The rule of thirds

To days image idea will look at the rule of thirds, as with many rules, they can be broken but there is a big difference between braking the rules for effect and not knowing them or ignoring them. Now before you get your camera have a look through some magazines and books, news images will have the subject in the centre but if you look at advertising and art images you are more likely to see this rule applied.




Now when looking at an image in your minds eye draw a line down from top to bottom 1/3 in from the left of the image and then again from the right, now repeat drawing the lines across the image 1/3 in form the top and bottom. So now, in your minds eye you have overlaid a grid of four lines, nine boxes and four intersections (where two lines cross) over the image, it is important that you do this with your minds eye as it will help you when composing with your camera.




When you look at an image try to work out which elements you are drawn to first and if your attention keeps jumping from one element to another. Now overlay your minds eye grid, you should find that the elements you are drawn to are very close to or on one of the four lines, if it is a very strong element then it will be close to or on one of the four intersections.




Nest time you use your camera keep in mind the grid when composing your photo and rather than just have your main subject in the centre, try placing it on one of the four lines or intersections. If your subject is a person and they are looking to their left then place them on the left of the photo so that you will follow their gaze into the centre of the photo this will give the photo a felling of space and travel.




The photos in this post all make use of the rule of thirds but that is not the only rule they use and next time I will be telling you about lead lines.

Photo Ideas

Hi all,
Well I have been enjoying the summer such as it has been this past month, hot and wet which left me with a bit of a problem. On more than one occasion, I have headed out with my camera to a place of beauty to take photos that had blue sky and fluffy white clouds but the weather has been against me. As a result, I have been forced to plan for the worse and hope for the best and as a result, I have started to give my self weekly projects that can be carried out no matter the weather.



No matter what type of photography you are into or how accomplished a photographer you are we can all benefit from going back over basic techniques that we seldom use and work out of our comfort zone to tackle subjects that we do not normally enjoy. This will add to your skill base that you can draw upon when you come across a subject in difficult conditions. I am sure that you will be able to think up your own projects but to get you started I will be posting the projects that I have set for my self over the coming weeks.



Now, when thinking about your projects you should try to achieve a number of objectives; you should be able to carry out the project under any weather conditions and both outside and indoors, it should challenge your ability whether that be your artistic or technical skills. Keep your ideas all together in a small notebook that you should carry with you all the time, when you see an image that you like make a note of where you found it and what techniques you think they used. When you have completed the project be sure to go back to your notebook to add what worked for you and what did not.



To find beauty in the everyday
This is a very open project for what is beauty. Well that is down to you, this can be anything but the key is to look at your surroundings to find things that will make pleasing photos. As from my earlier post you will notice that I tend to look at things back to front from the normal way of thinking and this is the same, you first need to think what the photo will be used for, what will the end use be for the photo?



Knowing what the end use for the photo is going to be will greatly increase your chances of getting the desired photo. Even if they are to be used as practise photos in your image editing program to help you with masking or layering. This was just a quick one to get you thinking next time I will start to push your photography, I hope.