Hi, Wednesday, January 1, 2003, 8:20:06 PM, you wrote:
>>> The fact is, nobody can possibly name a single "rule of thumb" a) such that >>> it will usefully improve pictures in all situations where it can be applied >>> and b) such that pictures which do not conform to the rule will not be >>> strong or successful or good or whatever positive word you want to use. >> >> Mike, I don't believe anybody has made these claims during this >> discussion. On the contrary, people have repeatedly pointed out >> the ambiguity in the word 'rule' and warned against misinterpreting >> it. But you've continued wilfully to misrepresent the position and set >> it up as a straw man just to knock it down. > Bob W., > But I have NOT done that. I'm simply applying a simple, basic empirical > test. If a "rule" doesn't help and ignoring it doesn't hurt, then what > possible good is it??? There's a whole range of possibilities between 'always' and 'never'. You seem to think that because a rule may not "usefully improve pictures in all situations where it can be applied" that it will never improve pictures. This is not the case. The rules often help, and there is plenty of empirical evidence for that. Similarly, there are plenty of cases where ignoring the 'rules' does hurt - I've no doubt that we've all seen that in our own photography. Is there anybody here who can honestly say that some of their pictures wouldn't have been better if they'd got closer, filled the frame and perhaps exploited a diagonal? Isn't this one reason why some frames are better than others on a contact sheet? > If you're saying that in some cases it might work and thus might or might > not be applied, and in other cases it might not work so might need to be > rejected, then what in the world is the difference between that and simply > photographing freely "by eye" without recourse to such rules of thumb?? The difference is that many people - perhaps most - can't photograph freely 'by eye' (whatever that means) unless they have a great deal of previous experience, and in these cases it helps to have a star to steer by. One such star might be 'fill the frame'. Another might be 'use the rule of thirds'. Personally I don't see any big difference in type between these tips, rules, piece of advice or whatever anybody calls them, but you think one of them is worth writing an article about and the other is to be dismissed out of hand. --- Bob
