Photography

Rule(s) of Thirds

An episode of the LensWork podcast quoted Cole Thompson, saying he coined his own rule of thirds, where he says that a great photo is one third capture, one third processing, and one third vision.

I came up with my own rule of thirds: one third getting there, one third vision, and one third selection.

For me vision includes technical matters involving the camera, composition, and post-processing, as these things should be considered when the photos are captured. (Ansel Adams calls this process "previsualization".) But I find I spend much more than two thirds of my hobby photography time both getting to interesting places and then finally sifting through photos, trying to narrow down to the few photos that say the most about the places I've been and subjects I've seen. This also includes the time it takes to document the adventures I have: another interesting, time-consuming -- and perhaps crucial -- part of photography perhaps not discussed as often as it ought to be.

Archive