composing pictures and the almighty rule of THREE

There are rules of composition just as there are rules of poetry. When I started writing poetry I became vaguely aware of them, learned them the hard way, but I also learnt that they can always be broken, every single one. I also learnt that you can write pretty good poetry by not knowing a dam thing about the correct way to write poetry…

Composition means making a pretty picture- but make it too pretty, symmetrical, following the rule of thirds and action along a diagonal and yawn it becomes boring. That is the problem. And, if you are thinking too much about composition you may miss the photograph.

When you only have light and angles you need good composition. And most pictures can to some extent be rescued by cropping (forget Cartier-Bresson on cropping- that’s just smoke and mirrors from a master disguising his tracks). When you have a solid subject- something like Lee Miller’s picture of a dead SS guard half underwater then composition is less important. Instagram can teach a lot of lessons- and one of them is that composition comes second to the overall effect of a picture- only amateurs wax long and loud about the ‘great composition’ of a basically boring and contentless picture.

And a lot of composition is the visual rule replacing what you should know ‘by eye’. Just as a good carpenter learns to estimate and cut by eye, so a good photographer gets an eye for what looks ‘right’.

That said- some rules of composition act like a whack on the side of the head, get you moving to make a better shot. It’s like knowing the trick of comics artists where you try and draw a figure with the shoulders, waist and feet all facing in different directions- if you can- thus giving some extra interest by invoking the ALMIGHTY RULE OF THREE.

The rule of three is the single most powerful tool you have in compositional terms. It’s a reminder to get the best picture you can. In its most simple terms it what taught to me by an AP photographer I met in Cairo, maybe the first professional photographer I knew. He was by no means an artist. He was out to get the news. But he told me he always tried to get something to look at (ideally something interesting) in the foreground, the middle ground and the background. 

But this is limiting- somethings are just one object- but give it three points of interest,  all connected in some way. Or line up three good things in a picture. Or get three people doing something or two and a third thing. You get the idea. Think threes and stuff happens…