Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds

kanniduba4 Comments

So, this assignment from Scott was quite instructive!  I spent time looking at photos that seemed “off” when I made them, but couldn’t quite figure out what I wanted to do to “fix” them.  Turns out the Rule of Thirds helps tremendously.  I also applied straightening to some, sharpening, contrast, and saturation fixes on some.  I could have done this all afternoon, but alas, poor me has to go out to dinner.  😉

Here are the befores and afters.

First up, a shot from Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida:

Another Animal Kingdom shot:

This shot from EPCOT had so many things wrong with it:

But a little straightening, and some cropping, and voila:

And to think I almost deleted that one.

I wasn’t crazy about this next shot when I took it:

But now:

And a last one of one of my favorite local views…the change isn’t dramatic, but I do think attending to thirds makes it better:

Better:

Thanks Scott,  for another lesson!  I will go back to more of my “garbage” shots later.

Rule of Thirds

kanniduba5 Comments

So, Scott gave us a new Challenge. Run on over there to check out the details! Since he gave us a lot of leeway and didn’t require new photos, I figure I have no excuse for not participating. I will work on getting some new photos, but for now I decided to go back through my photo stream to pick some ready made examples of the Rule of Thirds.
When I first became tuned in to this rule for photographers, I began noticing its use everywhere…every cinematically brilliant piece I saw, I got distracted noticing the rule put to use on the big screen…for example, this:

Or this:

Or even this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwmYs-lQeD4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

All of them beautiful, and I’m sure that attention to this rule at the right moments helps make them so.

I can’t say that I attend to this rule thoughtfully, but I do think I tend to apply it naturally. I don’t use the grid lines….in fact, I don’t even know how to turn them on (she says somewhat shamefully) but I suppose I must “see” them in my mind’s eye as I shoot…maybe??? Or maybe not? In truth, I don’t consider rules with my head when I shoot…I just shoot. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it’s not, but I think we can over think these things sometimes.

But let’s have a look, shall we?
First, an older favorite taken in Saratoga Springs, NY. Although the subject is centered, the horizontal planes follow “the rule” so I think it works as an example, don’t you?

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An early morning sunrise in Ocean City, NJ:

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A shot from the Adirondack Balloon Festival, taken two years ago:

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This is Mary, Queen of the Universe Shrine in Orlando, Florida. This one is debatable I think. Some would say no, it doesn’t work as an example because the focus is up the center aisle, but I still see thirds, again working horizontally. What do all you experts out there say about this one?

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And two favorites from Ocean City, NJ taken this past summer.

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None of these shots were cropped, so I will go and do that next. Maybe I’ll pull a Karma and offer up more than one challenge post! 😉 In any case, you have plenty of time to jump in and participate! Stay tuned for my official entry.

Excited, Intimidated, and Downright Uneducated

kanniduba4 Comments

So, my online class starts tomorrow and I’m SO excited!!!  And nervous…and intimidated…and wondering what the heck I’ve gotten myself into!  I FINALLY received Bryan Peterson’s two books, Understanding Digital Photography, and Understanding Exposure yesterday.  I thought I’d get a little background into me before the course starts.  Thank goodness I did!  I read through the entire Digital Photography book yesterday afternoon, not being able to put it down.  Some of the concepts led me to take out my camera’s owner’s manual and discover secrets that have been hidden from me.  Big Girl kept giggling at me because I kept exclaiming out loud, “Oh, WOW!!!” and “NO WAY!!!  COOL!”  as I discovered the many treasures.  Mind you, I have owned my Nikon D40 for a year and a half, but in my defense, way back when I read through the owner’s manual I was extremely clueless.  I had never heard of apertures, exposures, shutter speeds, and whatnot, so kind of *ahem* skipped over those parts.    *ducking head*  Then when I started playing with the P setting, I just kind of fiddled and had a hit and miss sort of experience.  It wasn’t until very recently that I started to understand more about the whole aperture/shutter speed relationship and realize that I need some real training to take full advantage of my equipment…thus the class.

SOOOO…..I realize now exactly how ignorant I am, which is making me more nervous about taking this class!  BUT I am more excited than ever because I suspect that I am about to have all the dots connect. 

I spent time flipping through my Flickr stream this morning with my freshly learn-ed eyes, and I couldn’t help but think of some lost opportunities.  Chalk it up to the learning curve…I suppose it’s encouraging that I’m seeing those missed opportunities already.  Gives me hope that if a book can do that, a class taught by the guy who wrote the book can do more. 

Now for that Rule of Thirds.  Ever since Shrew posted the next Challenge, I have seen this topic crop up everywhere I look…funny how that happens, isn’t it?  So, while looking through my photostream this morning, I tried to find some photos that demonstrated the “rule.”  I was disheartened to find few.  But there were a couple that I thought stood out, so I thought I’d share them with you.

I must admit that all but one of these photos was cropped…(the sun through the mist is not.)  I have to work much harder on “getting it right in the camera” as Mr. Peterson (and I believe some guy we know named Scott Thomas?  😉  ) says. 

So, Happy Shooting everyone!!  I will try to keep my whining frustrations to a minimum throught this process!