The limiting Rule of third

Dr Daniels

Dr Daniels

Senior Member
A recurrent composition theme I find in photographic circles, is the over-abused Rule of Thirds.
Of course, it is a more pleasant composition rule for the majority of visual arts, than the odd placed subject in the middle of the frame, or in the extreme corner of the frame.
However, I think we generally exaggerate our use of this composition rule at the risk of limiting our creativity.

There are other composition aids, which we should look at without limiting ourselves to them too.
The Golden Ratio has been used in art and architecture since antiquity. Photographers like Steichen and Weston composed on the Golden Ratio.

The four intersecting points on the Golden Ratio are closer to the center of the image than they are in the Rule of Thirds which often leads some critics to say that the 'Rule of Thirds' is not respected.

The Golden Spiral:
GR.jpg

The Fibonacci spiral:
fs.jpg
 
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DW_

Senior Member
Ah, now we're getting somewhere. I love composition theory! Yes, the Golden Spiral is very important for pleasing compositions but it's really only half of the story. Without balance the image will fail by being too weighty, unless the point is to pull the viewer into the imbalance. Balance in a composition, both perfect and skewed, is very important and an overly unbalanced image tends to fail more often than it succeeds.
Snapping a well focused and exposed image is a technical milestone and certainly important to all photographers, pulling a viewer in and pushing them to an important conclusion is where the art begins.
 
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bobmielke

New member
When I teach new photographers composition I try not to use the rules. I use the term guidelines instead because that's actually their intent. I point out photos posted on forums that work why not sticking to the thirds guidelines. One small test with any composition is to ask the viewer what attracts the eye. If you lock into the main subject but your gaze doesn't continue to work its way through the whole frame the subject position need to be reconsidered. Symmetrical subjects tend to be best when centered. Composition is a complex subject not limited to the rule of thirds.
 
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Dr Daniels

Dr Daniels

Senior Member
Yes, we should strive for balance in our composition as much as possible.

Another 'basic' design element that we don't always hear about in photographic circles is contrasts. The Bauhaus School of Art focus heavily on this concept for composing an image.
This theory of composition includes: contrast between light and dark (chiaroscuro), between shapes, colors, and even sensations.

A classic exercise to develop that feel for contrasts when composing photographs would be to produce pairs of photographs that contrast with each other. In other words, creating a diptych with one image contrasting with the other.
More demanding but more valuable is to combine the two poles of the contrast in one photograph. I think it is an interesting exercise to foster our imagination, our creativity.
 
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