Rules of Thirds

[KmH]

RoT is just one of many composition guidelines.

Lightroom has several crop guide overlays:

 

[jowensphoto]

Does PS have the same thing, Keith? Not at my desk or Id look myself

 

[KmH]

Not that I'm aware of, and neither does Camera Raw.

It would be nice if the crop overlays could be made more visible in LR, like by changing the color.

 

[The_Traveler]

Pisto, without attempting to be rude to those who are talking about the Rule of Thirds, I think you are over thinking the difficulty of simple compositions.
There are 'Rules' or guidelines, not because the photo gods have decreed it thus, but because those are generalizations about how people like to see pictures and what makes them comfortable.
And, they are incomplete.

I tell people three simple ideas:

Put the important things in important places
Compose to minimize dead space and things that distract from the center of interest - the important things
Process to minimize faults and maximize good points.


And I wrote four little essays on those ideas

Zenfolio | Lew Lorton Photography | Getting to the image - how people see and how the photographer can use that. Pt 1

Zenfolio | Lew Lorton Photography | Semiotics of Images - why some images are more comfortable than others -Part 2

Zenfolio | Lew Lorton Photography | Creating an image - the important things and a false start on composition - Part 3

Zenfolio | Lew Lorton Photography | Managing the Center(s) of Interest - Part 4


These may help but at the very least they will give you some background to the "Rules of Composition" and, of course, add to readers of my blog.​

 

[pisto1981]

Lew,

Have read through your blog, thanks for the links. The info was very helpful

Keith, my mind is even more blown to bits now, hehe! i'll be playing around with the different comp styles and posting more pics.

Thanks for everyone's feedback, you have all been very helpful. I'll get it eventually but the most important thing is, i'm enjoying it