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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> The Other Rule of Thirds
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02/25/2005 04:45:11 AM · #1
THE OTHER RULE OF THIRDS

Danger: Reading this forum post may cause severe irritation or damage to eyes and brain. This post may be harmful if swallowed. Keep out of reach of children and DPC Literalists.

All great photography is art. A photo is a metaphor. The act of entering a photo on DPC is symbolic. There is very little that is literal about a digital photo. I love the way Ansel Adams puts it: "Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art."

Go ahead binarybrains: rant all you want. Tech-heads love to talk about white-balance, shutterspeed and ISO settings as though they are what puts the blush on the rose. You are mistaken. You can exploit layers in Digital-editing-land until you’re blue in the face. But the only layers that really matter in high quality photography are layers of symbolism seen by the mind and heart of the artist.

As a newbie to DPC, I’ve been amused at the sheer numbers of literal thinkers and delighted by the occasional but seemingly rare lateral thinker. When you click the shutter, are you capturing a facsimile-replica of objective reality, or are you creating a work art?

Which side of your brain do you lean on as you set up your tripod? Left-brain-leaners are into the digital functions, getting out their light meters, their memory cards and their mechanical pencils to record the exact literal settings as the sheer weight of glory smothers their heads with honey rays pouring over the eastern rim of the planet. The right-brain-leaners shoot from the hip, go with their instinct, get a sense of the moment, soak in the beauty, smell the rose, caress the landscape.

Great photography requires learning to use both sides of the brain. Great photographers know that the extraordinary photo was a combination of one dose of technical know-how, two doses of creative intuition and three doses of luck.

For all you thinkingonlyinsidethebox, conventional, factualists: I’m delighted you’re still reading this post. Photography, in its finest moments, is not about physics, but metaphysics. The real Rule of Thirds is not about literal composition, but about lateral (symbolic or metaphorical) composition. Let’s get off the pedestrian asphalt sidewalk and head out across the open wildflower field of symbolism.

What do we mean by the OTHER rule of thirds? A photo carries with it the potential for at least three layers of meaning: the objective, the subjective and the universal. At the objective layer, a photo tells us matter-of-fact information about the objective world. For example: a photo of bananas to sell fruit at 30 cents a pound in a Safeway advertisement.

At the subjective layer, a photo evokes feelings tied to relationships, memories and experiences. As Ansel Adams observes, "When I'm ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my mind’s eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I'm interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without."

At the universal layer, the photo takes us beyond ourselves, beyond the photographer’s world, into the realm of universal archetypes and symbols. This is the world of dreams, visions, epiphanies, and transcendence. This is the realm of poets, artists, visionaries, prophets and great photographers. Adams speaks of this realm with great clarity, unveiling the universal appeal of photography: "To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things."

The OTHER Rule of Thirds seeks the creative interplay between these realms: the objective, the subjective and the universal. A great photographer allows the viewer to intuitively discover each layer for themselves. Great photographers are aware of the power within a photographic image to evoke all three realms.

Of course, within DPC, a photo is also critiqued based upon two titles: the challenge title and the photograph’s title. I’ll be honest. When it comes to clicking a shutter or steering my photo through the labyrinth of P/S, I’m a total dork-novice. Yet, in the handful of challenges I’ve entered, I’ve come to respect the genius of the site. The best photos unite photo to title to challenge. They also refuse to subjugate us to the objective realm alone but connect us at the deeper levels of subjective and universal realities.

I can hear the “Sliderulerandmechanicalpencilinthepocket” photo-geeks scratching their heads as they ask themselves, “What the hell is he talking about?” I often scratch my head too, too dazzled by the challenge of digital photography as represented in this philosophical diatribe to know what exposure settings my brain can handle to capture the sheer wonder of it all.

As a DPC bottomfeeder, I’m grateful for the DPC artists who hand out their wonders free of charge, week after week, without much fanfare, yet with such brilliant creativity and excellence.

