Continuing on with our composition series – in this video we’ll be discussing the Rule of Odds.
A quick note about “rules” – I don’t particularly care for the term “rule” because of the implication that it must be adhered to for a composition to work. This is not true at all. Rather than rules – think of them as guidelines for creating interest in a composition. Use them when you need to create that interest – blow them off when you don’t.
Having said that though – practice all of these rules as we go through them with your own camera and photography. Having them become second nature is essential to moving forward in your own abilities.
The Rule of Odds states that framing your subject with 2 surrounding objects (thus creating an odd number of 3) suggests balance and harmony visually. We tend to prefer balance and feel comfortable with these groupings of 3. Groups of 2 or 4 can sometimes create a sense of competition where as the odd groupings tend to balance that a bit. This is a very subjective rule, but it does create balance.
Remember though that odd numbers really just refer to the number 3. Objects of 5 or more create more density than the viewer will perceive and the effect is null at that point. Larger numbers of objects, however can be divided visually into groupings of 3, thus bringing more cohesion to the composition.
Love your stuff…
Can anyone tell me the artist he mentioned? Except Breson i have a hard time understanding as spanish is my morher tongue. :/
But what about four objects for comparison's sake. Don't make me do it myself.
The only rule in photography is that there is never a bad place to take a photo
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This a great short 13 minute college course. Thanks.
Kindly add bullet points in your video, and kindly try to explain in least possible words.
Thank you. I learned something new today.
thanks for the knowledge 🙂
Great tutorial thank you
If we contemplate philosophy through this philosophy, photography is just a moment of stopping in the chaos
Ted…you are fabulous! I learn so much from you!
.you learn something new everyday..thankyou….very important lesson for me.
I can't stop watching! Wish I had found these videos before!! 🙂
You’re so wonderful. I can’t believe I haven’t discovered you before.
You didn't follow your own lesson with the windows… but the audio was on point.
Felt like I was listening to the npr 🙂
No wonder I like your videos so much. Musicians make the best photographers, and teachers! Thank you!
Great. Now will I like pictures because of the Rule of Odds or because I would've liked them BEFORE knowing about the Rule of Odds.
Love the video!
Although the talk in the intro is great, the echo made it really annoying to listen to. At first I thought it was intentional, but found out it wasn’t. You might want to fix the audio problem!
Fantastic Video of back to basics! I have been doing fashion and portrait photography for quite awhile now and being in today's technology with Instagram, the images out there are saturated. Too saturated. I often get carried along with different photographers and recently trying to focus in landscape and street photography, and I have to admit. I am lost. At a total lost. Not because I don't know the basics of photography but because of images that are out there and it has pushed so many people limits to have this urge to differentiate from the rest and when I stumbled upon this video, it has deeply inspired me to start purely from the basics again and work my way up!
Love it!!
well, that is one long preamble. 😂
i find this very odd indeed………
I have studied composition, as a message visual perspective, A.DONDIS.A from Boston University is deep but effective
Yes, he does talk a good bit. And he talks very well and knows his subject. I did not know this principle by name but knew it more instinctively and use it with my work. I greatly appreciate his intelligent explanation and feel inspired and validated. This is aesthetic principle wired into our brain as is our need for rational verbal conceptualization. The one thing that I would suggest is that he give a more succinct definition at the beginning paired with a couple of photos before going into the excellent explanation. Otherwise, I loved it and look forward to hearing more what he has to say about composition.
about the "too wordy" complaint, fact is some many people have a much less sharp I.Q and therefore have problems manually focusing their mind to get the real subject of this video in a clear foreground without falling too much in the mre blurry rule of odds;greetings from france…
Such a snooze, oh my god. Apart from a few good shots.
I like these type of videos, informative and has less talk
Thank you.
So glad you mentioned practice around the house. You helped to affirm my use of the living room as a kind of self-portrait studio as I learn contrast control on black and white film with various filters. Reading is one thing doing experiments another, I'd say. Gotta practice to be good.
Here’s the thing, it may feel really good to be all supportive of this guy, and I’m sure he appreciates it. But you aren’t doing him any favors. He is rambling. If he actually has good information that’s wonderful, but there is so much bad content on YouTube because everybody can post and we all know what it’s like to spend 10 minutes waiting for someone to get somewhere and it never happens. So while he may be the one where it actually does happen, many people will just stop watching and not subscribe. If he has the goods then these critiques should help, not hurt him. ..And it would get him more subscribers.
To clarify what is meant by rule here: Rule is not meant as a hard and fast must-be-adhered-to fact. Yes, that is a definition of the word, but – words can have more than one definition!! This can trip you up and cause confusions etc.
How the word "rule" is being used in the "rule of thirds" is as follows "A principle that operates within a particular sphere of knowledge, describing or prescribing what is possible or allowable." (Google "define rule")
This is a more flexible and suitable use of the word in this instance!
Greetings from San Galgano (Siena)… 😉
I don’t like rules. I know what looks good. I don’t even want to know the so called rules…I don’t want my natural eye to be forever warped. Arrogant? Maybe, but I’ve always been good at taking pics. I just know what looks good to me. Most people like my pics. I don’t do it for them though…I do it for me.
How do you do the blurring effect in the Keith Carter image?
Great videos. Thank you. Just one comment: the sound quality is a bit off. The reverb in the first part and the submarine sound in the second part distracted my attention. Please use a simple audio track w/o post-production effects and auto-healing.
Great information. I am studying photography at university level and they don't even teach this!
Good stuff. Keep it up!
Well in music the musical geniuses practise and practise and practise. Look at the Beatles. For every good song they wrote they wrote about 10 crappy ones. They just didn't stop writing and they knew they would get great songs if they just kept writing.
Same with photography. I do both.
I don't care much for rules. I've heard them all- none of them stick. I see things that interest me; color, shapes, light, people- and I shoot 'em. To please myself, only. Never have I pondered a rule. I have a trunk-load of international awards that tells me (vis-a-vis judges) that I'm creating good work. Here's a rule: make sure you keep you equipment in good shape.
GO TO THE POINT!!!!
communication is a human thing. better words expressed, better things understood. patience is upon the individual.
Holy mind-boggling tangents, Batman!
I signed up a while ago for a MasterClass with Annie Leibovitz and it was honestly a sham and a huge waste of money , I would rather spend 90$ on AoP at least he's informative and presents well , thanks for the great videos man you have no idea how helpful you are and how amazing it is to just sit down and discuss photography with you
I loved the point about practise… I totally understand where you're coming from as well because I've been studying the violin for 9 years now but have never practised photography in the same way. And that doesn't make much sense, when I think about it.
Thanks again.
Could anyone explain why those Keith Carter images are so special? They seem unfocused, uncomposed, especially the first two? It's a genuine question, I'm not trolling
Sounds like he is in an empty hall if you are wearing headphones.
And this is why I like Olympics more than Audi.
turn down the reverb XD great video!