ABOVE—In this pleasing portrait by Stacy Bratton, the baby is well centered, but the center of interest—her face—is past the center line of the image, implying movement and direction. LEFT—This is a formal children’s portrait by Drake Busath. The child’s seated form mimics the classic L-shaped composition, and the line of the portrait, starting with the floral urn in the upper left corner and ending at the lower right corner, is an elegant diagonal, with several contrasting diagonal lines visible in the upper right hand corner. Note that the simple posing of the hands is adequate but not overdone and the young girl’s expression is subtle, denoting a complexity warranted by such a formal composition.
the center of interest—thus, the face should be positioned to fall on an intersection or on a dividing line. Usually the head or eyes are two-thirds from the bottom of a vertical photograph. Even in a horizontal composition, the eyes or face are usually at the top one-third of the frame—unless the subject is seated or reclining. In that case, they would generally be at the bottom onethird line. Some DSLRs feature an in-viewfinder grid of the rule of thirds that can be activated at any time. I own two