During WW2, when asked why he wasn’t over on European soil, shooting photos of the war, Ansel Adams cryptically remarked that people needed beauty in a time of war. He kept returning to Yosemite and the Sierras. Even his photos of Japanese internment camps during WW2 observe the OTHER Rule of Thirds, helping us to see beyond the objective banality of war into the subjective depths and universal heights of human tragedy and transcendence.
02/25/2005 04:51:01 AM · #2
A fine and very enjoyable post. Thankyou!
02/25/2005 04:55:34 AM · #3
Very well put, and I hadn't thought about it in those terms before, but upon reading, I think you're right.

on an unrelated note:
I still laugh over "Kitty Nose with appel" :D
02/25/2005 04:56:53 AM · #4
But Ansel, as I think young Mr. Ward will remind us, knew about the darkroom in a most intense way. There is craft in all art. The trick, it seems to me, is to be so completely in control of the entire photographic process that you can let your vision show through.

e
02/25/2005 04:58:37 AM · #5
Very interesting, thank you.
If you're not a writer, you should be. This is the kind of essay I could imagine reading in a good magazine.
02/25/2005 05:13:07 AM · #6
In response to e301: Thanks for the reply. Though quite new to digital photography, I've been a jazz pianist for close to 40 years. Yes, I still practice scales and arpeggios. The challenge in any form of creativity is not so much about "control" but about gaining mastery within the limitations of the artform, about working within those limits to express the universal aspects of art: beauty, truth, goodness. The artist focuses upon the subjective and universal realms while continuing to develop excellence in the objective realm, simply because it is in the objective realms we must live and do our craft. Perhaps for a jazz pianist, the word control seems too much like trying to read difficult classical sheet music. I would rather think of it as building wings and daring to fly.
02/25/2005 05:18:04 AM · #7
Certainly. Mastery of technique is akin to building wings. I assure you Ansel had mastered his technique, and for that matter he helped me do so as well. And I wish to pass that on. Obviously, I'm all "for" art in DPC, quixotic as it may seem sometimes.

Excellent post.

Robt.
02/25/2005 05:20:35 AM · #8
I'm certain we mean the same thing, David. It's a lot easier to take the shot that's in your imagination when you're in 'control' of your camera - just as it's a lot easier to play a 6-9 chord when you know what shape to put your hand in.

e
02/25/2005 05:27:51 AM · #9
True...true, Ed. The hassle of learning the technical end of things at the beginning of learning a new artform... I'm glad for the informal technical and artistic tutelage found among the wide-ranging DPC crew.

David
02/25/2005 05:44:31 AM · #10
thats a nice article u wrote charliebaker..
or should i say chetparker
02/25/2005 05:58:32 AM · #11
I've been on DPC since April 2002, almost the beginning of the site. This has to be the single best forum post I've seen here in that time.

Thanks for sharing.
-Terry
02/25/2005 06:49:28 AM · #12
Very well said. Over the last couple of years I have spent a lot of time on one of the critique sites (Photosig) and it can be amazing at times to see so much emphasis on only the technical side of an image instead of the artistic side or the visual impact a photo has. I find myself looking at famous photographs that are considered great and thinking that if many of them were submitted to one of these sites, they would generate relatively low scores, because they may have a "technical flaw". I think your post addresses the issue very articulately.
02/25/2005 10:16:28 AM · #13
I totally agree. The true artist will embrace all the techniques, but won't be afraid to go outside the rules. And funny you brought up Ansel to achieve your point. He was the creator of the zone system you know, I'm not sure what system could be more technical... :D
02/25/2005 10:19:01 AM · #14
Originally posted by MeThoS:

I totally agree. The true artist will embrace all the techniques, but won't be afraid to go outside the rules. And funny you brought up Ansel to achieve your point. He was the creator of the zone system you know, I'm not sure what system could be more technical... :D


f/64 and all.
02/25/2005 10:23:12 AM · #15
Originally posted by charliebaker:

THE OTHER RULE OF THIRDS

During WW2, when asked why he wasn’t over on European soil, shooting photos of the war, Ansel Adams cryptically remarked that people needed beauty in a time of war. He kept returning to Yosemite and the Sierras. Even his photos of Japanese internment camps during WW2 observe the OTHER Rule of Thirds, helping us to see beyond the objective banality of war into the subjective depths and universal heights of human tragedy and transcendence.


