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!

Making a Ghillie Hat

There IS a guy in a Ghillie suit in this picture.

If you have a hide for your body, a hood's all you need.

If you’re thinking of taking up wildlife photography, hunting, paintball or bird-watching, you’re going to need an easy method of camouflage. Oh, sure you can buy camouflage clothes down at Wal-Mart or a sporting goods place. Some even carry special patterns designed to match the local flora.  A little camo face paint and you’ll be hard to see for sure. For total concealment, however, nothing beats a Ghillie suit.

The Ghillie suit, developed by military snipers as a portable form of concealment, helps you blend indistinguishably into the terrain.  Ghillie suits are basically net covered outfits with strips of rope and rag tied to the nets. You’re basically dressing up like a big bush.

Ghillie suits aren’t the most pleasant of outfits to wear. They’re heavy, bulky and complicated to put on.  If you’re looking for a little extra to dress up your hiding place, a Ghillie hat might be the best thing for you.  Here’s how to make one.

Preparation:

Get a large floppy canvas hat and a circle of nylon or poly blend netting about six feet across and a natural Earth tone color.  Get a large needle and some clear or green monofilament fishing line. You’ll also need a little clear glue or hot glue. You’ll need strips of twine, jute and earth colored cloth so that you have a mixture of textures and thicknesses. Strips of an old camouflaged shirt work great for the cloth strips.

Assembling the Parts

1. Cut the nylon netting so that it covers the hat and hangs down one to three feet over the edge of the hat brim as far as you wish.
2. Lay the netting over the crown of the hat so the edges stick out. Add a touch of glue wherever the net touches the edge of the brim or the crown of the hat.
3. Once the glue sets, stitch the net at all the glue points. To secure the net to the hat.
4. Start at the outside edges of the net along what will be the bottom of the net.  Tie the strips of cloth, rope and twine along the first row of netting along the outside.
5. Keep tying around the base, working your way up row by row. Alternate the cloth strips with twine and small bits of rope. The added upper layers will lay on top of the lower layers like a hay pile or brush heap.
6. Use simple knots so you can untie them if you need to change the texture or colors in order to adapt your hat to different types of terrain.
7. Work your way to the top of the net, adding layers to give the hat/hood a shaggy appearance.
8. Spread out the ties that will be in front of your face to make it easier for you to see through the hood. You want enough strips to keep your face concealed without blocking your vision.  Remember you will be walking around in this rig on rough terrain. You need to see well enough that you won’t fall off a cliff or something.
9. When you’re done, set the hat on a stick with the rags and ropes hanging down. Spray the outside of the hood camouflage colored spray paint. Use long erratic strokes, not heavy, but just thick enough to shade the strips.
10. Let the paint dry, then season the hood.  Do this by leaving it outdoors for several days. A rainstorm would help remove the shine and smell. Drag it around in the grass and dirt, toss it in a lake, then hang it out to dry.  You have to remove the new smells and man odor.  The whole rig should smell musty like the woods.

Shorter strands give you a wig like effect for a lighter hood.

To wear the hat, just slip the net over your head and settle the hat on your head.  When you find a hiding place, squat down so your feet are concealed. Stop moving. Moving will give you away.

The hood will help the part of you that’s sticking up and looking around (your head) remain invisible to passing animals, birds and people. The net also allows you to stick branches and leafy fronds into the netting to increase the bush effect and conceal your big old punkin’ head under there.  Keep an eye out when walking to your hide for sticks and leaves and stuff that will improve your disguise and stick them into the netting.

When you’re going out, stick a roll of twine in your pocket so you can tie on things you find. Use a simple overhand knot so it’s easy to remove anything you tie on.

A Ghillie hat is a lot of fun and very useful for observing nature unobtrusively.

Tom