Power points - rule of thirds

[popeshawnpaul]

I want to challenge many of you on here that shoot with regularity and are looking to make the composition on your photos a bit more intriguing.  What I'm talking about is the rule of thirds or power points.  Lets look at the following photo as an example.



This is one of my favorite photographs and one that I made a lot of money on.  What makes it a good photograph?  Well, the black and white format is intriguing.  But this photo is a perfect example of the rule of thirds and how composition can make or break a photo.  When you first look a the photo, you immediately believe it is a snail or some odd deep sea shellfish.  However, you're soon drawn to the eye and that is where the power in the photo is.  This is the case with all photographs.  The eyes are the most important focal point and that is where you always focus your photographs.  I have seen stunning photographs of bighorn sheep where the depth of field is so shallow that the nose is slightly out of focus but it is tack sharp on the eyes.

I have drawn some lines on the photograph above to break this photo up into thirds.  You then put the power or eyes of an animal or subject on the power point...where the lines intersect.  If you were to center the eye in this photo it would not be a good photograph.  There are also some other points to remember when composing your photographs.  The number one problem I see is that people compose wildlife that is looking out of the photograph.  The following is a photograph that is a good photo to show the rule of thirds and where the animal is looking into the photograph.



I composed this photograph with the bird looking into the photo.  Had I centered the bird, the photograph would have much less impact.  He is located on a power point and looking into the photo.  Had I placed this bird in the top left of the frame, he would be looking away from the center of the photo and you would be left wondering what the bird was looking at.  Because he was composed looking into the photograph, you get a sense of balance with the photograph.

I would challenge you all the next time you snap a photo, be it your kids, the family dog, or a huge ram, remember the rule of thirds.  I seriously think about it almost every time I push the button on my camera.  Either put the eye on a power point, or if your subject is small in the frame put the animal on a power point.  Good shooting to you all.

shawn

[jackelope]

thanks pope...good stuff.

[huntingnut]

Thanks for the tips. I love taking pictures of my kids and the outdoors. Any tips you have would be great.

[billythekidrock]

I have read about the rule of 3rds and I try to follow it, but sometimes it is hard, especially when the background is bland.

Take the pic I took over Laborday weekend.



I tried to keep the subject in the left 3rd but the sky was not that interesting.

When cropped this way it looks a bit better.



But I think it looks best when cropped like this.



OK Pope.....gimme some feedback on how to make it better, I can take it..

[popeshawnpaul]

Ok Billy, lets name your photos from top to bottom 1, 2, and 3.  On the first photo, the subject is just not large enough in the frame.  If there was an interesting background, you could get away with this photo and call it an environmental landscape shot (one where you depict the wildlife's environment as well as the animal).  The second photo is large enough to be useful, but I feel you didn't quite have the composition right.  Following the rule of thirds and the rule that you always place your animal in the photo looking into the photo, you could have placed the hawk in your top left power point instead of centered.  You still would have had the issue of your background, however. 

There are two things working against you in photo number 2 with regard to your background.  First, the background is mixed between bright sky and green trees.  The sky is much less distracting than the trees, so i would have lowered my perspective to get just the sky as the background.  You would have then gotten the feeling like the bird was on top of the world.  If you felt like the the sky was overexposing the photograph and you couldn't see the detail of the bird in the photo, I would have used a flash.  Yes, I know, everyone hates flash.  However, when you are outside and you are simply trying to fill in the shadows, it works wonders.  I just use a tiny pop up one on my Canon 40D, but you can use any pop up flash.  The flash also serves another purpose...it makes your image tack sharp.  It is a trick wildlife photographers have used for years to make sharp images outdoors.  My flash is only rated for close distances, but I find it works out to 50 yards or so.  Nowadays, you can simply photoshop the flash glare off the eye later and nobody will ever know you used flash.  Ok, I'm off topic now...

