I learned about three design principles used in photography: the rule of thirds, leading lines, and depth of field. I’ve identified examples of these principles in my own photography as well as in others’ photographs.

The first principle is the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is a division of an image into nine equal pieces, with three horizontal rows and three vertical columns. To properly use the rule of thirds, you have to place areas of interest, such as the eyes of a human or animal, on a line or intersection point, like I did in the picture I took. You also put the horizon along one of the lines, as shown in the image taken by Spencer Cox.

The next principle is leading lines. Leading lines are lines in the image that draw your eye and keep it moving around the image instead of leaving it. These lines can be both clean an obvious, like planks on a bench, or they can be implied through corners of shapes, like in my example. Often times, the lines lead to a focal point of the image, like in the example from Jim Zuckerman.

The last principle I learned about was depth of field. Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in focus. A shallow depth of field, as shown in my photograph as well as Lee Johnson’s, only focuses on a small portion of the image, leaving the background blurry. This helps draw the eye to the detail of the focused object and really makes it stand out.