Why don't you post another thread with the history of Ansel Adams along with some of his art and philosophy? The artist obviously inspires you and I think most people here would apreciate something like that.
02/25/2005 10:33:47 AM · #16
Refreshing post, thank you. I have so much to learn, so little time left to actually do it....

I'm now in yet another Rule of Thirds.. the final third of my life and wise enough to know it's time to prepare to die. Preparing to die through living a full life, every day.
02/25/2005 11:06:58 AM · #17
Excellent. Thanks for posting this.

Too many so-called photography forums are dominated by gear/equipment, technical mumbo jumbo, and pixel-peeping, that the actual art of photography gets lost.

Thanks for bringing us back in line.

Message edited by author 2005-02-25 11:08:18.
02/25/2005 11:13:22 AM · #18
Well said. You made a strong point when you were quoting Adams. He said when he makes a photo. Make being the prime word here. Too many people take photos, not make photos. In my opinion that is what sets the great ones apart. We should all strive to make photos. See the scene in your mind then make the photo.
02/25/2005 11:17:52 AM · #19
I dunno. I find DPC to be an nice mix. The folks at DPreview are way too technical ... not sure if they actually take photos.

02/25/2005 11:25:28 AM · #20
Originally posted by Jacko:

The folks at DPreview are way too technical ... not sure if they actually take photos.


Technical for a reason: So that we can find out more about the tools we need to do whatever it is we choose to do. The folks at Canon and Nikon are on the extreme side of technical and we should all be proud that they are.
02/25/2005 12:06:08 PM · #21
Originally posted by gwphoto:

...See the scene in your mind then make the photo.


This is easier said than done though. We question what we see, often before the 'vision' can articulate itself. We do not, critically, 'know' what we see, when we see so much that it becomes insensible. When the rythm of a scene, say, a man drawing his boat across the mirror of a lake at six am, is broken by the wake of cigarette boats, and shouted obscenities are more lurid than a leaf spinning in the half-light, measure, easily, becomes a gauze, barely traceable and hard to wake.

We cannot, I believe, rely on ourselves alone to find, recognize and qualify a way of 'looking' that would, as if by providence or conjecture, advance a 'vision'. 'Vision', in this sense, is a fusion of mind (the mind as thing, muscle, antenna, processor) and data (and the data are real trees, mountains, light).

The only way to continue to 'see' consciously and against such odds, is to allow the light in, and we can do this only when we partake in it, as an equal participant. The second we start to project ourselves, we loose touch with that which gives sense and meaning to everything. We manipulate, but we do not 'see'.

Once we cease to project our own egos onto everything, all kinds of things and processes become alive. This, I feel, was easier to do decades ago than it is now, and I doubt that any more than a serendipidous picture can be 'made' today without being conscious of the enormous obstacles which need to be removed before we can enter here.

Message edited by author 2005-02-25 12:23:04.
02/25/2005 12:18:39 PM · #22
Excellent post... also read shooting for the brown ribbon
Both are enjoyable reads ... keep them coming!
02/25/2005 12:46:51 PM · #23
One of the things I love about photography is that the photograph allows me to actually stop...and look at things that otherwise zoom past, lost in the clutter of living.
02/25/2005 01:26:22 PM · #24
most insightful thread...even these old eyes and brain can understand it...thanks.
02/25/2005 01:33:17 PM · #25
you lost me after "The.."

:-0
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