Digital Photography - Rule_of

When composing a photograph our desire is to capture an image that will be pleasing to the eye for many years to come. How we do this is by applying some basic rules in viewing the image. We cannot please all the people all of the time, but we can please some of the people all of the time.

The "Rule of Thirds" provides us with an easy way to divide up the scene in the viewfinder into equal parts. There are 9 rectangular boxes within the viewfinder (if your viewfinder does not have these you can imagine these lines and apply the rule to your image capture). Composition

And if your digital camera will allow you can purchase replacement Focus Screens that have these lines etched into the glass.

Rule 1 Have the main subject viewing from left to right, or from top left to bottom right. The rule can be applied in four directions (From the right to left, from bottom to top.)

In this case the main subject is the major point of interest in the composition.

Some examples may help illustraite how composition can work for you.

Composition with a circular curve draws the eye around the shoreline to the dock and boats.

You may be wondering how this came about as a general rule of thumb for compositions. The general rules for composition come from two very common sources:

How we communicate in writing.
How the great artists drew and painted their masterworks.

The Western rules comply with how we write documents, top left to bottom right, one line at a time.

Asian rules follow their writing rules, from top dead center, down.

Arabic rules begin at he top right and move left, then down to the right and move left.

You can see these rules applied in their art.

Composition with lines leading to the end of the pier. Notice the upper level of the pier is in the left top third of the picture.

Composition with lines leading to the Power Plant. Notice the large oil tower is in the left third of the picture.

Composition with curves at the shoreline leading to the Beach.