Rule Of Thirds Analysis
Rule of Thirds: a 18th century invention
Presented as the cornerstone of photographic composition and knowledge, suggested by many to be a thing from the mysterious past, the Rule of Thirds is an invention from 1797.
Religiously defended by some, the Rule of Thirds is often forgotten by famous photographers, from Ansel Adams to Edward Weston, or cinematographers as Stanley Kubrick or Wes Anderson. Does the rule really matter?
Recently, I came across one article “revealing” a photographer had discovered the golden ratio in Ansel Adams’ public domain photographs that were created for the U.S. government. I had to laugh. I always keep in my mind a phrase from Ansel Adams: “The so-called rules of photographic composition are, in my opinion, invalid, …show more content…
I wrote, then, one paragraph that makes sense to repeat now: “Hired by Look magazine, in 1946, first as an apprentice and later as a full-time staff photographer, Kubrick soon revealed a keen interest for storytelling photographs. In 1949, Look published a photo essay, ‘Chicago-City of Extremes’, revealing his talent to create atmospheres. One of the images, of a congested Chicago street at night, shows the passion for the one-point perspective that would become a trademark in his moving images.”
Early this year, Andrew S. Gibson, a photographer and author of eBooks, wrote a note on his blog that caught my attention. Under the title “Debunking the Rule of Thirds” he reveals that “in my ebook Mastering Composition I was careful not to criticise the rule of thirds too much as I’ve received criticism for that in the past. It’s a surprisingly emotional issue and I don’t understand why some people (hopefully a minority) get so worked up about it.” …show more content…
According to these sources, the rule of thirds is the prime rule in photography and you should break it at your peril. In this article I aim to rip up this part of the rule book and show it for the misdirected rubbish it really is (it’s acronym is ROT, in case you need reminding).”
The article, published On Landscape, continues saying that “composition is more than just aligning a few objects with a simple grid”, and the author adds that “It is probably true that the ‘first guess’ placement of an off centre object with no other context will probably be around a third point (but within quite a large tolerance). However, if we can use a musical analogy (and it’s probably one of the most productive genre to access analogies from) a ‘third’ placement is like a major chord in music and just as a song full of major chords will sound dull very quickly, a picture with just thirds will do the same. I tend to place horizons quite close to the edges of the frame - a rule of fifths would work very
Presented as the cornerstone of photographic composition and knowledge, suggested by many to be a thing from the mysterious past, the Rule of Thirds is an invention from 1797.
Religiously defended by some, the Rule of Thirds is often forgotten by famous photographers, from Ansel Adams to Edward Weston, or cinematographers as Stanley Kubrick or Wes Anderson. Does the rule really matter?
Recently, I came across one article “revealing” a photographer had discovered the golden ratio in Ansel Adams’ public domain photographs that were created for the U.S. government. I had to laugh. I always keep in my mind a phrase from Ansel Adams: “The so-called rules of photographic composition are, in my opinion, invalid, …show more content…
I wrote, then, one paragraph that makes sense to repeat now: “Hired by Look magazine, in 1946, first as an apprentice and later as a full-time staff photographer, Kubrick soon revealed a keen interest for storytelling photographs. In 1949, Look published a photo essay, ‘Chicago-City of Extremes’, revealing his talent to create atmospheres. One of the images, of a congested Chicago street at night, shows the passion for the one-point perspective that would become a trademark in his moving images.”
Early this year, Andrew S. Gibson, a photographer and author of eBooks, wrote a note on his blog that caught my attention. Under the title “Debunking the Rule of Thirds” he reveals that “in my ebook Mastering Composition I was careful not to criticise the rule of thirds too much as I’ve received criticism for that in the past. It’s a surprisingly emotional issue and I don’t understand why some people (hopefully a minority) get so worked up about it.” …show more content…
According to these sources, the rule of thirds is the prime rule in photography and you should break it at your peril. In this article I aim to rip up this part of the rule book and show it for the misdirected rubbish it really is (it’s acronym is ROT, in case you need reminding).”
The article, published On Landscape, continues saying that “composition is more than just aligning a few objects with a simple grid”, and the author adds that “It is probably true that the ‘first guess’ placement of an off centre object with no other context will probably be around a third point (but within quite a large tolerance). However, if we can use a musical analogy (and it’s probably one of the most productive genre to access analogies from) a ‘third’ placement is like a major chord in music and just as a song full of major chords will sound dull very quickly, a picture with just thirds will do the same. I tend to place horizons quite close to the edges of the frame - a rule of fifths would work very