Outdoor Photography How To

Everyone always talks about "the rule of thirds" being the key to composing a compelling image. And yes, it is a helpful tool to get you out of the boring photo rut. But what if there was something different and more effective to help with appealing photo composition?

There is and in the below video, landscape photographer Mark Denney discusses "a composition tool that eats the rule of thirds for breakfast!"

"I think by this point we're all familiar with the more popular composition techniques for creating powerful landscape photos," Denney says. "We know to use leading lines to draw the viewer into our photos, we know to use layers to create depth in our images and we frame our photographs using the rule of thirds, but are these really the best approaches? Now as far as the first two points go, I'm a big fan of both, but I'm not 100% sold on the rule of thirds as a long-term solution for composition."

In the tutorial, Denney discusses what he thinks is a better compositional technique for replacing the rule of thirds.

"I think the rule of thirds has its place when you're a beginner, but once you become comfortable with applying it to your landscape photos where do you advance from here?" he says. "One of my favorite aspects of landscape photography is that it cannot be perfected, there's always something you can improve and there's always something new you can learn. I think composition is perhaps the most difficult aspect of landscape photography so whenever there's a new technique that can be applied to improve upon this, I'm all for it."

Which technique does Denney prefer to the rule of thirds? Watch the video and find out and then go visit his channel for more insightful tutorials.