Re: A more outrageous question

[Mark Blackwell <mblackwell1958@xxxxxxxxx>]

Rules often have exceptions.  They usually are spelled out, but even rules are sometimes meant to be broken.  If I were stuck in New Orleans after Katrina and hungry, I would have broken the rule about stealing something to eat from a grocery store with no loss of sleep.  When the owner came back and the store reopened, Id gladly pay for what I ate and if I had to damage anything to get it Id pay for that too.  Was it stealing?  Yes, but there were unusual conditions at the time.  That same thing couldn't be consider viable for stealing the 52 inch plasma TV, especially when they had no power.

A picture off center usually works better, but exceptions are all around.  Leading lines to a subject often enhance a photo, just as the human usually finds S curves more appealing than jagged lines.  Follow them and much of the time you are better off, but not always.  Maybe its a matter of semantics.  I am never one for caring
 much about those types of debates.  Because rules is the generally accepted term, I use it as well. I also tend to think of them more as guidelines, and frankly just don't worry about what you call it.  Its what works that matters to me.

Howard <home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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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