was starting to wonder why I was looking at it so much) I noticed that something wasn't right, but I could not put my finger on it.
Then I realized that I was looking to see what was behind the dome. Then it really started to bug me to the point that I was really hating the shot now.
I went back into LR and did a different crop, and whalla! The shot is saved, and all is well with the universe.
No longer looking around the dome to see what's behind it.

Myrtle Hill Cemetery-.jpg


Myrtle Hill Cemetery--4.jpg
 
B

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Thank you for posting that article. It had some good ideas about advanced composition, but some of the things he was using to demonstrate his point for other techniques also followed the Rule Of Thirds in a general way. The first three photos under Myth 1 followed the Rule of Thirds, even if they also used other composition techniques. That statue of Laocoon and His Sons does, too, and the Annie Liebovitz pic. And the Lautrec final painting. Etc.

And, his "Rule of Thirds" photos that he didn't like were just bad compositions. The woman by herself in the stream was on the left side of the photo and was gazing to the left, out of the picture. Had she been facing the other way, even without the "counterpart", it would have been much more pleasing. Some of the other photos were good, even though he didn't like them.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
I believe in this guideline. BUT I use it as a starting point and adjust for the scene and what I am trying to accomplish. I think if you look at the photos of people who say they do not use the rule of thirds you would probably see that for the most part they are probably following the Rule.
 
Nero

Nero

Senior Member
I agree that the Rule of Thirds doesn't need to be followed all of the time but I definitely think the author of this article could have used better wording. The RoT is hardly wrong, it's just situational.
 
LouCioccio

LouCioccio

Senior Member
Its all about the cropping in the final image. Just like SteveL54 complaint "I was missing shots trying to get it to fit within the grid." Take a look at this site and note the photographers: http://www.photography.ca/blog/2011/07/05/cropping-photos/ I remember back in days of yore I had moveable guides on my enlarger easel where I could do the cropping and rotating. Probably why I like shooting with film especially 6 x 4.5 frames on 120 roll.

Lou Cioccio
 
S

Stoshowicz

Senior Member
Rule of thirds, as do the rest of the rules , suggest relative weights and relationships that various components have in a composition. For instance if the horizon is on the upper line,, then the ground can be considered to have relative greater importance in the image.
A person in the Left box facing the left , is looking OUT of the image. This is the proper way to consider these rules for the photographer ,, because the majority of people looking at the images will share this same language of visual rules, and so , can 'understand' the communication.
Repetitive themes , say lines,, on the same diagonal ,,suggest a common connection. These connections tend to follow basic geometric principles and CAN be useful in creating compositions, and unify a composition. But they don't ensure that an image will look good, and just as easily make an image look boring ,disturbing ,confusing ,etc and so forth.
 
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PapaST

Senior Member
Rule of Thirds isn't really a rule at all... they're just guidelines... :)


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