Rule of Thirds

Every rule made was meant to broken, and over time has been. There are some made for our safety and others made for our benefit. However when it comes to photography these rules are more like a hazy line then something strictly enforced by the photograph police! The rule of thirds is a way of looking at pictures so they better catch our audience. However this rule is more of a concept then a specific rule. I find taking shots purposely to break the rule is artistic and creative. I also believe that the rule gives us great boundaries and can lead to particularly awesome shots. So which way is correct? No one really knows because photography in the long run is art. And who is to say that one form is better than the other?

          So to further explain the rules of thirds there is one basic component to remember…you already know it! Most people view their pictures in the rule of third because most photography we see in advertisements and in media is setup that way. So we have an inclination to automatically view our shots that way. The rule is that every picture is broken up into nine segments, basically turning the photograph into a graph. The basic principle of thought is to line up your photograph with the idea to have the focus on your image intersect one of the lines in the grid. It’s meant to make the picture be compromised to pull the viewer into the picture. It actually works! I took a series of pictures and showed them to my family and asked them to comment on which ones they liked better. They all chose the picture that followed the rule of thirds. I thought it was a pretty good experiment even if the median age was 15. I also reviewed a lot of pictures I had taken in the past before this class and was surprised in most of them I could apply the rule. Also surprising I had pictures that were some of my favorites that didn’t follow the rule.

I could be labeled as a rule breaker, and some of my teachers in the past may say I was, but I don’t feel bad about breaking or following this rule. I think it has both benefits and downfalls. The two that come to my head immediately is the benefit of the rule to make a composed and inviting picture and the benefit of not following the rule is a picture that is still engaging because of the different point of view the picture supplies. A downfall for both is that overthinking them could limit your creativity! So don’t worry about it too much, and start clicking! All in all I think it’s a wise move to understand the rule of the thirds and know how to apply it to your photographs and how to remove it also. You can always remove post production too if you find that you are already too brainwashed and your pictures come out in the rule!