the first rule is: there are no rules.
of course there are tips and things to consider. but, true to my earlier post on photo tips, i believe that everyone is an artist and that the most important thing in creating beautiful photos from our own hearts & souls, is to share what & how we see the world. to share the things that move & inspire us.
with that said, there are a few tips i have learned along the way that i would like to share with you, to help you create shots that will be seen as beautiful art.
so, today, i want to talk about composition, or how things are placed in a picture. composition in arts & design has to do with how the elements are placed or arranged in a photograph. now, i’ve got a tons of little things to share with you regarding composition, but i thought i’d start off with the one that i consider the most interesting, or that might have the largest impact. it has, at least, had the largest affect on how i compose & plan my pictures.
and it’s easy. you gotta love that.
the rule of thirds:
imagine a grid, broken into 9 squares. like a tic tac toe game board. this grid is something to burn into your mind or imagine every time you look through your camera’s viewfinder (or screen) and prepare to take a picture. if you have an iphone, you can choose to have the grid visible as you take a picture.
the rule of thirds is all about the point of line or corner that you put your subject on. your subject can be the horizon – where the sky meet the ground, for example. or a flower. or a bowl of cereal. for those of us who read from left to right, the left side is the strongest point in the picture.
using the rule of thirds gives us an opportunity to be creative. instead of always putting the horizon or our subject smack in the middle of the photograph, try putting it in the lower three, thus filling the photo with much more sky.
of course, sometimes having the horizon balanced near the middle creates good balance.
so, there’s my first tip for you. play around with it some. look at things differently, and try to line things up in the different areas on the grid. move your horizon around. use the different points on the grid. line your subject up to the left, or the right. at the top. or the bottom. just do something different! step out of your comfort zone.
this has been one of the easiest tips i’ve learned, and the one that gives me the fastest results – seeing my photos in a completely different way. so, good luck, fellow artists. happy snapping!
I have a feeling a lot of people will like your photography-inspired posts! 😉
The rule of thirds is great. I first learned about it during my FIT course I took this summer. So glad you mentioned it, I sometimes forget about it or do not think about it consciously.
How many more of these posts are you planning on writing?
Thanks, Laura. I hope that they are inspiring. I’m coming at them from a really amateur-ish kind of way on purpose… to make it more accessible to all people. Not so overwhelming. So, I hope they make sense. I have about 5 or so more that I’m gonna do, because I want to spread it out and focus on one thing at a time. 🙂
Interesting post. Not a photographer but I do like to try to capture beauty in photographs often. I will definitely keep this tip in mind…..and am looking forward to your future tips….