Friday, August 19, 2011

Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds


Dog Blog Post #419: The Daily Shoot went technical today, with

Make a photograph that is obviously composed using the rule of thirds.

If you don't know what they are talking about, you can read it about in Wikipedia, which states, in part, 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."

Right.

Think of it as a tic-tac-toe grid drawn over your image, with the important stuff showing up on the lines and where the lines cross.

In the image above, you have the tip-top of Henry's nose at the upper-left point, the far lower corner of his eye at the upper-right point, his mouth generally follows the lower line with the lower-right point being the corner of his mouth.

This isn't rocket science. You don't have to be perfect.

Rule of Thirds
Tuft of Ivy and nose are on opposing points, with his eyes on the upper line surrounding upper right point


Many cameras have the option to display such a grid, and mine lets you set up a single little focus point, which you can then position at one of those focus point so you are pretty much guaranteed a picture that follows the rule so long as you put something interesting under the focus point.

Of course, you're somewhat on your own if you want to have things at the rest of the intersections.

Today is dedicated to those folks who prefer the "natural" dog - unencumbered by hats and/or ball obsession.

Rule of Thirds
Nose and tongue on opposing points

Rule of Thirds
Ball on lower right point, eye on the upper line.

I said ball obsession - I didn't say the ball wouldn't show up in a picture! Note the soft eye, the big smile, the tongue hanging out... he's a happy boy. :)

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4 comments:

Greyhounds CAN Sit said...

Lovely photo you chose. Henry is looking happy but chilled. As for Zachary in the last photo, his tongue looks so long I'm wondering how he can fit it and his lacrosse ball in his mouth at the same time:) He is a happy boy:)

My camera has got a grid but I tend to use the grid in iPhoto when cropping. I'm too busy trying to just take photos of the dogs when they're tearing around to worry about where they are in the frame!

houndstooth said...

You got some great photos again! I tried getting some pictures last night, but I ran out of time, so I'm going to try getting them tonight, along with some sort of horizon line! Gah! I had an idea I wanted to play with for this one, but I haven't had time to set it up the way I want.

I love the boys dressed up and au naturel! I don't think they ever have bad photo days!

greygirl25 said...

I love the slobbery ball image. It's a classic.

Kristin G. said...

I'm just back from vacation and trying to catch up on everything I missed. I love to visit your site because your amazing photos and handsome boys always put a smile on my face! Plus, I always learn a photography tip or two. Thanks for sharing!!