Rule Of Thirds

Today, I completed a workshop that made me consider the rule of thirds when doing photography, which is something I have not fully considered before today, therefore, I found this very useful and I know that I will start to use it more as I am now much more cautious of my composition when taking photographs, as well as thinking about different angles and how to fill spaces effectively.

on Google, the top definition for the rule of thirds in photography is:

'In photography, the rule of thirds is a type of composition in which an image is divided evenly into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, and the subject of the image is placed at the intersection of those dividing lines, or along one of the lines itself.

I started to look at different photographers who use interesting perspectives in their photography, and considered how they would have used the rule of thirds within their work. I was drawn to the photographer 'Bill Brandt'

I was drawn to this photograph captured by him, as you can see how he has made 1/3 of the photograph the subject, and then 2/3 the background. I find that this creates a balance between the two, making it difficult to decide that the main focal point of the photo is, like they are battling for dominance, as even though the person takes up less room, it is closer to the camera making it look larger than the background, but at the same time the windows in the background draw attention as they take up most of the photo.

I aspire to learn from Brandt with my own photography to make my composition much more interesting and to play around with perception within the photographs through different angles.

I thought about how the subject of a photo can be placed somewhere that is not right in the middle of the screen and still be the main point of the photo.

For my first attempt I placed a subject on a plain background and simply moved them to the side to show different placing that isn't the centre.

I then did another simple shot, but making sure there was some sort of background in it, to again, prove that the subject does not have to be in the middle of the photograph to be the main focal point. I kept my work simple as I just wanted to create a clear idea in my head as to different positioning I could use for when I want to create more technical pieces, making them more interesting as I would have thought more about placing and how it looks in a photograph.