Sunday 7 November 2010

The rule of thirds


The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as paintingphotography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.
The photograph to the right demonstrates the application of the rule of thirds. The horizon sits at the horizontal line dividing the lower third of the photo from the upper two-thirds. The tree sits at the intersection of two lines, sometimes called a power point or a crash point. Points of interest in the photo don't have to actually touch one of these lines to take advantage of the rule of thirds. For example, the brightest part of the sky near the horizon where the sun recently set does not fall directly on one of the lines, but does fall near the intersection of two of the lines, close enough to take advantage of the rule.


(research from wikipedia)

In art and design, I find that grids also help with accuracy if following a plan, so this maybe another thing to consider when creating the prints. I plan on creating test prints using the rule of thirds to see if it energises the photo, I will do this when we come to shooting the final photographs for the print.

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