Well, the kids didn't know the "rules" and those "rules" were often
missing in the photos I looked at sometime ago...and often missing in my
students' work too.
Anyway I do not like the word "rules" in the context of photography.
Rules are rigid, they have to be followed. There cannot be any laxity.
If you use the word "guidelines" then the meaning is clearer.
The so-called "rule of thirds" is derived from the "golden mean". So the
rule becomes either an inaccurate adaptation or a misinterpretation.
Your point about culture is important and very correct, but which
"rules" are common across different cultures?
So many people have quoted the term "rules". But only one such "rule"
has been quoted, at least in the recent posts! So what are the other
"rules"?? I'd love to hear that from others.
This site has "rules" but then changes the term to "tips"!
http://photoinf.com/General/Johannes_Vloothuis/landscape_composition_rules.html
I suppose many of us apply these tips sub-consciously, rather than
deliberately ticking them off!
Howard
Mark Blackwell wrote:
Just because the kids didn't know the rules, doesn't mean they didn't
follow them. The rules often became the rules for one reason. They
work for most situations. That does not mean that going your own way
from time to time isn't going to also produce an image that works.
The percentage of images that work is going to be higher within the
rules, than those that are not.
Culture would have an impact on what is considered beautiful and thus
what would be worthy of a photo or painting. What one culture may
consider a beautiful woman, another may not. Yet artists for
thousands of years of all nations and cultures have used those same
rules to produce images of what that culture deems important. I don't
necessarily consider them as much rules as a part of human nature and
how it reacts.
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