Breaking the rules

Learning goal

You will be able to explain that composition rules aren't laws but suggestions that do a particular job, and tell deliberately moving away from a rule apart from a mistake. You will test whether a deviation is deliberate through intent, consistency and fit with the rest of the frame; you will recognize what common deviations such as putting the subject in the exact middle, tilting the horizon, leaving the movement space behind and cutting at the edge add to the frame; you will build a dark or bright frame without leaving it to the camera's metering, keeping the tone you want on every skin; and by trying the placements you learned throughout the module on a single object, you will build your own compositional vocabulary.

The question

You are at a photography club's review evening. A frame is projected on the screen: a street musician, in the exact middle, in the symmetrical opening of a stone arch behind them, the horizon line splitting the frame exactly in two. Someone in the room speaks up right away: "The subject is in the middle, the horizon is in the middle; it goes against the rule of thirds." But most people in the room can't take their eyes off the frame. In the same photographer's next frame, on the other hand, the neck of the musician's violin is cut off at the edge of the frame, and the horizon is slightly tilted; this time nobody says anything, but the frame feels as if something is missing.

In both frames rules have been broken. One looks strong, one weak. When are rules broken? And how do we know whether a broken rule is a choice or a mistake? In this lesson we will talk about the ways of deliberately moving away from the placements you learned throughout the module, and what separates this moving away from an accident.

Context

The rule of thirds, leading lines, movement space, balance and the golden ratio are suggestions photographers have long turned to often. Each of them has its own job: moving the subject away from the middle adds movement to the frame, carrying the gaze to a point, distributing weights. For a beginner these suggestions offer a skeleton; at a moment when they don't know what to do, they give them a starting point.

But a suggestion can become an obstacle when the job it does doesn't fit what you want to tell. For a photographer who wants to tell stillness, confrontation or unease, movement and balance sometimes create exactly the opposite effect. This lesson looks at the difference between knowing a rule and applying it blindly.

Simple explanation

Why is a rule broken?

Breaking a composition rule means not wanting the job that rule does. The rule of thirds adds movement to the frame and a space for the gaze to go back and forth in; putting the subject in the exact middle, on the other hand, fixes the gaze at the center and tends to stir a feeling of stillness, seriousness or direct confrontation. Keeping the horizon straight gives the frame solidity; tilting the horizon on purpose, on the other hand, can stir a feeling of dizziness or imbalance in most viewers. Leaving the movement space in front of the subject shows where it will go; leaving the space behind, on the other hand, can tell what is left behind, a departure or an escape.

That is why the question to ask before breaking a rule isn't "which rule?" but "what was this rule doing in this frame, and do I want that job?" A photographer who knows the rule knows what they lose and what they gain when they move away from it. In Lesson 6.3 we saw central composition as an option; this lesson extends that option to all the rules.

How is an intentional deviation told apart from a mistake?

An intentional deviation is moving away from a rule for a purpose and decisively. An accidental mistake is moving away from a rule without noticing, through carelessness. There are a few ways to tell the two apart. The first measure is decisiveness: a symmetry shifted by half a step or a horizon tilted by two degrees usually looks like a mistake; a subject put in the exact middle or a clearly tilted horizon, on the other hand, looks like a decision. The clearer the deviation, the more the viewer reads it as a choice.

Then you look at consistency: does the deviation say the same thing as the rest of the frame? When a centered subject combines with a symmetrical backdrop and a plain background, the feeling of stillness grows stronger; when the same subject is left in the middle of a cluttered background, this feeling scatters. Finally, you can ask yourself: if I shot this frame again following the rule, would it be stronger or weaker? The shortest way to find out is to shoot both frames and put them side by side.

Which deviations are used often?

An edge crop is deliberately leaving part of the subject, the top of a head, an arm or the end of an object, out of the frame at its edge. In a tightly cropped face portrait, cutting off the top of the forehead brings the viewer closer to the eyes and can give a feeling of closeness. But where the cut falls matters: an arm or leg cut at a joint, a wrist or a knee tends to stir in most viewers a feeling of a severed limb; making the cut between the joints reduces this feeling.

A tilted horizon is tilting the horizon line on purpose at a clear angle; it can be used when telling a moment of movement, a run or a jolt. Leaving the subject very small and in a corner of the frame can tell loneliness or scale inside a wide emptiness. Blur or grain too, where it fits, can be part of a movement or a mood. None of these deviations is strong or weak by itself; they draw their strength from the bond they build with what they want to tell.

How is a deviation built in light and exposure?

Alongside composition, exposure also has a habitual rule: the face and the subject carrying detail, the frame gathering in the middle tones. Breaking this rule means building a very dark or very bright frame on purpose. But the camera's metering tries to brighten a dark scene and darken a bright scene, and takes back your decision. If you leave an intentional deviation to the metering, the camera is the one that breaks the deviation.

