Guide to Composition Photography And Rule of Thirds - What’s in your frame

In the previous lesson we learn how to capture a clear crisp photos at night, while In todays Photography lesson, I will go over a lot of great things that will help take your photos to the next level. So We’ll be covering things like what is composition, some basic rules of composition like the rule of thirds, when to throw out the rule of thirds, and how to use negative space and symmetry in your photos. We’ll also be talking about how to change your perspective and how that really takes you to the next level. We’ll also be talking about things like choosing your background, choosing colors when to choose black and white, how to position your subject, and all things related to composition.

What is Composition :

Composition is a simple question « What is inside your Digital slr camera frame  and how are you framing your subject », so there is a couple of key things here and throughout this section we’ll be going over the difference of rules that people have come up with and when you can break them, and when you want to use them.

The main thing here is to look through your viewfinder and decide what is your subject? Are they going to be small in the frame ? are they going to be very present in the frame ? How do you frame the things that are in the background in with them? Or are there multiple subjects?

It’s really a fun part our lesson because it’s taking photos, it’s deciding what do you want your photo to be of. So for me personally i look through the camera lens and I decide « Okay, I’m taking a picture of that person » and when I look at that person, I said well « what’s on the left side of frame, what’s in that left corner, what’s in the bottom right corner ? » and I really make a decision on all those different sections and come up with my photo ; So for this it’s best to not just «  i am here, so I m going to take a photo to them » it does not work like this, because maybe you don’t want that building behind them, maybe you need to across the street to get that photo, maybe you wnat them to turn around and get better lighting on their face.

What is the rule of thirds :

The rule of thirds (Wikipedia link) is really there to help you frame your subjects in a way that they’re not always dead center but they’re also not touching the side of your frame too much.

As you can see in this shot above, the subject is currently on the left side of the frame, it is not too far to the left but also not dead center ; And in this way it adds a nice look to it because it allows you to have another subject there, maybe a wall or car or trees which also make the subject have a little headroom and without putting the head in dead center in the frame.

The Rule:

• Placing subjects at « the third » of an image
• Don’t place subjects in the middle of your frame.

Rule 1 is a general rule of thumb but it’s not something you have to follow. This again is a decision that a lot of photographers have said « Oh, well, sing the third lines is really helpful, because it keeps my images from being perfectly symmetrical but also prevents it from being too much space to the left, right, bellow, and above » So it is just a sort of happy medium of the third lines.

When looking at the rule of thirds, there’s a lot of different ways that you can do this, whether it’s with portrait photography, landscape photography, really any type of photo you can use the rule of thirds.

Rule of thirds examples :

Here I will show you some of my favorite photos so that you can really see how the rule of thirds comes into play. And you might even not notice this when you’re looking at photos on a day-to-day basis, but start looking at photos and see how a lot of photos are composed this way.

1.Dandelion :

this is a great example of how to use the rule of thirds, and place the subject not anywhere on the third line but at the intersection of vertical and horizontal lines. That’s really getting down to the nitty-gritty of the rule of thirds, but that sweet spot is placing a subject and the focal point of your photo at that intersection, and it does not have to be the top left or top right intersection like you might see in a standard portrait, but you could put it on the bottom left or right and I think this is a great example.

2. Castle

This is another non-human photo, but it is a great composition of using the rule of thirds, we have this castle on the right side of the image that is really the focal point of the photo and your eyes are drawn to it. As you can see, Again it’s on the third line.

3.Baby

Here we have a child that is semi-centered, semi to the left of the frame, and I would say and you might argue that if the photo was a little bit shot to the right and that the child was a little bit more to the left, it might be a little bit more dynamic, and if it was on the third line it could have been a little bit more dynamic as well, but nonetheless great shot and the child is sort of leaning over towards that third line.

When to throw out the rule of thirds :

So now we’ve learned what the rule of thirds is, and how to use it, let’s talk about not using it, and the different way that you can’t frame things when you don’t really need to use it, or you don’t want to use it.

When it comes to breaking the rule of thirds, I often find my self-looking at either wanting to shoot a more symmetrical image « where you have everything be very on the crosshairs », or the other one is using negative space « where you have a lot of headroom, and having your subject very small in the frame ».

Symmetrical shape

There is a lot of ways that you can use that, and although the rule of thirds is really there to help you, then try to giving a little extra to the headroom, try taking away the headroom, or just try the symmetrical shot. It’s actually pretty difficult to find perfect symmetry when shooting on the street because things don’t always line up, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use those other things; And start framing your subjects with inside of frames with inside of frames ; And its a whole another way to look at photography, and really I think some really incredible photos have come from that.

Negative space

So you can break the rule of thirds when :

• Use negative space or center subjects
• Using lines in your composition (framing frames in a frame)

So, Go and give it a shot, try negative space, try symmetry and can’t wait to see what you guys come up with.

In the next lesson we will see how to change the angle of shooting to unlock the creative power of composition.