composition "rules"

[Athas_orm]

Do you have to compose it right in camera? Or is cropping to the composition an accepted method?

[RichardTaylor]

@Athas_orm

Get it right in camera is best.
Cropping means loosing pixels however if it means getting a better composition then do it, if the final outcome meets the end users needs.

ie; Who are you shooting for?

[Athas_orm]

For myself mostly.

Thanks Richard.

[LeeR]

The talk here seems to be that the "rule of thirds", "golden rule" or "Fibonacci sprial" are the only rules out there. My own experience is that if we knew all the rules it would fill a libray that would be larger than the one in your lawyers office. Yet, at the same time calling them "rules" presents a problem. As soon as I give you a new rule you are going to find me an image that breaks the rule splendidly. But that doesn't mean these rule can be broken at will. Rather, knowing the rules and when to break them is the foundation for great composition.
So how do we learn all the rules and when to break them? If you want to learn fast, take up drawing; it is a fundamental skill for all the visual arts. Barring that, spend all the time you can looking at the great works of art in books, at your local museum and on the internet. Pay careful atttention when Rembrandt follows the rules to the letter and when he throws them out the window completely. Picasso had no trouble putting a nose in the side of a woman's face but he did it along the upper third. Monet ignored all the rules to create an 'impression.' The artistic elite of his day HATED his work, but today they remain among the most popular images the world over.
Perhaps we need to find another name for these 'rules': "endorsed suggestions" maybe. The important thing is to use them when they help but don't let them be fetter that keeps you from taking artistic chances.

[kencaleno]

Actually,Claude Monet had an excuse for the way he painted-he was half-blind for the last half of his life, and Rembrandt stole the lighting effect named after him, from Vermeer. The so-called "Rules" concerning photography are Compromises-If you look over the most popular images over the past 160 years,you will find only 20% actually
fit these "Rules".

[sandrodz]

we learn rules, to break them afterward... but not vice versa.

[LeeR]

Years ago I read a terrific book on composition that explained the principle behind 'the rule of thirds.' The book argued A) that the center of the frame was the least interesting, and B) the closer an object was to the edge, the more interest it held. Now you can see that by moving an object toward the third increases visual interest in it. I have, on occasion, been able to move things very near the edge, though when you do this matter of balance come into play.

[kencaleno]

The rule of thirds is a Pythagorean principle-apparently Pythagoras had two of his students hold each end of a piece of rope-held horizontally. He then made a sliding knot on this rope and as he slid this knot,he asked the remainder of his class of students where on the rope the knot looked most pleasingly aesthetic-they decided that it looked best .38 from one end.(near enough 1/3 (.33)) when held horizontally,the same answer was given. Ken

[OsmosisStudios]

Ken, Pythagorean theory is mathematical, not random. And the spiral is based on Fiabonacci. That's mathematical too. It just so happens that a lot of things follow the rules

[LeeR]

Originally Posted by kencaleno

Actually,Claude Monet had an excuse for the way he painted-he was half-blind for the last half of his life, and Rembrandt stole the lighting effect named after him, from Vermeer. The so-called "Rules" concerning photography are Compromises-If you look over the most popular images over the past 160 years,you will find only 20% actually
fit these "Rules".

The paintings of Monet that rocked the Paris art world were done long before he started going blind and Rembrandt's artistic style was formed thirty years before Vermeer so it seems rather unlikely that he stole any of his techniques. The reason we find so few rules in the great works of art is not because they are compromises, but because great artists are finding and defining new rules all the time. Every "rule" of composition has exceptions and corollaries and addenda. No one keeps track of them all, but if they did, the books that would need to be written would be larger than the average legal library Fortunately, we do not need to learn all the rules. Rather we can learn from them and train our instincts to guide us correctly for each situation.