Day 2 - Rule of Thirds

I'm kind of hoping I can look back through this blog and see my photography improving. I'm also hoping I find out what my niche is... it's certainly not Selfies like yesterday!!


Day 2: Rule of Thirds

Today's topic is Rule of Thirds. This one is chucked around a lot, I've heard about it with consideration to painting & drawing and video editing.

The Rule of Thirds is about composing the picture, rather than just snapping and hoping (dammit...). Wikipedia, the ever reliable online encyclopaedia, explains it well:

"The rule of thirds is a principle of the Golden ratio with broad application as a "rule of thumb" or guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images such as designs, films, paintings, and photographs. [...] 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. [...] creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering [sic] the subject." (Unknown, Unknown)

Over all I'm quite pleased with today's photos. I cheated a bit and did most of them in auto. Which, looking back at them, was stupid really as they're all a bit too dark (despite a bit of touching up). I'll chalk that down to experience...

On with the pics...

First Picture: Spring Blossom

I like this because I tried to balance the two main sets of flowers in the top left and bottom right corners. It has somewhat worked, but I'm a little bit peeved that it's not in focus brilliantly... it was really windy.

Second Picture: A Concrete Column

I have a bit of a thing about urban photography. I love UrbExing, so this snap really is a homage to that! I think (hope) It's worked quite well and I've tried to balance the beam edge with the right vertical line. I like it anyway!

Third Picture: A Daffodil

You know Spring is here with the daffodils are out! :) I wanted to get the two left and right yellow leaves along the top horizontal line with the orange cup in the centre. I put the whole flower head in the top two thirds of the photo, it seems to work nicely. I like this one too.

Fourth Picture: My Local Church

With this photo I wanted the church to be in the distance but balanced, like an added extra to the landscape. I don't think it worked very well though. Next time I'll move slightly to the left and get the top corner of the tower on that cross, probably move a bit closer/zoom in a bit too. There really was no saving that sky either!

Just for laughs:

Decay (because I like decay!) and Finlay, knackered after our 1.5 hour excursion!

Tomorrow's theme is black and white... looking forward to that! :)

Reference:

Unknown. (Unknown). Rule of Thirds. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds. Last accessed 1st Aptil 2015.