ABSTRACT
On those occasions when you have a clear, well defined subject in a simple, even setting, you have to decide where it goes in the frame. (Actually there is another choice, which is to close in so tightly that the subject fills the frame, but we dealt with that already on page 16). A situation like the one shown below is a particularly clean example of subject-againstbackground, but the same decisions apply in many other cases. There’s usually no need for precision when thinking about this, just a choice of three general positions: around the center, near an edge or corner, or this in-between
position. Off-center may sound a little vague, which is good. You could call it a third of the way in, or a third of the way out, but if there is such a thing as a rule of thirds, it can only be approximate. Off-center has two strong things going for it. First, it’s natural rather than forced or exact. Second, it makes for an easy, but definite relationship between the subject and the background. Whereas centered divides any background and diminishes it, while an extreme position near a corner makes the viewer wonder why that placing was used, off-center gently shows us both the thing and the setting together. Rice farmer, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, 1979
33P L A C I N G
The three approximate zones of a standard 3:2 frame.
