Superior Photographs using the Rule of Thirds

I love taking photographs. Next to writing, it is my most favorite hobby. I cannot draw, paint, sew or knit. I don't scrapbook, make music, or carve sculptures. I just take pretty pictures. When I look at my photos, I feel a sense of satisfaction and joy, that I was there, and able to create a perfect moment in time out of the living, changing world. I consider myself an artist, to a certain degree. There is a special folder on my computer called My Art Pics, and only the great ones go into my collection.

Because it takes so many shots (roughly 10-1 for me) to get a photo worth my special folder, I am ever so grateful for the advent of digital photography. Without the restraint of limited resources on hand (film) and the cost of traditional developing, I am free to snap pictures to my hearts content. I don't take pictures of just anything, but I do take as many shots as necessary to get it just perfect when I do pick a subject. My favorite subjects are landscapes, architecture, still lifes, animals, and when done artistically, people.

I took a black and white photography class in high school for two years in a row. I loved it so much that I practically viewed the world in black and white for years after that. Imagining and superimposing the stark and beautiful contrast of B&W onto everything that I saw. We learned how to mix chemicals and develop our own pictures in the class darkroom. It was very magical watching the picture appear on a white sheet of photo paper while laying in a tray of developer. The photography teacher got me a press pass to the school football games and I got a few pictures published in our yearbook. I was so proud and forever hooked on photography.

Nowadays, I stick to color. Every photoshop program out there will turn a color shot into a B&W for you on a whim. The technological advances in photography just in the last 10 years have come so fast and are so exciting, its hard for me to keep up. By the time you study the manual for one camera, its already out of date and the next one is waiting to be bought. Makes me wonder what will be available in another 10 years when my kids are out of the house and I can throw some real money into this hobby of mine.

The old saying that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is so true. I take pictures of things that I feel are beautiful and try to present them in a way so that others will think they are beautiful too. Learning the technological side of photography is now the easy part. The camera can make all the choices for you. What you can't produce in life you can probably manipulate into being on your computer later. Learning the art of photography is the hard part unless it flows from you naturally like it does for me. It comes from your heart, and you know when you got the shot you were looking for. Personally, I prefer to capture the shot perfectly on site, with maybe only a little cropping to make it look balanced if necessary. While in school I learned a valuable rule of thumb for sighting shots that can help anyone make a mediocre shot into an awesome one. It's called the rule of thirds. I drew lines on my picture of the Sundial Bridge as an example for you to see.

The rule of thirds basically says to put natural boundaries of things or things that create horizontal or vertical lines on or near an imaginary line running through a third of the picture (whichever third you chose). My horizon is at the bottom third line. My bridge structure is on the left hand third line. Notice how the picture feels balanced and in proportion? Next thing to consider is the circles where the lines cross. You should think of these as your new bullseyes. If you are still putting your main subject smack in the middle of your pictures, this concept is going to immediately make your pictures more interesting. The eye naturally falls to these points first, so putting your subject, or secondary subject in any of these four locations will make it pop out to the viewer. You don't have to make it exact; close is fine. Notice the tip of the tower is near one and the point where the tower and bridge platform meet is near one. The last thing to consider is called "leading lines". Leading lines do just that. They lead your eye into, or out of the picture. They literally tell your eyes where to go. I drew three leading lines on the picture so you could see (this is a great pic for demonstrating this, you usually will only have one or two per pic). There is one on the bridge platform, and two on the bridge's cable's. You could say all of the cable's are leading, but I just picked the two that are the most dramatic.

Now if you can mentally superimpose this graph on every shot you eyeball in life you will be able to create some of the most beautiful and dramatic pictures you have ever shot on purpose. Everyone can come up with a great photograph once in a while and not be able to put their finger on why it is so great. Once you learn how to successfully implement this tactic, you will feel like a pro with almost every shot.

There are so many places to go, people to see, and things to do on this earth that with photography, the possibilities for capturing the beauty of it all is endless. One of my favorite photographers is Ansel Adams. He photographed Yosemite long before color film, and way before the invention of the rule of thirds. He saw and instinctively knew how to capture the essence of nature like no one else. He is still to this day one of the most celebrated photographers of all time. I often wonder how many shots it took him to get that perfect one in a million. I wonder how much money he spent on film and chemicals back in his day. I wonder if he had a digital camera back then what would he have been able to create that was never captured because he ran out of film! Here is a link to some facts and sources if you would like to know more about him. http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/adams.html I can only hope to be like him in some small way. In the meantime, I sure enjoy trying.