On Better Photography, A Series
by
Glenn Pollock On Making Better Photos
by
Glenn Pollock On Making Better Photos
The Rule of Thirds
The Origins of the Rule of Thirds
Text by Glenn Pollock
Photos, Rain Rodolph
When the aliens first landed, humans were still living in caves, and just
beginning to desecrate the walls with their graffiti. Ignoring the Prime
Directive, the aliens decided to provide these primitives with some
important information [or at least what they thought was important].
Being a very advanced intellectual, but rather pompous race, they
decided to share some esoteric artistic ideas, rather than explain
indoor plumbing or air conditioning, which of course, would have been
much more practical and useful. But they figured that, since these
primitive beings had already begun to create graffiti, they might as well
do it with some artistic sense.
The aliens chose to give them the definition of the Golden Section: “A
line divided into two segments such that the length of the smaller
segment as compared to the length of the larger segment is equal to
the length of the larger segment as compared to the whole length.”
Unfortunately, it came out, “Adjqoeir alrur asfrivn or/atru nriutahv nvei
froif jeeej. Of course this meant nothing to the humans. They weren’t
much beyond grunting in their communications skills, let alone
understanding an alien language. Fortunately the aliens also provided
a visual formula and the graphic equivalent etched in a stone tablet. It
looked like this:
The Origins of the Rule of Thirds
Text by Glenn Pollock
Photos, Rain Rodolph
When the aliens first landed, humans were still living in caves, and just
beginning to desecrate the walls with their graffiti. Ignoring the Prime
Directive, the aliens decided to provide these primitives with some
important information [or at least what they thought was important].
Being a very advanced intellectual, but rather pompous race, they
decided to share some esoteric artistic ideas, rather than explain
indoor plumbing or air conditioning, which of course, would have been
much more practical and useful. But they figured that, since these
primitive beings had already begun to create graffiti, they might as well
do it with some artistic sense.
The aliens chose to give them the definition of the Golden Section: “A
line divided into two segments such that the length of the smaller
segment as compared to the length of the larger segment is equal to
the length of the larger segment as compared to the whole length.”
Unfortunately, it came out, “Adjqoeir alrur asfrivn or/atru nriutahv nvei
froif jeeej. Of course this meant nothing to the humans. They weren’t
much beyond grunting in their communications skills, let alone
understanding an alien language. Fortunately the aliens also provided
a visual formula and the graphic equivalent etched in a stone tablet. It
looked like this:
When they presented it to the humans, the humans looked at it,
then looked back at the small furry aliens, decided they liked
the aliens better, and ate them. And the tablet was ignored and
lost.
Many millenniums later the tablet was discovered by the
Greeks, who had moved out of the caves and were beginning
to build temples for their gods. Having evolved a bit beyond the
cave dwellers, they took the one dimensional line formula and
expanded it into a two dimensional shape using the same
proportion formula: A:B as B:C [A+B], thus creating the Golden
Rectangle proportions of approximately 5 to 8. When they
applied these proportions to their architecture, they discovered
the buildings looked a lot cooler. They also looked around in
nature and discovered that a lot of the really neat nature thingys
[such as sea shells and themselves, even] also had these
proportions, so they knew they were on to something big.
Being an inquisitive culture, they started playing around with
this rectangle by adding diagonals and perpendicular lines,
and discovered some other cool things. Like, if you draw a
diagonal line from one corner of the rectangle to the other and
then draw lines from the other two corners perpendicular to that
diagonal, you end up with intersection points at some pretty
pleasing locations in the rectangle. Great places for placing
important elements of a composition:
then looked back at the small furry aliens, decided they liked
the aliens better, and ate them. And the tablet was ignored and
lost.
Many millenniums later the tablet was discovered by the
Greeks, who had moved out of the caves and were beginning
to build temples for their gods. Having evolved a bit beyond the
cave dwellers, they took the one dimensional line formula and
expanded it into a two dimensional shape using the same
proportion formula: A:B as B:C [A+B], thus creating the Golden
Rectangle proportions of approximately 5 to 8. When they
applied these proportions to their architecture, they discovered
the buildings looked a lot cooler. They also looked around in
nature and discovered that a lot of the really neat nature thingys
[such as sea shells and themselves, even] also had these
proportions, so they knew they were on to something big.
Being an inquisitive culture, they started playing around with
this rectangle by adding diagonals and perpendicular lines,
and discovered some other cool things. Like, if you draw a
diagonal line from one corner of the rectangle to the other and
then draw lines from the other two corners perpendicular to that
diagonal, you end up with intersection points at some pretty
pleasing locations in the rectangle. Great places for placing
important elements of a composition:
Page Three, Better, Photo Series by
Glenn Pollock
Glenn Pollock
The Rule of Thirds
Rain Rodolph Photo
Rain Rodolph Photo
Rain Rodolph PHoto
Better Photography Tips The Rule of Thirds, Glenn Pollock On Making Better Photos
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Custom Search
In Better Photography Tips, The Rule of
Thirds comes into play when you draw a
diagonal line from one corner of the
rectangle to the other and then draw lines
from the other two corners perpendicular
to that diagonal
Thirds comes into play when you draw a
diagonal line from one corner of the
rectangle to the other and then draw lines
from the other two corners perpendicular
to that diagonal
When you draw those lines you end up with intersection points at some pretty pleasing locations in the
rectangle. These intersections Great places for placing important elements of a composition
rectangle. These intersections Great places for placing important elements of a composition
Better Photography Tips The Rule of
Thirds, Glenn Pollock On Making
Better Photos
Thirds, Glenn Pollock On Making
Better Photos
This Book Takes the Mystery Out of Selling Your digital Travel Photos
Great Tips illustrated with Great Pics, October 20, 2010
(Amazon Review)
I found this book to be engaging and full of great tips and instructions. The black and
white travel photos inside are a joy to look at. I would like to see another book of his with
just the photos, printed larger and on glossy stock.
The book is divided into two sections: How to take good travel pictures, and then, How to
sell them. ....
This is the sort of handbook that you will want to buy, read and then save to refer back to
again and again.
(Amazon Review)
I found this book to be engaging and full of great tips and instructions. The black and
white travel photos inside are a joy to look at. I would like to see another book of his with
just the photos, printed larger and on glossy stock.
The book is divided into two sections: How to take good travel pictures, and then, How to
sell them. ....
This is the sort of handbook that you will want to buy, read and then save to refer back to
again and again.
It found a permanent home on my bookshelf, September 3, 2010
This book covers all aspects of selling photographs. Drawing from his own
experience as a travel writer and photographer, the author has created a
real resource for anyone who wants to have their images published. He
gives sound advice as to how to be productive creatively and walks you
through the necessary steps to getting your images to market. I highly
recommend this book to anyone who is serious about selling their
photographs.
This book covers all aspects of selling photographs. Drawing from his own
experience as a travel writer and photographer, the author has created a
real resource for anyone who wants to have their images published. He
gives sound advice as to how to be productive creatively and walks you
through the necessary steps to getting your images to market. I highly
recommend this book to anyone who is serious about selling their
photographs.
Must Have, September 27, 2010
I highly recommend this book. Easy to read and understand. Even if you are
not trying to sell your photographs this book is a must have. This book
covers all the fundamental information that you have to know on aperture
settings, filters, composition, etc. which will get you the photographs you will
be proud of and want to sell.
I highly recommend this book. Easy to read and understand. Even if you are
not trying to sell your photographs this book is a must have. This book
covers all the fundamental information that you have to know on aperture
settings, filters, composition, etc. which will get you the photographs you will
be proud of and want to sell.
