Photography: The Rule of Thirds

Let's face it.  Go through most people's picture boxes and you will find hundreds of really, really boring pictures. Why?  Is it because all these people we took pictures of are dull.

Sorry.  It's the photographer.  Too often we take pictures as though we were scientist recording photos of experiments. We make sure the faces or the beautiful buildings or landscapes are on film.  What we neglect to capture is the essence of the face or building or landscape that made us want to take a picture.

There are lots of things photographers do to capture more than just an image.  I'm not going into all that.  I have just one secret to share with you.  What I'm going to show you now is the secret to creating good-looking pictures.  It's an old design trick know as the "Rule of Thirds". 

Here's how the rule of thirds works.  Check out this beautiful Glenn Sackett picture - Lake at Sunset:

Let's divide the horizontal aspect of the picture into thirds.

  Notice that the two main interest points of the picture, the sun and the peak are close to the lines that divide this photograph into thirds.  Now let's add lines that divide the picture into vertical thirds.

Notice how the peak is just about at the intesection of the vertical third and the horizontal as is the sunset.  Remember, the rule of thirds is not an iron rule, but rather a guideline.  What you want to avoid is the typical amateur photographers mistake of placing the center of interest in the center of the photograph.  There may be interesting stuff there, but always have something in the picture that draws the eye left or right, up or down from the center. 

Look at this photograph with people in it:

This is a photo my daughter Meghan took of my niece Jenny and me.  The composition is pleasing and interesting because it obeys the rule of thirds.  Let's draw our tic-tac-toe rule-of-thirds guide and see how.

Notice how my big fat head lines up where the top and left guidelines cross.  Jenny's face lines up along the top third guideline.  The results will give you a pleasing composition almost every time you shoot. 

If you imagine a tic-tac-toe diagram across every picture you shoot and line up the interesting bits along the guidelines, you'll produce far more interesting pictures.  The beauty of digital photography is that even if you're shooting quickly and things don't line up like you'd like the to, you can crop the photo to make it more interesting.  Let's start with this poorly composed photo:

 This is my daughter Meg at Disney world with "Chip".  The center of interest is dead center.  There is dead space all around and it makes the picture seem stiff.  Watch how we crop this to move Chip and Meg to line up a third of the way from the right.  This shifts the interest right.  We did it this way because Chip is looking slightly to the right so we want him looking into the pictuer since he has the biggest eyes.  Here we mark the area to be cropped.  Remember you can do this later in Photoshop or whatever photo editing software came with your camera.

 If you draw the two vertical lines separating the space into thirds, the subject of the new photo will be in the right third of the picture.  Chip's big head will be along the imaginary line at the upper third of the photo.  Crop the photo and it looks like this.

The picture simply looks better.  Meg's face is shaded (I shot this years ago with an old Pentax on slide film and without any fill flash to work with).  This is still not a great picture, but it is more interesting when you look at it.

So basically, avoid putting the dominant features of your photograph at the center.  Try to line them up along those imaginary hashmarks that separate the picture into thirds.  Try this with some old pictures that feel wrong, but you don't know why.  Try cropping them to make them more interesting.

Now you know the number one secret of "good photographers.  Try this out and see if you don't earn a "Wow, these are really good!" from the people you take pictures of.

Tom






*All pictures are my own except "Lake at Sunset" which is used by permission of Glenn Sackett Photography.  Check him out.  His nature photography is awesome!

Mama’s Louisiana Cornbread Mix

Pre-Mix and Store

Ingredients:

• 5 cups plain yellow corn meal
•  4 cups plain white flour
• 3 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
•   2 tablespoons salt

Directions:

•  Mix the 5 dry ingredients together
•  Store in ziplock bag or sealed canister till ready to use

Preparation

(print these directions on a label and stick it on

the cornbread mix storage container)

1.     Preheat the oven to 375°

2.     Mix together 1½  cups cornbread mix with 1/3 to ½ cup shortening

3.     Add 1 egg, 2 tablespoons sour cream, ¾ cup milk.

4.     Stir in enough water to give the batter a cake-like texture.

5.     Pre-heat an 8-9 inch properly cured and seasoned cast iron skillet.

6.     Melt a tablespoon of Crisco butter-flavor shortening in the skillet.

7.     Sprinkle the bottom with a tablespoon of plain corn meal

8.     Pour batter into skillet

9.     Bake until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean

* Sheila King’s perfect-every-time homemade cornbread mix

Wand-Making Made Easy

(c) 2012 by Tom King



Simple Wand with Scroll Markings

 What with the long winter evenings upon us, here's a little project you can start on in your spare time that is inexpensive, fun and will make you the hit of the neighborhood next Halloween.  With the end of the Harry Potter series, the movies move to television and begin their second life. J.K. Rowlings' brillliant series about the lives of children in a school for wizards actually has some very positive things to say to kids.  The series is not about magic being an easy bail-out the way so many kids movies have been.  It is rather about making choices and how if you choose to do right, things usually come out okay in the end.

Simple circular grooves with color variations.

One of the key characters in the series is Mr. Olivander, the Wandmaker.  He's an interesting character and provides most of the Hogwarts School children with their first wands. This past year I tried my hand at wandmaking and made some kids in my neighborhood very happy by sending them home, not with candy (my wife took care of that), but with their very own "first wands" complete with sales tags.

They are easy to make from hardwood dowels.  I use the thicker 5/8 to 3/4 inch dowels so that I have room to carve designs into them and so they aren't an eye-poking-out hazard.  You can find a description of how they are made on this Hubpages article.  The trick to really selling these wand is the individual tags for each wand. 

When I buy the dowels, I alway note the type of wood.  I've found dowels at Home Depot, Lowes and other lumber supply places made of poplar, oak and ash.  They aren't terribly expensive and you can get three or four 8 to 15 inch wands out of them.  You simply cut them into the lengths you want, Carve designs in them with a lathe if you have one or a Dremel-Moto Tool.  You can even make them interesting with a simple whittling knife if you have some skill at whittling.



Custom tags add authenticity



The key is to start early.  Carve the wands, then stain and varnish them.  There's a polyurethane wipe-on varnish that's great for this type of project.  You don't brush or spray it on, but wipe it on with a soft cloth. It's thin, so you'll need to add multiple coats, but it gets down into the carvings and adds nice colors and textures.

When you're done, you'll need to print up some tags for each want and attach them with a loop of string as shown in the article linked above.  The tags, like Mr. Olivander's wands will specify the length, type of wood used, the "core" used and the rigidity of the wand.  A typical tag might read:

Olivander & King

Wandmakers

Poplar - 12 inches

Core: Phoenix Feather
Pliant

By mixing up the tags and giving each it's own unique qualities and designs, you'll be creating a one of a kind keepsake for each child who comes to your door.

The only problem is that if word gets out, you may have to make a lot more wands next year.  The good news is, it's fun and you can find all sorts of wood for them just by keeping your eyes open.  If you have a lathe, it's even easier. Dowels off chairs, broom handles and even scavenged hardwood tree limbs can be pressed into service.  My dog, Daisy, and I found several likely branches on our rambles through the forest and the wands made out of natural tree branches had a mysterious and magical look to them that made them popular with the kids. 

If you take on the project, be sure and send me some pictures.  I'd love to see your work.

Have fun with it.

Tom