This is especially noticeable when photographing a dark-skinned person in a dark setting: automatic metering brightens the scene toward middle gray, the blacks turn milky gray, and the skin can shift to a pale, ashen tone. When photographing a light-skinned person on a white backdrop, on the other hand, the metering darkens the frame and the skin turns gray. In both cases the fix is the same: with exposure compensation or a manual setting, you decide the tone you want, and look on the screen at whether the skin keeps its own color and depth. A dark frame is a choice only when the darkness comes from where you chose.

Visual evidence

You are in a coppersmith's workshop in the courtyard of an old caravanserai. Inside it is dark; the only light source is the small window beside the door. The master is an old, dark-skinned man with a white mustache; a hammer in his hand, a shining copper tray in front of him. In the first frame you take, with permission, the camera has brightened the dark workshop with automatic metering: the background has turned a muddy gray, the tray's gleam has blown out, and the master's face looks pale and ashen.

You set exposure compensation to between minus one and a half and two stops and shoot again. The corners of the workshop pull into a dark, deep black; the light from the window falls only on the master's forehead, mustache, hands and the edge of the tray; the skin is warm, dark and detailed, and there is the small reflection of the window in his eyes. This time you put the face in the exact middle and cut the top of his head off at the top of the frame; the frame is left only to the eyes, the hands and the copper. To compare, you also take one frame that follows the rules, on the thirds line and with his head fully inside. When you show the screen to the master, he points to the centered, dark, cropped frame: "This is my workshop."

Common mistakes

Summary

Composition rules aren't laws but suggestions that do a particular job; breaking a rule is not wanting that job and choosing to tell something else in its place. An intentional deviation is decisive, clear and consistent with the rest of the frame; an accidental mistake, on the other hand, stays halfway and looks like something missing; the shortest way to tell the two apart is to put the frame that applies the rule side by side with the frame that breaks it. When building a deviation in exposure, you need to leave the decision not to the camera but to yourself; for a dark or bright frame to count as a choice, the tone you chose has to keep the skin's color and depth.

Mini assignment

This assignment is also the module project: "One Subject, 10 Frames." Choose a single object, a cup, a chair, a shoe or a plant, and photograph it with ten different compositions.

1. Photograph the object once each inside a leading line, a frame within a frame, and a symmetry.
2. Photograph it inside a wide negative space, in a layered frame with a foreground, middle ground and background, and from a low and a high angle.
3. Photograph it with a small counterweight that builds balance, and in a frame cropped by the golden spiral or the phi grid.
4. Take the last frame with an intentional deviation: in the exact middle, cut at the edge, clearly tilted, or dark on purpose; write in one sentence which rule you broke and why.
5. Put the ten frames side by side, and note under each what that composition says about the object.

Check yourself

• Is the frame you took with an intentional deviation decisive and clear, or does it look like a mistake left halfway?
• Among the ten frames, which ones really say something different about the object?
• When you built a dark or bright frame, was the tone your decision, or the camera's metering?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Which is the most useful question to ask before breaking a rule?

• A) What is this rule called?
• B) What was this rule doing in this frame, and do I want that job?
• C) Do other photographers break this rule?
• D) Does my camera support this rule?

2. Which of these will most likely look like a mistake?

• A) A subject put in the exact middle and a symmetrical backdrop
• B) A clearly tilted horizon
• C) A horizon tilted by two degrees
• D) A subject deliberately left small in the corner of a wide emptiness

3. When an arm has to be cut at the edge of the frame, where should the cut be made to reduce the feeling of a severed limb?

• A) Exactly at the wrist
• B) Exactly at the elbow
• C) Between the joints
• D) Exactly at the shoulder

4. You want to photograph a dark-skinned master in a dark workshop in a deliberately dark frame, but the camera turns the scene gray. What should you do?

• A) Trust automatic metering
• B) Fire the flash at full power
• C) Move the master away from the window
• D) Set exposure compensation to minus, or decide the tone with a manual setting, and check the skin's color on the screen

Answers

1. B — Breaking a rule calls for knowing the job it does and not wanting that job.
2. C — A vague, small deviation reads not as a decision but as carelessness.
3. C — A cut made at a joint stirs in most viewers a feeling of a severed limb.
4. D — The metering tries to brighten the dark scene; you make the decision with compensation or a manual setting and check the skin on the screen.

Summary card

• Rules aren't laws, but suggestions that do a particular job.
• Before breaking, ask: what was this rule doing, do I want that job?
• An intentional deviation is decisive and consistent; a mistake stays halfway.
• In an edge crop, avoid the joints; keep the horizon either straight or clearly tilted.
• Don't leave an exposure deviation to the camera; choose the tone yourself, check the skin on the screen.

Bridge to the next lesson

The ten frames from the module project and the two frames from the coppersmith's workshop are now sitting on the memory card. When you shot the dark frame you set your settings the way you wanted, but if you later want to open the shadows a little more or adjust the copper's color, how much you can do depends on the type of file you shot. Why does the same frame, saved as RAW, take up many times more space than a JPEG, and what does that extra space carry? The next lesson opens the files and archive module with bit depth and the tonal information a RAW file keeps.