The rule of thirds is a very useful tool for composing images in photography. And to top it off, it’s free! Doesn’t require any add on equipment to your camera, any shoe mounts, anything like that! This article will attempt to demystify the mysterious Rule of Thirds. This post is a follow up from my basic photography tutorial and tips for point and shoot camera.
To follow this rule, simply take a photo and divide it up into three sections vertically and three sections horizontally. Now, as you can see from doing this there are three boxes on the top, three in the middle, and three at the bottom. The box in the middle of all of them is the center. This compositional rules basically advises you not to take pictures in that middle box. When you put the object smack bang in the middle, not only it look amateurish, but it is also boring.
Put the object into intersection of thirds
What this does is makes you have to try and position the subject so that he/she or it is not dead center. This creates more visually interesting images.
When you take a photo of a person, the main focal point will be the eyes. Now, you can take a photo of a person dead center, however, follow the rule still! Put the eyes anywhere but the middle box. You can put the eyes in the top box instead. Their body will be dead center but their face will be in the upper area.
Photo from DPS rule of thirds tutorial
Now, when you follow this rule you also need to be careful to leave plenty of head room when shooting people. This room is space around the head and will make your photo not look claustrophobic. Also, if your person is looking towards the left, leave plenty of room at the left side of the photo and less on the right.
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) on the thirds
So what software can you use to help you with this?
Lightroom is always my favourite post processing software. When you use the crop tool in lightroom, you will be presented with the rule of thirds helper to let you crop better.
Lightroom helps you compose better with rule of thirds
So even if you forgot to compose the rule of thirds, you can have that peace of mind knowing that Lightroom can fix it for you later. However, do not grow dependent on it, as you lose pixels/resolution every time you crop.
Digital cameras are one of the biggest inventions of modern times. We are so fortunate to have this modern gadget called Digital Photography. To be able to capture a precious moment or wonderful scene at the click of a button, is something we should not take for granted.No matter whichever camera you have or you are planning to own,you need to have a proper knowledge about the digital photography. There are certain tips below,which i hope will be useful for you to take better wedding photographs.
Know your camera. One of the biggest drawbacks you can make is not providing time to learn about the parts of your camera. Leave being lazy,read your instruction manual carefully.
When shooting sunny outdoor shots,try adjusting your white balance setting from auto to cloudy. The auto setting will make your shots appear too cold. When you switch it to cloudy,it will increase the warmth of your pictures.
If you are desiring for superior image quality,the ability to use a variety of lenses and print large high quality snaps,then consider a Digital SLR Camera.
If possible then do use your flash outside also. On a sunny day you require flash when the sun is directly upon your head or behind the subject. This causes dark shadows to appear on the face of the subject. The flash will help you to reduce this.
Sometimes if you simply turn your camera and take vertical shots,it’ll make a world of difference. So you should always experiment with vertical picture taking.
Do not put your subjects directly in the center of your shot. Keep your subject off center to fuel in more life into your photos.
If possible then join online photography communities. You need to get active and ask questions.
Never ever copy the work of others,try to create your own unique style.
Post your photographs in online forums and always be ready to take any type of criticism.
If you have a problem of shaky hands then you should go and invest a tripod. It will solve your problem and will also give you better results.
DigitalWeddingSecrets.com offers one of the most comprehensive wedding photography ebook. They also have a 10 part email based course that you should definitely join. The best part is that its free!
Last week i hosted a photography workshop for my club (Monash Photography Club). It was intended for the beginner as around 60% of our club member regard themselves as beginner in photography. The workshop was attended by around 50 students, which exceeds all our expectation. We even run out of pizza!
I received lots of positive comment from the beginner members. They said that the presentation was easy to understand yet very informative. If you are wondering whats the teaching that day, lets get started!
These are the main points of my presentation.
Introduction to Photography
Exposure
Composition
Assignments
Introduction To Photography
Photography is a system of “Human”, “Lenses” and “Sensor/Film”
They works on principal of “whole is greater than sum of parts”
All three elements interacting together to produce photograph
You don’t need big long lenses and $10,000 camera to produce good photograph
Exposure and Composition
A photograph is always a combination of exposure and composition.
