When To Break The Rule of Thirds

A different perspective - looking up at hanging flowers in the Niagara Falls National Park - click on picture

Now that I’ve spent the last few posts talking about what the rules of composition actually are, we can now talk about those times when you may want to ignore them. In other words, when to break the rule of thirds.

Don’t misunderstand me, I love the rules of composition, and I feel you should use them all the time. However, you will find that you can make even better pictures by bending or breaking the same rules. This is an area of photography that is best experimented with and learned on your own. However, when I was looking through my pictures to find this example of breaking the rule of thirds for this post, I found that the rules of composition were so ingrained in me, that I don’t have many taken with those different perspectives which can be so fun to take and to look at. You can try putting a camera in the hands of a kid between the ages of 8 – 12 years and see just what perspectives they come up with. I bet that they will teach you a lot about different perspectives and breaking the rule of thirds. In other words, just go have some fun in your picture taking!

Here are a couple of pointers to help get you started:

Change your perspective – technically, this is number eight in any rules of composition. However, few people ever think about changing their perspective on a scene. Try taking your picture by holding the camera horizontally, and then see how you might frame the picture by turning the camera vertically. You may find that you like the picture better. When you crop it for horizontal orientation rather than vertical orientation. Get a look at the ground. Stand on a chair or table. You have a lot of options so be glad to try some.
Ignore symmetry- symmetry is great, but just as often as symmetry works well in a photograph, I have found you can get an even better image if you intentionally skew the photo to strip out the symmetry. When the viewer expects symmetry and doesn’t get it, you have induced tension and drama into your photograph. And that’s not all bad, especially if all you’ve done is photographed some road, train track, or a river, or some other scene involving a straight line.
Surprise the viewer- hey, if you see one landscape, you’ve seen them all. It isn’t really true, but it can sometimes seem that way. Go for the unusual by framing your picture in a totally unexpected way. One my favorite tricks is shooting landscapes through the side view mirror of a car. In other words, try framing your picture in unexpected ways.
Use several focal points- while most pictures rely on just one or two focal points, sometimes you may need even more, especially when you’re shooting a picture like a family portrait. If your taking a picture with several people in it, you can often overcome the cluttered look by arranging the subjects into a geometric pattern. For instance, when the subjects heads form a triangle shape, you have introduced order into the photo; despite the fact that there are a lot of people in it.The bottom line is, after you become comfortable with using the rule of thirds try experimenting with breaking them. As your skill as a photographer increases, and people begin to see, enjoy and understand your photographs more, then you can surprise them by knowing when to break the rule of thirds.Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!

Betty Muscott, Child Photographer

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breaking the rule of thirds
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About Betty Muscott

Betty A. Muscott is an experienced child photographer and online entrepreneur for tools to capture great photographs of children by parents and grandparents. Connect with Betty on Google+

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