fandomhigh | Photography 101; Tuesday, Third Period [09/12].

"Welcome back, guys," Prompto said, getting class started once everyone was there and grinning from his spot leaning against the desk at the front of the classroom, "and welcome back. Now, these new few weeks of class are going to be doing a lot of talking about techniques and methods, although if, after a week of taking shots, you've got some more technical questions about camera use, come see me and we'll go over them. Today, we're going to focus on something called the Rule of Thirds, which is a popular principle in how to most effective frame and position your shots. But, before we go into that, you guys did have a little bit of homework, so let me take a second to show you how to use the projector here with your camera and you can show off some of your shots from last week."

And once that was taken care of, it was time to get into the lecture proper.

"Now, again, the rule of thirds refers to the framing composition of something, whether it's a drawing or painting or photograph or even a movie or video game frame. They all can take into account the rule of thirds. Basically," he hopped off the desk and 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, like this, see? Voila! Now you have a grid with nine equal sections of your picture or painting or movie frame or whatever, and now it becomes all about how you fill each of those squares, what's going on in each of them, and why having things in certain ones makes for a better picture.

"All these points where the lines 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 of interest," he drew a circle around all of them to emphasize them, "then you've pretty much got a perfect shot! The points of interest is the goal! Of course, that's just in general. There are a lot of interesting ways to sort of break that general rule, but that's something you can play with in your shots to start seeing for yourself how and when to apply and when to defy," he grinned, a little too proud about that one, "the rule of thirds."

"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? Rule of Thirds is basically just Placement, Placement, Placement!

"So...any questions? We're going to use this class to dive deeper into the Rule of Thirds if you want...I've got plenty of examples, or we can sort of use the class period to practice shots that take the rule of thirds into account. Obviously, then, next week, I'd like everyone to come in with a few shots where you try to put it to use IRL. And? Pro-tip? The cameras we got at the beginning of the class 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. I don't want you to rely on the grid entirely, but it could be a good way to get started until you can start seeing the Rule of Thirds in action just by looking at something!"

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Rule of Thirds, baby!

Gonzo the Great

Nick Cutter

Connor Temple

Assuming you managed to snag some shots with the cameras you were given last week, you can easily hook them up to the projector and show some of them off! Maybe less so if you used a different camera, but that's fine. Maybe they could figure something out! Either way, now's the chance to show off your work and hope it's worth showing off! No theme last week, just pure chaos! Let's see what you've got!

Gonzo had taken so many photos, you all. And they were all aggressively weird.

Many of them featured the squirrels, with whom he'd basically immediately bonded.

". . . And here's the flamingos in the park! These ladies are fabulous models, very enthusiastic. And here's -- no, wait, sorry." Gonzo clicked very quickly away from what looked like a pretty average wildlife photo of a group of flamingos. "That one's for, uh. Personal use. But here's some more squirrels! . . ."

Cutter had managed to take a lot of photos of his and Connor's trip to the Caribbean on the weekend, he had found that once he had gotten used to being near the water that he had really liked the tide pools and there were a lot of photos of them.

Did you want a version 2.0 for Cutter's pictures? Good because most of what Connor had taken were also from the Caribbean trip. Pictures of the trials, the plants and animals, the beach, but especially the tidepool.... and there might have been a couple of selfies and pics of Cutter in there too.

Yes, Prompto would realize after the fact that he probably could have projected up some actual photos for examples instead of just drawing on the blackboard, but, hey, everyone would get to see his cute attempts to draw trees and stick figures and whatever else in the grid to show off examples of how to frame things according to the Rule of Three.

A section of the classroom is set up with a bunch of random things to take pictures of if you wanted to work on your Rule of Thirds for a bit. Play around with the grid toggle on your camera, try to figure out how to visualize it and maybe then test it with the grid, completely misunderstand the concept and just start grouping things in threes to take pictures of them. It's your time to work and explore, so use it!

Gonzo was absolutely grouping things in threes. And yet also managing to make the rule of thirds thing work. Which was a nice trick.

He was also . . . on the ceiling? How did. . . ? You know what? It's probably better not to ask. Though try not to walk underneath him. He won't fall until it's as funny as possible, and landing on a classmate definitely counted for comedy purposes.

He's there! Maybe thinking about how dramatic cat family portraits might fit into the purview of the Rule of Thirds.

Or just thinking about dramatic cat family portraits in general.

Look. He had a cat and a family! He was a little bit obsessed.

Photography 101; Tuesday, Third Period [09/12].

Sign In - Photography, 09/12.

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Re: Sign In - Photography, 09/12.

Re: Sign In - Photography, 09/12.

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Re: Show Off Your Photos - Photography, 09/12.

Re: Show Off Your Photos - Photography, 09/12.

Re: Show Off Your Photos - Photography, 09/12.

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Class Activity: Rule of Thirds - Photography, 09/12.

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