Figure 3-5.
Dividing the picture area into thirds often gives
you good locations to place important picture elements
d. Rule of Thirds. Placing objects a third of the way into the picture
applies in other ways too.
If you mentally divide the frame of your
viewfinder into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, you will have a
grid that looks something like Figure 3-5.
The four points where the
dividing lines intersect are often good places to place your subject.
Remember, we said that dead center subjects were static and slightly
hypnotic; but if not in the center, where? Now, by imagining where those
lines cross, you have a good point off-center, but not too close to the
edge, to position your subject.
In fact, you have four of them, and you
can choose any one of them to suit your purpose.
The points work well
whether the camera is held horizontally or vertically, which brings us to
our next point - format.
e. Format.
The format of a picture is simply its shape.
Square,
rectangular, even circular or key-hole shaped.
Most cameras today are
designed to take rectangular pictures, and most printing papers are precut
to rectangular shapes.
A few cameras are still made to take square
pictures. Whatever
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