Great job explaining to Kelly. The rule of thirds is becoming more clear with everyone of your teachings. Thank you so much for being here for us eager to learn.
My freind Certo, Your Fotki home is the most interesting I have ran across here in Fotki. You are one great teacher! I love all you have to share with us. Laura
Certo as a novice, may I ask...All these lines in picture are the same length,correct? I will have to return and look at these again and again,but it is good to SEE a example.It is how I learn.
No the length of the line(s) is not relevent. What is important is that somewhere near at least one of the lines some element of the image strong enough to to indicate a line. And better yet is an intersection where "lines" in an image come together. IF...there are no lines in the image, the objective is still to place subject matter off-center somewhere near where the (tic-tac-toe) lines would be. And best would be to have point(s) of interest in the area where lines would cross, intersect.
Should you try the suggestion in my Rule of Thirds instruction of drawing lines with a coloring pencil on a glass screen television, you'll begin to see how important those lines and intersections are. Then you'll begin to see the same thing in good magazine images (other than some product ads).
Tom Ulrich, a world class wildlife photographer, especially birds from around the globe came to our photography club and gave an incredible slide show. We got to "talk shop" before others began showing up. I had a folder of some of my images in an attache case in the trunk. He asked if I had anything with me so Linda got the case for me. With almost every picture, he waved his hand over them, showing the lines of the Rule of Thirds. He did this unprompted by me on the subject. Needless to say, I was thrilled. Then his slide show was rife with the employment of the Rule of Thirds. He talked about it to the club members and guests.
You'll learn to see how it works. It just takes orienting your eyes/mind to it. Well, that and other features of composition.
You can see the same rule in a lot of paintings. As a matter of fact, it's practically first thing you learn in painting 101. Still life scenes will ever have the vase, basket, figurine, largest piece of fruit on either the right or left vertical and it will be centered or the bottom of it (if it's tall) will be on or near the intersection of vertical and the lower horizontal.
Hang in, my friend. It will become second nature to you.
Certo ************* thank you I remeber about the vase from Art class in New Zealand.I will try your suggestion. Hugs; Kelly
This photo was taken with the close-up lenses (often called filters because they thread on like filters). This image was not cropped, only reduced in overall size. You can see how large the common housefly is in the frame. Again, off-camera flash was used. The setting is under heavy tree cover; the tranlucient legs are illuminated with the flash. I "selected" the body of the spider and brightened it to the level of the rest of the scene.
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