You also could have changed your perspective in photo 2 so that just the trees were in the background.  There are two things working against this though.  One, the background isn't sufficiently blurred to make it blend in, and second I think you have figured out the limitations of your camera lens on this shot.  For example, look at the bluebird photo I have posted above.  This photo was taken at f2.8, a very fast speed with limited depth of field.  There was a tangle of old bushes and limbs behind the bird.  Had I shot this photo at f5.6, the shot would not have worked.  The background would not have been blurred enough to make this a useable shot.  I'm suspecting that your photos were taken at f5.6 or larger...?  The next question becomes, is your lens faster than f5.6?  And lastly, if it is f5.6 and you know this, you can learn it's limitations and still make good photographs.  In this example, you could have simply changed your perspective to only include the sky, and this would not have been distracting even if it was in focus.

Photo 3 is exactly what this exercise is about.  See how the bird is looking off the photograph?  It almost works, but I'm left wondering what the bird is looking at.  It also isn't balanced because of this.  It's the best composed photo of the three and it almost works becaue the bird is looking at us slightly and the hawk's eye that now becomes visible adds power to the photograph.  If he wasn't looking at us a little, it would really feel off.  Are we now nitpicking?  Yes.  It's hard to do all this while taking a photo.  But that is what critique is all about.

I encourage everyone to go back through all your digital images and check out the metadata for your photographs.  Look at how you composed the images, and whether the background blur (bokeh) is good.  Look at the metadata and see what f-stop you shot the photo at.  Could you have opened the lens up and gotten a better background blur?  Would that have made the photo less distracting?  On your landscape shots, did you stop or slow down the lens enough to where everything in the photo was in focus?  Did you have farther to stop the lens down?  Could shooting at a slow speed with a tripod have helped the photo?

When I'm shooting wildlife, 90% of the time you shoot your lens wide open at it's fastest speed.  F2.8 is the best, and f4 is useable.  F5.6 starts limiting yourself.  Hence, this is why when you see professional photographers shooting in Yellowstone or whereever useing the huge fast f2.8 lenses.  They do it for a reason.  You don't spend thousands of dollars on these lenses just to shoot at f5.6.

Anyone else that wants to post photos this is a good exercise.

[sisu]

OK I'm hooked I'll post one after I do the rule of thirds.

[jackelope]

curious to hear input on this pic as far as composure and location of the deer.


Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Date/Time: 2006:09:16 05:44:14
Resolution: 640 x 425
Flash used: No (auto)
Focal length: 300.0mm (35mm equivalent: 477mm)
CCD width: 22.66mm
Exposure time: 0.0040 s (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv.: 250
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix

[popeshawnpaul]

Jackelope, I think you did about all you could for this photo.  You weren't close enough to get a great portrait on one of the animals with a 300mm lens.  Additionally, with both deer you need to get them both in focus to be an effective photo.  At f5.6, you did this.  Had you shot this at f2.8 or f4 (assuming your lens is that fast), one or the other deer would be out of focus depending on which one you focused on.  Other than the left deer being so close to the edge of the frame, it's a good photo.  You could have put the head of each deer on the top two power points and as long as the body of the deer on the right was in the frame, that would have worked.  The light plays well with the grass and on the deer's head and antlers.  I see it was shot at 300mm, was this one of those 70-300mm zooms?

[jackelope]

I really like the input. this was a cheap tamron 100-300 zoom. i have a couple other shots...all maxed out that lense of the same 2 deer in different places...i picked this one as the best.
f5.6 is the fastest i could get at 300mm.
here's another one  i could have moved the deer so he wasn't looking out of the photo like you were talking about(i think)


fire away.


Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Date/Time: 2006:09:16 05:44:19
Resolution: 800 x 531
Flash used: No (auto)
Focal length: 300.0mm (35mm equivalent: 477mm)
CCD width: 22.66mm
Exposure time: 0.0040 s (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv.: 250
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix

[popeshawnpaul]

Lets look at another example of a photo that I used power points on.  This is a photo of a ram that I took in Montana



I could have centered his head in the photo.  To do so would have thrown off the balance of the photo.  The reason this shot works is because he is looking back at us.  Had this ram been looking forward where his body was pointing, he would have been looking off the right side of the photo.  Because he stopped and looked back at me or at another sheep behind him, I was able to re-compose the photo and get his head on the top right power point.  What I should do is post a centered photo that that does not follow the rule of thirds and then re-crop the photo so that it is composed according to the rule of thirds.  Maybe I'll get some time tonight to do so. 

