Rule of Thirds

Dog Blog Post #419: The Daily Shoot went technical today, with

Make a photograph that is obviously composed using the rule of thirds.

If you don't know what they are talking about, you can read it about in Wikipedia, which states, in part, that:

"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."

Right.

Think of it as a tic-tac-toe grid drawn over your image, with the important stuff showing up on the lines and where the lines cross.

In the image above, you have the tip-top of Henry's nose at the upper-left point, the far lower corner of his eye at the upper-right point, his mouth generally follows the lower line with the lower-right point being the corner of his mouth.

This isn't rocket science. You don't have to be perfect.

Tuft of Ivy and nose are on opposing points, with his eyes on the upper line surrounding upper right point

Many cameras have the option to display such a grid, and mine lets you set up a single little focus point, which you can then position at one of those focus point so you are pretty much guaranteed a picture that follows the rule so long as you put something interesting under the focus point.

Of course, you're somewhat on your own if you want to have things at the rest of the intersections.

Today is dedicated to those folks who prefer the "natural" dog - unencumbered by hats and/or ball obsession.

Nose and tongue on opposing points

Ball on lower right point, eye on the upper line.

I said ball obsession - I didn't say the ball wouldn't show up in a picture! Note the soft eye, the big smile, the tongue hanging out... he's a happy boy. :)

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