Rule of 3s/3rds

This is a nude portrait I took in Germany in 1972.

It illustrates both the Rule of 3s and the Rule of 3rds: notice that there are only three objects of interest in the picture – the window, the plant, and the nude. Notice too that nothing in the picture is centered – it is clearly composed in a 2/3’s – 1/3 pattern; The window and the plant take up 2/3’s of the picture and the woman takes up one third (the blank space above her was deliberately left in full shadow, and doesn’t count really as part of the picture in this case (because your eye does not focus on it), although background can count, particularly in the case where you get the blurred background known as “bokeh.”

Notice too that the woman is not centered top to bottom – she is in the bottom third of the picture. This is all quite intentional.