[billythekidrock]

Thanks for the feed back! I only got two pics of that bird before he bailed and it was the best I could do.
I really appreciate the time you took for the post. Great job. Some more info..if it means anything..
The camera is just a Powershot S2 IS.
1/640 exposure time
4.0 F stop
1/636 sec shutter speed
4.0 aperature value
0.0 exposure bias value
3.6 max aperature value

[popeshawnpaul]

I thought I would revive this old post because I believe this is the most important concept to understand when shooting pictures and maybe some people missed this original post.  This is a reminder to all you out there shooting that you should think about the rule of thirds just before you push the shutter on your camera.  Composition is one of the things I continually struggle with.  Thinking about this rule every time you shoot will help you become a better photographer.  This post details the best advise I can give someone when shooting pictures.  This concept isn't for the pros only, I think about this when using my point and shoot and I'm taking pictures of my family or dog.

Good shooting, and don't be afraid to post those pictures so we can evaluate what you can do compositionally.  I'll post a few full size images in the next couple days so that we can evaluate how I could have better composed or cropped an image.  Other people see your images in a way you never thought and can add a ton of creativity to the composition of your photos.  When I was an editor for a newspaper I was in charge of cropping images and I would crop them in ways that people never expected and it kept the photos interesting.  It's interesting to see how others would crop my images and create a masterpiece from a simple shot.

Shawn

[robodad]

I am interested in this rule, could you tell me where I can read about it ??

[popeshawnpaul]

Here is one.  There are other sites that detail it more than I do with more examples. 

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/rule-of-thirds.html

[popeshawnpaul]

Ok, I got a chance to sit down and find a good photo for input.  I've never figured how this photo should best be cropped.  This is the original full size slide and I have marked a few different crop options with the photo.  For me, the red colored crop would be the best and would put the ram in the top right power point.  I shot this photo quickly as I saw this ram up high on a ridge and I wasn't able to get close.  Obviously the ram wasn't going to stretch forever so I took the photo and thought I would decide how to crop later on.  With slide, you can't really do that as you need them full size.  Now with digital I can crop this image the way I want.  You could even make this image a vertical crop should that size/perspective be needed. 

This is a perfect example of how the rule of thirds can work.  I centered this subject and I don't believe the image is cropped the best way because of that.  What would you do or how would you crop an image like this or another?

(oops, the blue line is a continuation of the yellow line)

[robodad]

Here is what I would do Shawn, let me know what you think.

I would move the red box up about 3/8 inch to include the tops of the trees, the sky is very boring and blury so the yellow box don't work for me, I would also move the red box to the left about to the right vertical green line and include more of the rock you see on the left of the picture, I may even shorten the photo a bit with the bottom red line of the photo half way up to the blue line.

Let me know why you would choose the red line. Just trying to get a feel for what works.

Cool Photo !!

[popeshawnpaul]

My thinking with the red crop was that I wanted the ram to be located on a power point instead of centered.  Because he is looking into the left side of the photo, he must be on either the right top or right bottom power point.  That's either the red or yellow crop.  I prefer the red crop because I prefer the foreground grass and it is properly exposed compared to the washed out sky that adds little.  With the red crop I would be sure to exclude the rock on the left as that rock continues up and you realize that the ram isn't on the top of the mountain.  Instead of being on top and owning the mountain you would get the feeling the ram is just a part of the mountain if the rocks rose above him. 

Those were the things that were going through my head.  Additionally, I've thought about odd shaped crops like wide horizontals etc.  I also think a center crop could work on this photo...

[robodad]

With the red crop I would be sure to exclude the rock on the left as that rock continues up and you realize that the ram isn't on the top of the mountain.

Photographers do think differently that is for sure, I didn't think of that when I looked at your photo, I thought the rocks would be a point of interest in that the ram is spying something beyond the rocks and makes me want to look for what ever it is !!

I am beginning to realize how much power a photo has over a person, almost like looking at a painting and trying to interpret the story the artist was trying to portray.

Good stuff, Thanks.