I'm going to help you be a better photographer today. In fact, by the time you are finished reading this one blog you are going to be armed with one of the best tools I know of. 

I'm talking about an understanding of proportion. Specifically the Rule of Thirds, and for my advanced students - the Golden Ratio.

Trust me on the following statement (this might be a hard one to accept at the outset): Human beings are hardwired to find certain proportions and spatial relationships more pleasing than others.

Let's come back to that in a bit.

For the moment let's just focus on a common stylistic 'problem' new photographers often fall into. That is framing their subject in the center. 

To our left is the world's most boring picture of Mt Rainier. BTW, I can get away with saying that because as with all the photos in my blog, I'm the photographer.

I took this photo a few years back when I was just learning photography.

I was up on the mountain at the time and I think the thin air was getting to me. The Mt. is centered horizontally and vertically. Ouch! If quantum theory is correct and we live in a universe comprised of 14 dimensions...well, heck my photo is probably centered in those as well!

Anyway, my point here is that if you break the photo up into a grid of thirds (remember the rule of thirds), you'll see the bulk of the Mt lies smack in the middle of them. Not exactly a daring approach to framing.

So let's actually overlay a grid on some photos that were taken with the rule of thirds in mind and see what we get.

Ok, whew! Now this is working much better. The goal here is blend the proportion and lines of the image with the lines / space of the "thirds".

Notice her eyes lie almost directly on the upper third line (good). Her left cheek, hair, the right bottom side of the book all line up almost perfectly with the left third line (excellent). The arc of her arm hits the grid nicely as does the top of the chair etc.

Hopefully you begin to see how the proportions themselves are powering photos. Let's look at another example.

Here again our subject is shifted left of center and fitting very nicely into our thirds. Notice her hair / cheek again rest on the grid and this time the strong lines of her coat follow it as well. The chair on the right side balances everything nicely and in fact creates a strong diagonal between her face and the edge of chair.

Keep in mind that the rule of thirds is just a guideline and you should never let the desire to line things up perfectly interfere with you getting a shot.

You'll even want to break the rule at times (headshots for example). Though if you are sneaky you can still observe it even in such an instance by positioning your subject's body / lighting to create the same sort of proportions.

Ok, last one.

This is the USS Missouri, the last battle ship built by US. Now stationed in Pearl Harbor it was the site of the Japanese surrender.

We have the clouds laying right on the top grid line, with the rich blue sky above. The horizon bisects the bottom. Dramatic balance is provided by the heavy / dark ship on the right and the bright / light sun hitting the water on the right. Remember, you can balance the proportion not only of the subject, but also of color, and light and dark!

It makes a nice counterpoint I think. Almost certainly the photo would be much less interesting if the ship was centered.

Those are some basics of proportioning your photos. Practice, and I promise your photos will improve.

For the advance class: The Golden Ratio.

Where to start with this one? Remember when I said for the most part we all find the same proportions and spatial relations pleasing? This can be best typified by the golden ratio (the golden rectangle, golden spiral).

It's ~ = 1:1618, and it's present in many many things. Art, architecture, the Pyramids, the Parthenon, the human face etc. It's nothing mystical (in my opinion) but it can lead to really visually interesting photographs if applied correctly. Anyway, if you are interested in more take a peek at the link below (warning, there's some math but you can skip past it).   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

I'm going to sneak in a couple shots with golden triangle overlays on top of them. The triangles represent the same ratio as described above. Each triangle may be divided up into further triangles of the same proportions (just as golden rectangles can be and so on). Take a look at how the lines lay on the images. Food for thought. :)

Cheers, -B

Professional-Photographer