Have something against the Rule of Thirds??

Well, you are not alone. Just ran across this link on another forum. Seems compelling. I did not know about the composition tools in LR, and I'm looking forward to seeing how my photos compare.

http://www.diagonalmethod.info/

BM

Nope. I learned the rule and discovered I'd already been composing that way for years. There are exceptions to every rule, of course. But you should learn the rules before you break them. That way you understand what you're doing and why.

I just did it naturally before knowing about the "rule" but never knew why it looked good. Knowing the rules reinforces what I'd probably do anyway.


I've been cycling through all the overlay options (O), and rotating them (Shift+O), in Lightroom since I got it: Thirds, Golden Ratio, Triangles, Diagonals, Golden Spiral.
All of them are valid methods for locating the key points of your image.
The rule of thirds is just the most common one quoted.
If you use thirds you'll see how far they are off the golden ratio.

What I'm missing in Lightroom is how to change the colour of that overlay.

Interesting post. I'll have to look into it more!


As a side note, I'm becoming interested in LR2. If this feature is incorporated in it, it might sway me even further.

Cheers,
Daniel.

I use the feature to check to see if my composition by eye matches the rules, or if I've found something else that works :)

Well, from what I've gathered, it works less well on wider aspect ratios. On panoramic photos, I can't see really how it works at all. I went through some random photos last night, mostly portraits, and in a lot of cases (maybe half) I'd have to crop a lot to get either of my subject's eyes on a diagonal line. Maybe I'll post some examples when I get a chance...

BM

"Roads? Who needs roads!" Dr. Brown

On panoramic photos, you may be able to divide it up into many smaller features of interest, each of which will hold the eye because the composition is right.
It's unlikely that a rule of thirds will apply to the whole of an image like that, but if you look at the spiral, you may have a track, river, fence, that follows that line.

Well, I'll have to take back what I stated in my earlier post after looking at photos on my computer here at work. All of these random shots were pretty close to the DM. I'm posting the original crop (from the original photo I have at home) and one that's been cropped some more to fit the DM. Let's here some opinions as to if the new crop is in improvement, no difference, or worse than the original.

#1- One of my favorite pics:
Orignal-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...M/DSC00544.jpg
DM-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...SC00544_DM.jpg

#2- This one I cropped a little off the left to get the center 'D' in 'Dodge' to be at the intersection of two diagonals.
Original-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...edit1small.jpg
DM-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...t1small_DM.jpg

#3- My dog in her natural environment for the first time:
Original-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C2787Small.jpg
DM-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...87Small_DM.jpg

#4- My little angle-head sweetheart girl playing in the sand at the beach. This one I wonder about because I had to cut more of her hand off on the left side of the image to get her eye on a diagonal. Maybe in a more square aspect ratio than 2:3 would be better?
Original- http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...SC3772_Med.jpg
DM-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...772_Med_DM.jpg

#5- Same kid from the first photo, albeit 1.5yrs later. He loves dirt... This one worked out great using the DM. The line runs straight through his eye and continues through the middle of his hands holding his most precious
Original-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...SC3816_Med.jpg
DM-
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...816_Med_DM.jpg

Thoughts?

BM

Interesting…

I only skimmed through the link because I find it interesting that people try to over analyze things with “rules”. To me, it seems as if someone is trying to quantify why and how we should enjoy “art”.

If it’s interesting, shoot it. While you’re shooting it, compose it to how it looks best to you.

:)

A couple of those tools in the overlays are also for good evaluating keystoning (the grid diagram), composition of other aspect ratios, and specific types of group portraiture.

The spiral/swirl composition guide is often employed with squarer formats, i.e. 6x6 or 6x7.

The diagonal grid can be effectively employed for portraits, group or individual, that are formal in nature and allow for framing/cropping guides.

The triangle grid is an offset center line tool. If you extrapolate the 'rule' as to how this is generated, in a square format it comes out producing triangles that center the frame or subject.

The Golden Ratio is very commonly used in the film industry. The places where the grids cross are called Golden Points and on wide/panormic or 2:1 (also 70mm) these are the 'eye grabbers'.

I haven't found a magic fix for changing the color of the grids either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bmadau

Well, you are not alone. Just ran across this link on another forum. Seems compelling. I did not know about the composition tools in LR, and I'm looking forward to seeing how my photos compare.

http://www.diagonalmethod.info/

BM

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I am adding a second comment because the 'self-promotion' part of this in the linked article has some serious problems.

Most everything in the article needs to be properly attributed to the Raphaelite artists of several hundred years ago.

The spiral portion of this method is clearly documented as a compositional method used by Leonardo Da Vinci in the notebooks and it is very apparent in much of his work. Da Vinci even drew spirals over his work in studies and commented on them in great detail

If you note his bibliography, there are several works that seriously predate his claimed 'discovery' of this Method.

There have been several attempts by various web denizens to claim discovery of something just because it has not been posted on the World Wide Web previously.

The DM article minus the self promotion is an interesting if incomplete view of the use elemental spacing in visual media composition.