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Thread: Rules of Thirds Compositional Examples

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    Co-Founder James Shadle's Avatar
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    Default Rules of Thirds Compositional Examples

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    Rules of Thirds Compositional Examples

    Here are a few Compositional Examples using the Rules of Thirds.
    I use the so called rule as a guideline only.

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    Co-Founder James Shadle's Avatar
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    Rules of Thirds Compositional Examples

    Here are a few Compositional Examples using the Rules of Thirds.
    I use the so called rule as a guideline only.

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    Co-Founder James Shadle's Avatar
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    Rules of Thirds Compositional Examples

    I use the so called rule as a guideline only.

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    Co-Founder James Shadle's Avatar
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    Rules of Thirds Compositional Examples

    Here are a few Compositional Examples using the Rules of Thirds.
    I use the so called rule as a guideline only.
    <!-- / message -->

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    Co-Founder James Shadle's Avatar
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    Rules of Thirds.
    I use the so called rule as a guideline only.
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    This is how you can set "grids" up in Photoshop if you want to use them as a guide.

  7. #7
    Anita Rakestraw
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    Good examples, James. I appreciate so much the very high level of educational/technical content on this site. Thanks a bunch for that!!

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    Thank you for showing this, really appreciated. Will check out the grid in photoshop.

  9. #9
    Alfred Forns
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    Really good James !!! Big Thanks for the post !!!!

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    Thanks, James, this is very helpful.

  11. #11
    Julie Kenward
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    Got it! Wonderful examples - it really illuminates many different ways you can use the ROT's to boost your composition.

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    Lifetime Member Marina Scarr's Avatar
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    Thank you VERY much, James for this tutorial. It was extremely helpful.

  13. #13
    Tom Walters
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    Thanks for this post as I didnt know the 'grids' feature existed on photoshop, might come in handy. Come to think of it there seems to be a lot more I dont know about it :D

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    James thanks for the information. Now, how do you show the grid on the picture that you are working on?

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    Myer,
    See pane #6 of this thread.
    James

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    James
    I set up my Preferences as shown on slide 6 but the grid doesn't appear on when a picture is open
    Regards
    Myer

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    When PS is open go to View>Show>Grid and you should be good to go. To toggle the grid on and off the keyboard shortcut is Command-Apostrophe (Mac) and Control-Apostrophe (PC). Very nice tutorial James.
    Last edited by Jeff Donald; 01-22-2010 at 03:06 AM. Reason: spelling

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    Thanks Jeff

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    Thanks Jeff and James

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    Thank you, James, that feature is quite obscure in CS4, but thanks to your tutorial, I found it!
    -- Craig

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    Bill McCrystyn
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    Well, I'll be .... Thanks James. :)

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    BPN Member Kerry Perkins's Avatar
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    Excellent examples and thanks for tutorial Captain. I found a handy (and free!) rule-of-thirds cropping action on the PanosFX web site some time ago. I just checked and it is still there. Some might find it handy - http://www.panosfx.com/index.php?opt...tuff&Itemid=57
    "It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson

    Please visit me on the web at http://kerryperkinsphotography.com


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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi James

    I am realising that the more you delve, the more you realise it's like an Onion skin you are peeling back, there are so many layers of excellent advice & help contained in the Forum. :)

    This particular thread I have found very useful, however I have a question.

    You have your image and it may not quite fit the thirds rule and therefore you would like to crop to ensure it fits the rule. Apart from creating 'a grid' in PS or Illustrator that you can import in and add as a layer, then resize accordingly, is there any other way?

    Thanks once again. ;)
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    [quote=Steve Kaluski;471341]Hi James
    You have your image and it may not quite fit the thirds rule and therefore you would like to crop to ensure it fits the rule. Apart from creating 'a grid' in PS or Illustrator that you can import in and add as a layer, then resize accordingly, is there any other way?
    ====================
    Steve, most advanced image editing programs like PS have a non-printing grid tool you can use, as others have already mentioned above. It's usually an option in the "View" menu of your image editing program, and you can turn it on and off whenever you wish with a click of the mouse. You should also find an option for changing the spacing of the grid. CS4 allows you to specify how many vertical and horizontal grid lines you want, other programs may require that you specify how many pixels you want between the lines, meaning you'll have to change that setting every time you resize or crop the image. At least this saves you the hassle of creating a new grid layer for each image.

    The "rule of thirds" (ROT) is merely a rule of thumb, not a rule of law. It's a compositional aid that needs not be strictly followed, and in fact, there are instances where it should probably disregarded or at least bent to suit the optimal compositional needs of a particular image. The two horizontal and two vertical lines that divide the frame into thirds serve as guides for shifting the main subject in the image off dead center. Placing a key element(s) in the image along one of the lines, or at their intersections, rather than at dead center often will improve the impact of the image.

    Our objective is to achieve a pleasing compositional result, and subjects do not always arrange themselves to perfectly fit the ROT. So do be mindful of the ROT when composing an image in your view finder, and later at the computer, but remember that it is only one of many tools in your creative process. Play with your composition, experiment with different arrangements using the ROT, as well as various departures from it, then assess your feelings about each result.

    I've taken a quick look at your website gallery, by the way -- very nice work! I especially like your owls.

    -- Craig
    Last edited by Craig Markham; 03-26-2010 at 03:11 AM.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Craig

    To be honest I never really use this 'as a feature' only because I compose in camera reducing a raft of issues later on in PP. I was interested in this tread purely as I liked the feature of the grid and gave an additional help as and when, however what I was hoping for was that somewhere in the tools of PS you could apply this Grid, scale it accordingly to your image, then crop.

    As I have held back for sometime on Upgrading from 3 to 4 I think this 'feature' that I am after is within CS4, therefore, it's 'shopping time' :) Having seen the thread that CS5 is coming out & the issues about upgrading I think CS4 will be fine for me as I do very little PP on my images and therefore it might be over speced, but seeing the pro mo for 5 I am still not sure how good it is?:D

    Thanks for your help.

    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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