The Centred Photographer

Meaning, staying off centre

2021-03-12

I have a very simple piece of advice for improving one's photographic compositions, and that's coming shortly (but notice the sub-title).

One of my own favourites from among these blogs is an early one about:

The Rules!

I titled it the "Tool of Thirds", and explained that:

the rules are only guidelines ("tools"), so
feel free to break them, but
you'll simply do better if you have a reasonable mastery of them first.

(I used a little more verbiage, the first time.)

In practice, there are so many rules that only the most gifted genius (and I haven't bonded with that guy anyway) can keep them all explicitly in mind while composing a scene and releasing the shutter, so ...

... what is the aspiring photographer to do?

horizon bisect image clouds down St. Lawrence River — horizon (almost) bisecting the image—breaking a rule (so arrest me!)

So, let me list a few of the basic rules first:

the Rule of Thirds (nothing centred, nothing bisected)
avoid horizons and poles behind your subject
look for S-Curves
think about diagonals.

(Also, pay attention to your light, and to your backgrounds and borders.)

There are roughly a gazillion more (I have counted them). It is definitely too much for a mere mortal such as myself to keep in the forefront of my thoughts while out photographing.

The Rule of Thirds, possibly the most oft-heard rule, means to keep the subject, or centre-of-interest, at the thirds points.

In my own photography, I loosen the Rule of Thirds to this:

Keep Things out of the Centre (dagnabbit)!

And so what I do, and what I'm suggesting for you, is a very simple maneuver:

if time is critical, and the situation is dynamic, then of course don't dither; just release the shutter;
then, if you have the time, aim the camera around a bit, and recompose the scene until it pleases you more.

That is the sum total summary condensation of what I wish to convey today:

Aim the camera around a bit.

Aim until your image looks better.

(Dagnabbit!)

I wonder if that will capture the public imagination enough that I get a rule named after me:

The ctLow Rule: "Aim the camera around a bit."

I'm not feeling it. It sounds too casual, too simple, and it is indeed simple enough.

And I suggest that it makes a big difference to the quality of one's photography.

Thirds vs. simply off-centre

I have looked at many of my recent personal favourites, such as this:

winter birch dusk sky St. Lawrence River snow ice — Birch with Winter Dusk Sky

Rule of Thirds exception — The thirds-points are all empty

And I cannot make any of them quite conform to the strict "Thirds" rule.

Why is this?

It's mainly because any compositional rule—tool, guideline— exists only to help the artist, not to constrain him. I place the objects in my frame where I want them (usually off-centre)!

This presumes that the scene allows it. A photographer with all of the digital tools available today has considerable flexibility, while continuing to experience the restraints of the actual vista spread out before her.

But with that birch tree at dusk, I simply liked it that far off centre.

In my own personal work, if nothing else, on the ground in a dymanic scenario where I don't have all the time in the world—and you would be amazed at how quickly the light was changing as I photographed that birch—then basically I do only one thing (or two):

rather than slavishly follow any compositional rule, I simply think about moving the subject off-centre;
then, I adjust it further, sometimes decisively but sometimes so very slightly that I wonder if I'm taking myself too seriously (I am not); I do this simply by eye, until I the like the look of it better.

A tiny change in object-placement within the frame often seems to make a big difference. Play with it. Forget how it looks unframed; think about how it will look as a photograph. For all of the photographs which follow, with each one I paused; the arrangement of the objects in the frame was absolutely conscious, and they are all exactly where I wanted them.

Sometimes, back at the studio, in the digital darkroom, I have more time for analysis, trying do deduce what rules I had used subconsciously, and ... it doesn't always help.

By all means learn the rules. By all means let your own creativity over-ride them.

Once I had the rules reasonably well internalized, with enough mileage, in general I have returned to composing by eye.

And with that, among other things, the subject will usually end up off-centre.

Technical point 1: our camera viewfinders and LCD screens contain such a plethora of information (some of it even useful), that occasionally, when struggling to finesse a particularly precise, dare-I-say artistic, subject placement, I hide it all, or at least consciously look beyond it, out to the edges, so that I can see all of my intended image.The info-clutter can get a lot busier than shown here.

LCD Live View Info — Ensure you're seeing your composition through the info-display right out to the edges

Technical note 2: auto-focus comes in multitudinous and marvellous flavours, but often concentrates near the middle of the frame. So it's easy to aim directly at the subject, see the auto-focus affirmation symbol (whatever your camera's is), and then click. It will take a bit more thought to focus correctly on something not in the centre; there is more than one way to do it, and how exactly will vary by manufacturer and model, and is not my current topic. You however will need to know.

When we "aim the camera around a bit", then here's what can happen:

Fernie ski slope mountains clouds — skiing

The photograph above is by my brother John. It's just really good. What he has done however, as the scene appeared before him (and I wasn't there but I know for a fact that he whooped!), was to re-aim his cell-phone to make a more dynamic scene. He and I have discussed the concept. Whatever you think is the centre of interest in that photo—and it could be several things (for me it's the clouds in the valley)—it isn't in the very centre. Note the forceful diagonals. (Note the light—not our proximal topic, but it certainly matters).

Below is a photograph by my other brother, David. It's also a fabulous image. Take the exact centre of the photograph, and there is nothing of particular interest right at that spot. Whatever your eye goes back to in that image (for me, the tips of the wings), is off-centre, and it just looks better that way.

monarch butterfly — deceptively non-centred butterfly

My, aren't we a talented family.

I note a little comment I heard once during a Freeman Patterson seminar, that he tried to keep the margin around his subject (for when you even want a margin) equal on two adjacent sides. The butterfly image above almost does that on all four sides. I have not come across that principle before or since, but it is something which I keep tucked away in the back of my mind.

So, is "off-centre" itself a rule? Of course not. There are certainly times when completely centred is just the thing.

centred oversize deck chair Blockhouse Island Brockville Ontario — centred

I am however of course suggesting that "centred" will be the exception.

off centre waning moonrise St. Lawrence River dawn photography — Waning moon rising, St. Lawrence River—nothing centred

ice crystals texture — texture—sometimes there is nothing to centre

Sally Grant courthouse statue Brockville Ontario — Usually leave room in front of something, in this case giving Sally some space to be looking into

leaning headstone Brockville cemetery — I left room ahead of the leaning headstone

sunrise St. Lawrence River — sunrise—nothing centred

ship fog St. Lawrence River dawn photography — Horizon centred, ship centred right-to-left, but not top-to-bottom

ship St. Lawrence River dawn photography — ship—nothing centred

Sabrejet blockhouse island Brockville Ontario dawn photography — Sabrejet—centred left-to-right, not centred top-to-bottom

Sabrejet Blockhouse Island Brockville Ontario dawn silhouette — slightly different framing, "leaving room ahead", which sounds good—I don't like it as much

Prescott Harbour beacon dawn photography — Prescott Harbour beacon—nothing centred

Charles T. Low Photographer — the centred photographer

So, as a rule ("guideline", sorry), a photographer stays centred by keeping out of the centre (dagnabbit).

Thank you all so much for reading. Please refer friends and colleagues, consider subscribing, check out the gallery (because almost everything is for sale), and let me know what you think.

Charles T. Low

Photographer

Blog #63