NEW Basic Assignment #1: Rule of Thirds and Golden Mean

Rule of thirds:

A850 70-300G@180mm ISO200 f/5.6 1/320s



Golden Ratio:

Honestly, I'm having trouble with this one. I've read more than one article that states at first finding the golden ratio in pictures is more of an analysis after the pictures are taken.

The picture below is the only frame I took that I thought of the golden ratio while framing it. Starting at the pointsetta rotating counter-clockwise moving up through my dad (on the right).

A850 70-300@70mm ISO200 f/5.0 1/80s w/ HVL-F58AM flash (bounced).

Ok,

First off - thanks for setting up these assignments - I really want to expand my photography in 2010, I have the kit - now I need to learn!

Two attempts to follow the rule of thirds here - no crop at all but some levels/brightness/contrast to try and improve the pics a little (a bit flat straight out of the camera)

Landscape: I placed the far lake bank on the top third and tried to use the ice to create the bottom splitting the image into 3 areas



Portrait - similar placement of the lake bank but tried to include some foreground on another 'grid point' with the log and the duck!



Thanks for consideration

Olly

@maewpa:

May I remind you of two important rules of the NEW assignments:

- you can do the assignments in any order, and repeated as many times as you want - all members of Dyxum can also leave comments on the shots posted

So if the submission now look better than you did before no reason not to try again

Also leaving comments (like you did) is fine, and even encouraged to keep this part of the forum as lively as possible.



@Pathway: Agree with Paul they're nice shots. I'll comment on them later in more detail when I have had a little more time to "absorb" them.

@Pathway. The first is nice and a clear pass for ROT based on the two horizontal lines. Also like the colors. I know it's difficult to change the scenes but somehow I'm missing one or two "eye catcher" objects at the ROT points and therefore the picture still lacks some depth. Also the bird right in the middle at the top doesn't help in that regard.

The second gives me more doubt, I think the horizon is a bit too low for ROT (I consider the ice/shrubs boundary the natural horizon that I expect at 1/3 from the top) and there's too many similar other elements (mainly ducks and other waterfowl) competing for attention vs. the two you put at the bottom two ROT points. I do like the line the log gives (but that's another assignment)

So I would recommend you now first try some other assignments and then come back with a second go at ROT, but now with stronger objects/points in the composition vs. mainly lines.

Hope this helps.

pegelli wrote: So if the submission now look better than you did before no reason not to try again

Pieter, how did you know? I started last weekend... since I'm not participating in One Prime, I need something to keep me focused! I was just doing it for myself, but may be more fun to join in.

Okay, this is cropped, but it was shot at 420mm and I had no more length available... so it was cropped "at conception" and the crop made is roughly proportional all round (although clearly with bigger crops from the sides). Further in my defence, it was shot with this assignment in mind....



But because we shouldn't try to bend the rules too much...... here, obviously, I have tried to place the head on the thirds intersection point (in so far as a live subject likely to fly away would let me) as well as the whole left side of the foreground subject, letting the head turn draw the eye back into the rest of the subject. Also shot with this assignment in mind.



I can post the uncropped versions of both if necessary... like I said, I wasn't expecting to be submitting them.

Edited by maewpa - 06 January 2010 at 03:34

Hi all, this is my first post in the forum, take this opportunity to give some introduction. I'm from Malaysia and currently using A100 with some minolta lenses and flash since 2008. Like to take photography a bit serioustjis year. Enuf for that now below is my submission. C&C are welcome





thanks

@muyaszed: first of all welcome to dyxum. Quite brave to start your posting career in the assignments because we're not easy here.

In the first picture I see some aspects of ROT, by the line of "nuts" going between two ROT points. However there are quite a few competing elements that disturb this which makes the overall composition a bit messy while also the shot looks flat and overexposed. Not enough for a pass I would say.

The second is slightly better in overall picture quality, but still a bit overexposed. However other than the 3 zones from top to bottom with dark - light - dark there is no other clear ROT element in there so for me also not a pass.

Hope this C&C helps and points you into the direction of better exposed pictures (using the full scale from black to white) as well as more clear usage of the ROT lines and points.