Third Grids

[nldunne]

Waffle

If you can devise a way to hold it in some type of frame - GO FOR IT!

All I say is - use it close to you for wide angle work and further away for tele work.

Good Luck with this. I have hand held it this way - and it works with care.

Norm D

[Nigel G]

Not sure about this being practical in the field but my Oly C7070 (and I believe a D200) have menu options to display a simple grid in the LCD / viewfinder respectively. Now that I do find useful for getting horizons straight etc and a guide to where elements of your composition are.

[Ciabatta]

Originally Posted by nldunne

The best way to do it with slide film - scan the image into the P C and go from there as posted above.

But how will that have an effect on the slide ? or is there some way of converting the image back to a slide afterwards ?

[nldunne]

I do not have it, but if you scan your image to the P C could you then make a slide in Power Point or similar to work on? You would still have the original in your slide collection - I think.

Or if you want you could make a copy to work on in the normal way and still have the original. Other than PP, I do not know if a slide with the corrections could be made. Someone in the group may have the answer to that one.

Norm D

[teacake]

Hi Norm,

Being novice I'm listening to what you say but in my limited knowledge it appears to me that waffle and ciabatta both have valid points, should I be taking in all you say to exculsion of all others or would you say I should listen to all sides on photographic issues?
Nigel G says his grid is built in viewfinder Norm, what do you think of that? Should I save up and get cam like his or not?

Respectfully, teacake.

[nldunne]

All I can offfer is - if you want to try it. If not - leave it. I just put in here to share an idea that has helped me. It may not be for everyone. But if you can put an image on the P C - it does give you a good way to study the way the Masters planned and executed their compositions. The ideas they used are easily adapted for use with a cam - if you want to use their ideas.

In your situation, I would listen to everyone and make your own decisions on what is right for you as faar as composition planning and your budget is concerned.

As for Nigel's cams. I would suggest - if you are able - try to get a hold of a model he suggests and try features. If you like it and can afford it, then it is your choice if you want to buy one.

Best Wishes

Norm D

[Andy]

Why don't you all use the names you use at the 'other forum' so everyone knows what is what? Norm has stuck with his username, so how about the others coming out of the closet?

[meadowman]

Originally Posted by miketoll

I'm afraid I just compose the picture in the viewfinder to what looks right to my eye. I'm aware of some of the compositional ''rules'' but don't want to slavishly follow them, they are guidelines only and sometimes a better picture can result from breaking them. Don't get me wrong, a great deal can be learnt from studying the great painters but even they did not always agree amongst themselves and developed new ideas and broke the rules - if they had not done so art would never develop and would forever be fozen in time endlessly repeating itself. As far as the grid goes this does not always work for prints as if you print at different sizes of paper the ratios of the sides varies so the grid and the positions of the points of interests and their relationships varies.

I think this is by far the more sensible approach. Surely if you put all the effort into getting the composition so strictly tied down you are going to run the risk of getting image content wrong.
As has already been pointed out, getting it wrong in the camera loses image resolution as you crop down the result. Also some detail is lost or corrupted as you enlarge your image to use the grid.
The subjects in the picture are not the only thing that you need to balance. The colour and brightness also needs to be composed so that you don't have too much of shadow or one colour on one side of the picture. No grid can do that.
I also find that it is seldom obvious where the cross points of the grid should lie. Fine if you have one person looking into camera because you can use between the eyes but even that is not always a good choice.
To me some of the most stunning images have been where the subject has been further off of centre than the thirds point.
Should we be trying to imitate the old masters anyway. Photography and painting are two different art forms. Painters don't have the benefit of depth of field to add to the composition elements.
And why should we assume that the "Thirds Rule" is so good as to be that rigid. It was adopted as a rule that had to be followed instead of a guideline. There was nobody to stand up and say whether or not it was right. Every painter just followed the rule like slaves. The old masters were not experts on composition. Their skill and value lie in the way that they represented their subject in brush strokes.