Early in my scrapbooking, I ran across a simple idea that helped me to quickly improve my photo cropping and picture taking – the principle of thirds. I found out the eye likes to see the subject of a photo or layout one-third of the way from two edges. I tried cropping my photos that way, and I was amazed by the changes! Here are some examples.
This photo of my grandparents, sisters, and me by the silo is okay, but I wanted to improve it. I cropped the photo so my sister’s eye was one third of the way from the left side and the bottom of the picture. What a difference!
My sisters and I are almost lost in the photo below. By changing the orientation from horizontal (landscape) to vertical (portrait) and focusing on my sister’s eye, the resulting cropped photo is much better.
With cameras these days, it is easier than ever to place the subject in the right spot on your picture. You can usually push a button so that a grid of four lines appears on your screen. Hold the camera so the subject of your picture is where two lines meet and you are set!
However, there will always be photos that need cropping. Riley, a golden doodle, was a very wiggly little puppy. I think this fun shot is greatly improved by cropping.
Here is a picture of me and my dad, and I decided to crop it horizontally. I really like the result.
Finally, this is picture of my dad and Rory, my niece’s son, Dad’s first great-grandchild. I like their expressions, but neither Rory nor Dad is one-third of the way from two edges. In addition, I find the group of people in the background and Dad’s iron grip on Rory’s legs in the foreground to be distracting. You can see the difference in the cropped photo.
I hope this gives you some inspiration. I’d love to see how you use this idea of thirds in your layouts. Just upload your pages to the Scrap Girls Gallery so we can all enjoy them!
Article written by Sue Maravelas
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