Dead-Center is Dead

Composition:

Dead-Center is Dead

Ok, so I’ll admit this right off the bat… I probably have hundreds of sunset pictures where the horizon is right smack dead-center. Maybe you wonder “what’s wrong with that?” After all, I think it’s a safe bet to say that MOST people will try to center their subject in the frame. Why? One reason that comes to mind is that the autofocus on your camera will focus on whatever is directly in the center of the viewfinder. The other is that in our efforts of perfection, we try to make things perfectly concentric. It all goes back to kindergarten… where we were encouraged to keep our coloring within the lines and being neat and orderly in everything we do. Perfectly centered works well with so many other things – shooting a rifle for example. In order to shoot our target, it is necessary to center the crosshairs exactly dead-center of where the target is. Thus – our target is DEAD! But we’re not killing our subjects here. We are making an aesthetically pleasing image of what we see, and putting your subject dead-center makes for a lifeless photograph. I suppose we could get in the psychology of why we like our images off-center (and I’m sure you can find plenty of articles on that) but I like simplicity. Let’s just suffice it to say that you don’t want your subject dead-center, and leave it at that. Now, there are some instances where you do want your subject to be centered – like on your driver’s license, passport pictures or mugshots… but since when are mugshots aesthetically pleasing or in any way artistic? Seriously though, there are some exceptions – which I will likely cover later – but in most cases, you will want to follow the rules… and here is one of those:

The Rule of Thirds

In photography (and in video) it is common practice to use what is called “The Rule of Thirds.” Once you have this rule impressed in your mind, you will wonder why you ever took dead-centered pictures in the first place. It may take some practice to un-learn what you have been doing (in my case for decades) and get into the mindset of thirds. Here’s how it works:

Imagine your photo frame divided up like a tic-tac-toe game. Basically, it is divided into thirds (or in 9 sections). Our goal in this rule of thirds is to line up our subject with one of these lines – to avoid centering our subject within the center-square. Where the lines intersect is very important. These are your power points. If you can center your subject in one of those points, it has the most dramatic impact in your photo. For reasons I’m not going to get into explaining, your eyes are drawn to those points. One thing also to keep in mind is not to get hung up on trying so hard to keep this as a hard and fast rule that it kills your creativity. Even though there are goals, it’s ok to simply be close. For the sake of helping to “see” these lines, I’ve superimposed this grid onto some photos I’ve taken.

When doing landscape photography, we want to emphasize either the sky, or the landscape. Give more emphasis on one or the other – don’t try to do both. One of them is going to be more interesting than the other. If either is the case, take two pictures. If neither is the case, why bother taking a picture? Notice in this picture how the horizon is right at the bottom third line. The clouds weren’t amazing, but they weren’t boring either. It was the golden light shining on the trees that made the shot. The pond was a bonus, but there wasn’t anything interesting about the water that day. A couple of months later and the water is filled with lilypads… now that might make me change my mind about where to line up the horizon. Notice also how the tree on the left kind of draws you in. There are a couple of reasons for that 1) It is one of the brightest objects in the photo (and I’ll cover this more in detail later when discussing lighting) and 2) it is within the third on the left. There is also a geometric “triangle” pattern with the trees that gently guides you up to that tree. Your eyes could also go the other way too – as generally, our eyes go from left-to-right. Ideally, you might want a picture to be composed opposite of this, but on the other hand in this manner it keeps your eyes on the picture longer because your eyes wander within the picture.

This sofa is textbook – centered directly on one of the power points. You may also notice that it is framed between a tree and a fence. Framing is also an important element that I will go further into detail with.

In this “ninja” you’ll notice that multiple parts of the subject intersect these lines (the eyes and the fingers). There are two things that make the hands the most important subject in the picture: 1) They are the brightest objects and 2) they are in focus, whereas everything else is intentionally blurred (using aperture settings).

Here are some other examples:

Skunk cabbage runs right along left third line

Left line runs through center of Chelsea's face with her eyes near the "power point" intersection.

Naturally, we want to keep the subject in the left third, if we centered Steven, we cut off his fishing rod. His eyes are centered in the "power point."

Here, I’ve taken the rule to extremes. The clouds were most interesting, so I wanted to only keep a sliver of the expanse of farmlands in the photo. Even though the sky is amazing, without showing some land, the photo would look awkward and unsettling… pointless.

One of the challenges you may have with trying to work with the “rule of thirds” is that your subject may be out of focus. Here’s a little trick that works with autofocus cameras: Center the most important part of your subject in the viewfinder (for a person, it will normally be the eyes… with some exceptions). Push the shutter button halfway down and lock your focus. Keep the button halfway pressed while recomposing your photo and then fully depress the button. Another way is to switch to manual focus. You lock the focus the same way, only manually (by rotating the focus ring) and then it doesn’t matter if you take your finger off the shutter button to recompose because on manual it won’t try to refocus automatically.

I would not only recommend playing around with your camera to work with the “rule of thirds” but to look as if your eyes (or some other frame – like the windshield of your car) were the viewfinder. Look at other examples of how this rule is used. See it on television and on the movies. Look at examples in magazines, books, paintings – even architecture or in nature. This rule is very pervasive! Learn it… make it a part of your photographic toolbox.