Break the Rule of Thirds
The good old ‘rule of thirds‘ makes a lot of sense in many types of photography (if you don’t know what the rule of thirds is see out tutorial on it).
The Rule of Thirds does work well as a compositional rule in many situations - however placing your subject dead center in an image can also produce powerful and confronting images - particularly portraits where the subject is looking directly down the barrel or where you are presented with a scene with real symmetry like the one to the left.
Next time you’re out with your camera experiment with composing shots both to follow and break the rule of thirds - you’ll find in doing so you can end up with two very different interpretations of the same scene.
This post belongs to our series of posts on breaking rules of photography to get great images.
Read more posts like 'Break the Rule of Thirds'
August 8th, 2007 at 1:04 am
I was expecting this to be the first post in this series. :D
In fact, when I got the camera, I did not know about the Rule of the Thirds and always centred my subject (isn’t that the obvious thing one would do?), and ended up with this picture. After a little advice from people who knew better, I cropped it to this. Having known about the rule for sometime, I try to incorporate it in most of my photos, and try to get a good picture by breaking it, every now and then.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:37 am
Yup - this is one I’m always conscious of but don’t live by as evidenced by:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalknave/449497973/in/set-72157600053731866/
The rule of thirds does help, especially if you’ve got a single main subject in the frame, but I’d hte to use it for everything.
August 8th, 2007 at 2:19 am
Your example seems to obey the rule-of-thirds, just vertically instead of horizontally. I guess you can apply the rule to the background separately from the foreground. I think breaking this rule works quite well, especially in portraiture.
August 8th, 2007 at 2:54 am
I usually shoot along the rule of thirds but probably 5 - 10% of pictures could be framed to break the rule of thirds. I recently took some very similar photographs to the one above up in Scotland, not yet on my website but thanks for reminding me, I’ll blog them in the next few days for sure. Thanks for the post
August 8th, 2007 at 2:57 am
oops…missed the ‘at an angle’ post.
August 8th, 2007 at 3:09 am
For a while I couldn’t figure out how straightfinder’s picture above was an example of breaking the rule of thirds. Even though the road is centered horizontally, I kept looking at the horizon itself, which is actually placed about a third from the top. Symmetry an asymmetry working together I suppose. :)
August 8th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
This is one where I ALWAYS break it. The lines of the bridge with the couple centered seems more powerful to me than using the rule of thirds.
http://pixplus.zenfolio.com/p1036820614/?photo=h324E496F#843991407
http://pixplus.zenfolio.com/p1036820614/?photo=h2D4405F2#759432690
August 8th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I’ve found that, if you break the rule too much, many photographers start getting really upset. Was in an audition for a reality tv show about photography the other day, and this image solicited a really unhappy response from the other applicants…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38083475@N00/885918911/in/photostream/
August 10th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Many thanks for this lovely photo. I turned it into a jigsaw puzzle. I am always looking for suitable pictures and this was a goodie.
August 11th, 2007 at 6:43 am
finally someone who understands that the rule of thirds is nothing more than a guideline and not the mecca of all photography… great post and a good attitude
February 26th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I’ve gotta say, even though your subject isn’t place on one of the lines or at an intersection, this photo is still so strong to me because of the rule of thirds. the road runs up the bottom two squares of the center column, the sky takes the top, and the greenery takes the side columns. Though its a different application I see this as employing the rule of thirds creatively but not breaking it.