Declan Tyldesley

Photographic Techniques

Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds is one of the most important pictures when taking photographs because it also you to create a focus point or focus points on where you would want someone to look directly as soon as they see the photograph. Some cameras will actually allow you to apply the Rule of Thirds grid onto the camera; however this will then disable you looking through the lens so you can take a good photograph. On the other hand this means that you will have to take a photo with the viewing screen and the grid applied. On the ROT (Rule of Thirds) grid there are a total amount of four intersecting lines roughly just outside the middle of the photo in each corner, and these intersecting lines are used as focus points. Furthermore professional photographers tend not to use the Rule of Thirds grid because they like to look through the lens so they can take a better and more stable photograph of a specific object. Therefore from these few points I believe the Rule of Thirds grid needs to be applied in almost every photograph to apply a focus point or focus points.

Below I am going to display series of six images with one photograph showing without the lines and one with the lines. From this I should be able to look and evaluate all of my photographs thoroughly because of the Rule of Thirds grid. My series of six images are placed below;

The two images above show a picture of Nicole, in two different duplicate models. As you can see above on of the images has the Rule of thirds grid edited into it on a software; called Photoshop. On this image two of the lines intersect at one point creating a single focus point. From this when someone views the photograph they will immediately take notice of Nicole’s face at the bottom right hand corner of the image. When I was taking this photograph I was able to use to lens to

Declan Tyldesley

automatically focus it o n the model, so from this background will then become out of focus. This is because I did not give it a strong depth of field so the focus could have stretched further. However I did manage to give this image quite a natural feel to it by not having the Aperture to high to extract the sunlight and get rid of the shadow effect. I also managed to get part of the College in this photograph as well as two standing trees which I think improved the photograph quite a lot.

Above I have affirmatively placed two images, which is the same photograph but are in two different formats again one with the Rule of Thirds grid edited in. While I was taking this photograph I decided that I wanted to capture a leaf breezing in the wind and I successfully did so. Within the image with the Rule of Thirds grid attached I can see that I have again managed to capture one focus point where the lines intersect in the bottom right hand corner. As I look at the image on the bottom I can see that I have taken quite a natural photograph once again as I have managed to capture part of the blue sky despite the cloud above dominating the majority of it. As I was taking this photograph I adjusted the ISO number to a total number of 400 this is because I wanted to keep the natural sunlight in but I also didn’t want the image to be over exposed so it will take the natural feel out.

Declan Tyldesley

Above are another two images that I had taken with a digital camera. With the first image I have displayed the Rule of Thirds grid on it and on the other I have not. From these two images I can see that I did not manage to create a focus point of focus points because the lines do not intersect on any of the objects within the image. However I do believe people will take notice of this photograph despite there are no focus points because I have once again taken a natural photograph within the College grounds. In my opinion however despite the fact this image doesn’t create a focus point, I do believe the dead leaf on the ground with the natural green, bright colour merges well together as this may mean something to someone. Overall in my conclusion of this image, I think that everything works well in this photograph from the blur to focus (top to bottom) and the natural theme of the ground with the leaf and the grass as the sun beams in. When I was taking this photograph as well I had my ISO number set to 100 so it is less sensitive towards the light. However my Aperture (F-Stop) was on 5 and my Shutter Speed or Exposure time was on a 500 of a second.

Declan Tyldesley

Fourthly I am going to talk about the fourth photograph I took of the day and within the first image on top I can see that I have managed to include a total amount of two focus points. By including two focus points on this image I can see that Adam is in full focus so, if someone was to view this photograph they would immediately take notice of Adam. However I am quite critical over this photograph for one main reason and that is about the ISO number. When I was taking this photograph I had the ISO number set to 100, therefore making the digital camera less sensitive towards the light and from this I believe it extracted the natural daylight which I think would have made the photograph look a bit better. However I do think that the digital camera picked up enough detail by focusing on Adam fully with two focus points set on him where the two lines intersect.

Declan Tyldesley

The two photos above display one image with the Rule of Thirds grid attached, and the other is displayed without it to show you what the image would really look like if it was displayed for people to look at. While I was taking this photograph I decided that I wanted my abject to be a post sectioned outside of the College. Within the image on the top you can clearly see that I have managed to apply two focus points in the image both sectioned on the post outside. I also made the background fairly out of focus so when someone comes to view this image they are directly driven to the post so they take full focus of it in other words. In my conclusion of this in particular photograph I do think that it is quite a good image to look at as I didn’t extract the sunlight by adjusting the ISO number I left it so it can pick up the shades or the natural theme of the image if you like.

Declan Tyldesley

Lastly, I am going to talk about the last photograph I took, and in the two photos above the main object is a Nikon camera. As you can see I have displayed one image with the Rule of Thirds Grid and one without. From these two images I can see that I have unfortunately not managed to identify any focus points within this image. However I still do think that people will be drawn into this image because the camera is in focus and it was also taken from a good angle so the camera covers most of the image. It also makes the camera more interesting because the background is also mostly out of focus directing them towards the Camera itself.

In my conclusion for this work on the Rule of Thirds Grid or technique, I believe that Rule of Thirds should be applied in almost every photograph is taken mainly without it displayed on the screen so you can see throughout the lens. However not only Rule of Thirds needs to be applied because without balancing or adjusting the ISO, Shutter Speed or Aperture, the photograph could become a disaster. And based on this fact I do think Rule of Thirds doesn’t need to be applied in order to drive a viewer into the image as long as it is something interesting to look at etc. Such as a underwater plane wreck.