fandomhigh | Photography 101; Wednesday, Second Period [01/11].

As tempting as it was to just call in a favor and have a sub sweep in to take over his class this week, Prompto was back and ready to be a functional member of society again, and he absolutely was sunburned all to hell, and he definitely was banking on people being generally too polite to point out that he probably looked like a freckled lobster with questionable facial hair.

"Hey, everyone," he greeted the class with a smile, "and welcome back. I hope you remembered the homework from last week, otherwise the first part of class is going to be a little awkward. But I asked you guys to go around and take some pictures with your sweet new cameras, and I'll show you how we'll hook them up so you can share them easily and use them to talk about who you are and why you took that photo. And then we're going to start diving in to some technical aspects and talk about something known as the rule of thirds, which is sort of the biggest general guiding principle when it comes to framing a shot....which can also extend to other arts, like film, painting, drawing...

"But we'll get into that soon," he said with a grin. "After we get a look at those pictures!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rule of Thirds, baybeeee!

Sakaki

Josephine Jones

The assignment was to just take some shots that show who you are as a person, so that we can get to know you better! So lead us through your pictures, let us know how they reflect who you are, and also subtly give Prompto a good idea of what sort of skill we're working with here.

"This is my cat, Maya," said Sakaki, whose entire photo roll was actually just pictures of a small brown feline. "He's actually an Iriomote mountain cat that I adopted when I went home during the summer break last year. I also work at the animal shelter." And then there were a lot of pictures of various animals at the shelter, including a few troubling shots that looked like a few cats in the middle of attacking her. "I also have a lot of stuffed animals," her collection really was kind of impressive, by the looks of it!, "and I also like flowers." Shots of flowers were a little difficult this time of year, but there were a few taken through the window of Covent Garden.

The shots weren't terrible, they were pretty average, really, and only a few with her thumb in the way.

Jo had been a little lost with her assignment and had struggled to find the photos that she felt best reflected who she was as a person.

“Well I took some photos of the library, I work there,” Jo explained as she went through her photos, “and I do like having a hot cocoa at the Perk,” there were some photos of the Perk, “and I also play D’n’D on Fridays at the Magpie Emporium,” so she had taken quite a few photos of her dice, especially the new ones that Graham had given her on Friday.

Most of the photos were fairly simple shots, there were a few blurry ones in there though.

"Those were some really good shots, guys," Prompto complimented, even if the shots were actually horrible, because, hey, encouragement was half the battle! "But there's a whole lot more to snapping good photos than just honing in on something you like, and so now we're going to start getting into techniques. And the rule of thirds is pretty much the big one to guide everything else. Let me explain.

"The rule of thirds refers to the composition of something, whether it's a drawing or painting or photograph or even a movie or video game frame. Basically," he moved around to the blackboard so he could start drawing as he explained, "it's breaking the shot down into three parts horizontal and three parts vertical, and voila! Now you have nine equal sections of your picture or painting or movie frame or whatever, see?

"Now, where those lines all intersect?" He started drawing circles on the spots where they crossed, the four in the middle. "Those are your points of interest. And the idea is that if you place the main subject of your picture within these points," he drew a circle around them as if to emphasize them, "then you've pretty much got what is considered a technically perfect shot! Granted," he chuckled a little bit, "there's a lot more to a good shot than being technically perfect. It's got to have a little heart and soul behind it, too, right? But you can rarely go wrong with the rule of thirds as a framing device.

"And when it comes to landscapes that might not have a particular focal point, then the idea is keep things lined up with the lines of the grid, so, like, your horizon might rest on one of these horizontal lines, or let's say you've got a few trees, try to get them to line up with the vertical ones! Same goes with portraits: how can you line up the subject and pose with various lines of the grid to make it seem more balanced?

"Of course," Prompto continued with a grin, "a lot of rules are also meant to be broken, and I can show you a few of those, too, but the rule of thirds is a good example of something you can do to immediately boost up the quality of your photos, at least from a technical stand-point. If anything, it just gives you a really solid idea of how things are being placed in your frame, and being more aware of what you're shooting is always a good thing.

"So...any questions? If not, we can sort of use the class period to practice shots that take the rule of thirds into account, and then next week, I'd like everyone to come in with a few more shots of whatever they'd like that showcase it. Pretty easy, right? Not only that, but the cameras we got last week actually have this really neat feature where you can put a digital overlay of the grid right there on your viewfinder, so you can just boot that up and use it as a guide! I'll show you guys how, and then you can start playing around and seeing how following or not following the rule of thirds can change the way your pictures look and feel."

Practice taking some shots around the classroom and with each other that put to use the rule of thirds! If you have trouble figuring out the overlay, Prompto's happy to help, and he'll also offer some advice on your test shots to help you get closer to understanding it. You've got the rest of class to play around with it, so use your time well!

Just be glad he decided against doing a photo presentation himself and subjecting everyone to all his honeymoon pictures.

Photography 101; Wednesday, Second Period [01/11].

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