Breaking the Rules...How to do that??

        Yes tell me, how much you think about the rules & about breaking them?

Basically, there is no single rule which is restricted to use in photography. I can justify the meaning of photographic rule – By experiencing the human eyes behavior & how they analyses things & understand them, there are certain guide lines for making a good photograph these guide lines are become Rules. So rules aid you in the composition of a good visual storytelling photograph.

         So the good photograph is one which has good visual ingredient. If you can show the story effectively, you don’t have to bother about rules. They come later! The rules are only to guide viewer where to see first & then how to traverse throughout the image. One can engage viewers by providing the details, for longer & deep understanding of image.

Here we go…

Lazy evening  -  malvan, Maharashtra by me

In the above image the person is sitting at exact midpoint. This is against the rule of third. But still the image works perfectly. Because, it has good context it draws viewer eye to certain elements. There are two pillars, the first one is little shorter than the next pillar. This helps in transition of eyes movement. The bright light from the right upper corner and the coconut tree all are included purposely. They complement each other.

          The net with bottom border helps to keep the attention concentrated to that person only. Finally the clear early evening sky and somewhat silhouetted scene defines the mood. Finally, relax, lazy& the idle pose of the young man & the little details in dark made this photograph visually pleasant. 

          If it was shoot silhouetted with no details in the shadow, then it may would look somewhat boring from my perspective.  

Here is the destruction of above image for better understanding.

The subject is at midpoint exactly breaking the rule of third!

 Look at he visual moment in image.

 graphing of visual movement

It does not distract viewer.First we see the human figure then the two pillars on right. After that the last pillar takes our vision to the bright part of extreme top right. Then the fifth element is coconut treetop which is alone in the entire left side & the vision comes back again to the subject by referring the white border of the net. Here net helps to engage the viewer by providing grid in the scene. 

          Always keep Compositions in mind but photograph the subject with its context. Don’t think about rules; think about subject, the story behind it, its expression, its feeling. Your minds vision will automatically compose the scene as you practice more & more. For creative exercise read photography magazine, watch great artists work, find critics… That’s all making your soul grow as a photographer!

          Here is the secret! Human eyes can see only a 3º degree of angle. Let's have an example, watch your left hand palm & now without shifting your sight can you tell me the details on the thumb of the same hand. No we can't!! So, the conclusion is that we see things rapidly and then we make the whole image in our mind. Winning images are simple, easy to understand & has a great lighting too.

Mantra to success: In composition, include the elements which are really helping to say something about the subject and its environment. Otherwise exclude them!