One day, I was wandering around the Fort Worth Botanic Garden with my camera. I noticed this bright green lizard descending the trunk of a rather large tree. I loved the contrast of the bright green with the tree bark and wanted a photo. So I pulled out my telephoto and hoped I could photograph the lizard before it scurried away. I captured this photo during one of the lizard’s brief pauses. I could have photographed the lizard in the middle of the photo. However, you can see the lizard is offset from the middle.
How you set up the location of objects or subjects within your photo is referred to as Composition. As an artist, you are free to compose a photo however you like. But there are some principles that can help you compose better photos. One principle is called “The Rule of Thirds”. If you split the photo into three equal portions, there would be a left, middle, and right section. Placing a focus of attention in the middle of the photo goes along with how our brains expect to see things. Our brains are not very excited to see something as expected. However, when you offset the subject in the right or left third of the photo, the brain has to look around for a moment to figure out where to find the subject. Don’t get me wrong, some photos are best with the subject smack dab in the middle. But using the rule of thirds can create some extra interest that makes people see your subject a little differently.
In my photo of a green lizard, I placed his curved body to the left side of my photo. Your eye is drawn to his bright, green body curving around. I had the ISO set to 400 since it was a partly cloudy day. I opened the aperture a bit at f/5.6 to take a faster photo at 1/250 sec. This middle aperture using my telephoto resulted in the lizard in focus and much of the tree trunk in the rest of the photo out of focus leading to more attention for the lizard.
The next photo below is from a morning stroll around the Colosseum in Rome.
Using the rule of thirds your eyes notice the Colosseum in the top of the photo, the newer pavement in the middle of the photo, and the old cobble stones of ancient Rome in the bottom third. Yes, the Colosseum is in the middle from left to right, but I captured the e-bike in the left side of the photo which also gives a point of interest and contrast of modern and ancient. Another contrast is the early light of dawn in the left of the photo with a sliver of moon in the top right. So there is more in this photo to draw your interest, but the rule of thirds still helped the composition of this shot.
Try using the rule of thirds in your photography. Place your subject in the left or right third of your photo. It might be challenging at first, but you might find some new inspiration for photo composition.
Keep looking for beauty in the world!
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