Orangila's Photography Course - Part 1 (1 Second Rule & Rule of Thirds)

Today I am going to reiterate about my first 2 Basic Rules from my photography course outline

1 Second Rule

Like music, general photography is a form of art that can easily be appreciated with anyone and everyone from all walks of life. It can easily be understood by all regardless of age, gender, race or nationality. A good photo needs no explanation whatsoever and takes less than a second to be understood.

Bouquet of flower on the foreground, makeup artist and bride on the background. A photo that is easy for all to understand, no explanation needed.

1 second rule implies that the audience should be able to easily guess the title of the photo or have a good idea the story that is being told. More importantly, it should give audience the confidence of tell what is going on in the photo, not asking question about the photo.

If you show a series of good photos to your audience and you should get an answers such as these:

• Boy riding a bicycle
• Cat playing with a ball
• Children's birthday party
• Sunrise photo by the beach
• Office building filled with activities
• Students waiting at the bus stop

Celebration in a wedding dinner. Foreground are my friends giving me a toast and background as photos of others looking at the stage. Only thing imperfect about this photo are the individuals on the top right corner. But in events likes these, it is extremely difficult to completely eliminate distractions. Which is the reason why I chose a large aperture of 2.8, which is the reason why the gentleman on the left is blur and the few individuals behind are totally blurred out.

On the other hand, if you show a serious of badly taken photos to your audience, you will get answers such as these:

• I believe this is about a cat running away from the boy
• I think this is an advertisement about a land for sale
• This photo is either about the couple having dinner together or the fisherman cleaning his boat
• Not sure what the subject matter is, but I have a feeling that the photo is about the flowers near the pond
• I am totally lost, no idea what this photo is about

Here are some tips to take photos that can easily meet the 1 second rule

1. Eliminate photos bombs (unless it is meant to be funny or add flavour to the photo)
2. Zoom in to the subject or crop the photos Leaving no empty space (unless the empty space is aesthetic and adds value to the photo)
3. Make sure there is no unnecessary objects or distraction between you and the subject or behind the subject.
4. If there are too many distractions, then try to take from different angle to reduce or completely eliminate the unnecessary subjects.

Here is an instance where I used zoom lens to eliminate all the surrounding crowds and focus only on my friends. Foreground is my friends, background is the temples. Another clean and clear photo.

Remember, photography is exactly like marketing. In this this digital age, you have only seconds to capture attention of your audience. On social media such as Facebook, most contents are filled with videos and photos. There are features such as Insights and Publishing Tools that shows the analytics of your posts. Even for short videos of 3 minutes, you will learn that most viewers would spend less than 1 full minute on the clip. So you have to present your very best.

Rule of Thirds

One of the most basic rules for beginners to learn and apply. When taking photos, we are used to having the main subject right in the middle of the photo, this is called a bulls eye shot.

Referring to this photo, subject(s) should be place on of the the 4 blue dots. Or in some case, subjects can also be placed vertically or horizontally or horizontally aligned to the red lines.

Main subject is the skyline of Sydney CBD (Central Business District). The buildings are placed at the bottom third of the image. If I were to place the skyline on the middle and have the photo sandwiched between the night sky and water, then it will not turn out as nice.

Why Rule of Thirds?

Well, I am quite sure there are psychology or scientific reasons for it, but to me, I would like to explain it in terms of human psychology. What draws attention to a photo is usually the main subject after that, we will naturally roam around the photo to catch the other details. If the subject is placed in one corner, then all we have to do is to direct our eyes to the rest of the image to immerse ourself with the story the photography is trying to tell us. Much like reading a book, we read from left to right from one paragraph to another until we are done with the entire page. This is smooth and efficient way for us to cover the entire page. Now imagine if the sentences start from the middle and some page will start from middle and then flow to all different corners of the pages, that will make reading a book so much challenging, right?

Focal point is the nose (then eyes) of this young koala bear, and the focal point is located at the top third of the image.

Gridlines For Rule of Thirds

Almost all conceivable smartphone or digital camera do have the gridlines. If you were to place the photo off the gridlines, you can use any photo editing software application on your smartphone or computer and crop the photo accordingly. Again, almost all conceivable softwares have the gridlines set up as easy reference.

Boat and my friend on the 1/3 right, scenery on the left. Please note that if my friend were to look at the opposite direction, then this photo won't turn out as nice and I'll definitely get it deleted. Should he be looking at the opposite direction, then I have place him and the boat on the 1/3 left instead.

Breaking The Rule of Thirds:

Perhaps the one and only time when Rule of Thirds doesn't apply if the photo consist of

• patterns that is perfectly symmetrical
• no singular subject

This case, there is no clear pattern so Rule of Thirds doesn't apply

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Thank You For Reading My Post. I am most passionate about photography and eager to help fellow Steemians to improve on their photography skill. I am happy to give free tutorial, offer advice and step by step instructions to help you take better photos. You can contact me on Discord at orangila#9358

Caricature by @sireh