Exposure dictates the amount of light (basically a combination of shutter, aperture, and ISO sensitivity)
Composition dictates how the elements in the photograph interact with each others (includes light, framing, depth of field, patterns, contrast etc.)
Shutter Speed
Its the duration of letting the sensor exposed to light
The longer = The brighter
The shorter = The darker
Long = prone to blurring – why tripod
Short = freeze motions – big aperture
In order to capture a fast moving subjust like this, fast shutter speed is needed.
To capture a night scene like this, slow shutter is best. Notice that it also captures the cloud movements which is not possible to be captured with fast shutter.
If you don't happen to bring a tripod for that one shot, try to use half a second shutter speed. Which is slow enough to capture night scene, but also very prone to blur-ness unless you have steady hands.
Aperture
How wide does the lens opens to let lights in
Wider = more light, less depth of field
Shallower = less light, more depth of field
Example of wide aperture shot to capture the bokeh (the term for blur background with sharp object).
ISO Sensitivity
The sensitivity of the film/camera sensor
Higher ISO = more sensitive to light, need less shutter speed, more grain
Lower ISO = less sensitive to light, need more shutter speed, less grain
Grains appear more on dark/shadowy area than highlighted area.
Basic Composition
Rule of third – I’ll write more in-depth article next time
Basically, rule of third means placing the object off centre. For best result, place it in intersection of thirds.
Framing – It could evokes sense of intimacy and secrecy
Anything can be frame for your object. Trees, peoples, gates, clouds, mountains, etc. Use your imagination.
Spaces – Instead of fully filling the frame with your object, putting them on the side while giving a space to breath could produce captivating results
Experiment with spaces, sometimes you will find it really interesting
Colour/Contrast – Makes the object stand out from the background.
The shadowy running watter provides striking contrast with the baby's skin color and tone
Perspective – Be unique!
Instead of taking shots with the normal angles, try to go low or high to create a bizzare and unique shots.
Pattern – Human brain is somewhat hardwired to find pattern in daily life, thus creating pattern can create a sense of familiarity.
Find the pattern!
Lines – Use of leading lines to direct the viewer’s eyes to the place where you want them to see.
Notice that even though the square is place on the border of the frame, your eyes is still directed to it because of the lines. Exploit the line!
Depth of field – Blur and sharp!
Depth of field is very limited in this photo as i only use f2 aperture (which is very wide). Thus throwing the other chess piece off focus, directing your eyes to the ones in focus.
Sense of movement
Photographs are still objects, but we can still invoke illusion of movement by using slow shutter speed to capture moving objects. Make sure your hands are steady or be ready to expect blurs.
Assignments
After learning all the basics, get your camera and try to capture your everyday objects while utilizing your new gained knowledge. You may show them to your friends to see what they think of it, or you might even show it to me! I’ll make sure i critics the hell out of your image, haha.
The essence of photography is learning the rules and learn how to break them.
Let your imagination run wild, experiment with the extremes, try that shot you always wanted. You will be surprised how cool the experiment will look like.
Anyway, i’ll show you some image taken by the workshop students. Most of them took me by surprise :p
I do not took these pictures, and their copyright belong to their respective creator.
First experiment with the rules of third. I'd say its not bad eh!
Leading line experiment, though i'd say placing the arrow on the left side of the image would work much better.
I'm not sure what he tries to capture, but the pattern on the floor and building plus constrasty sky make this a really good photo
Rules of third and frame experiment. worked nicely.
Depth of field experiement
Leading lines and perspective.
A really good change of perspective, and also rule of thirds
I really like this picture. Mainly because of the contrast between chair and the bricks, the person is also placed off centre to give more power to the photo.
A very good experiment with panning.
Zooming like this can be achieved by using a rather slow shutter speed and zoom the lens while pressing shutter button.
I hope you enjoy this lesson, and be sure to drop me a comment or two.
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