If Two Is Company, Is Three Perfection?

Lens-Artists Challenge #400: Rule of Three

When this post goes live, I’ll be spending time with family and friends in Brazil.
Any comments you make are appreciated, and I’ll respond to them in due time.

Photography has so many rules that anyone trying to learn composition can feel overwhelmed. Others simply trust their intuition. This week, Tina covers a rule that not many people may have heard of: the Rule of Three. It is not the same as the Rule of Thirds, “which divides an image visually into 9 equal segments – using two vertical and two horizontal lines.” In a nutshell, Tina explains “that images with three subjects (or more, but always an odd number) are more appealing and therefore more memorable.” In my preferred genres of landscape and nature photography, meeting that rule is not always possible — but I intuitively keep it in mind whenever I compose. I encourage you to visit Tina’s post for her beautiful examples.

The idea is older than the camera. Renaissance painters arranged figures inside implied triangles. Aristotle noted that lists of three are easier to remember than lists of two or four, and furniture makers know that a three-legged stool will sit flat on any floor while a four-legged one will rock. Photography textbooks picked up the same wisdom: an odd number of subjects, especially three, tends to read as more dynamic than an even one.

Why does our eye prefer odd numbers? Two subjects naturally pair off, and the gaze settles between them. Three refuse to pair — the eye keeps moving from one to the next, tracing an invisible triangle, and the image feels alive a few seconds longer. The Rule of Three answers how many subjects to include; the Rule of Thirds answers where to place them. The two rules can — and often do — live together in the same photograph. One more nuance I find useful in nature, where I rarely get to arrange the actors: when one of the three is dominant and the other two play supporting roles, the composition feels even stronger.

In the first image, three Eastern Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis) — 39–54 in (100–137 cm) long, with a wingspan of 6–8 ft (1.8–2.5 m) — rest on a wet sand flat at the water’s edge. This is the kind of grouping the rule has in mind: three clearly separate birds, each in its own posture — one with its bill tucked to its breast, one with the bill angled down, the third turned back to preen a wing. Nothing merges, so the eye reads three distinct subjects and travels easily from one to the next. The slight stagger — the right-hand bird set back and a little higher up the beach — keeps the line of three from feeling too rigid.

Compare that with three Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) — 36–54 in (91–137 cm) tall, with a wingspan of 66–79 in (167–201 cm) — perched above a coastal shrub. Again three birds, again an odd number, but here the two on the left almost merge into a single silhouette while the third stands apart, facing the other way. The eye sees “a pair plus one” rather than three equals — a reminder that the rule leans as much on separation as on counting. The lone bird still balances the frame: imperfect, perhaps, but not without rhythm.

The three Orange Blister Beetles (Nemognatha piazata), each only ¼–⅝ in (7–15 mm) long, show a cleaner example. They are spaced around the thistle bloom at roughly 12, 4, and 8 o’clock, forming an implicit triangle around the flower’s center, and each beetle faces a different direction. To my eye, this is the image that most clearly answers the challenge.

Finally, the Blue Curls (Phacelia congesta), 1–3 ft (30–90 cm) tall and one of my favorite Texas wildflowers. Three clusters ride a single curling stem, but they are not equals: the middle one is the sharpest and brightest; the other two flank it, slightly softer. That is the “one dominant, two supporting” version of the rule — still three subjects, but with a clear lead.

I am grateful for the beautiful images you share week after week, including those for my Stuck in Place challenge. I thank you for taking the time to join in that challenge. Great images! I hope you will join Tina’s challenge, too. Please don’t forget to use the “lens-artists” hashtag in your posts to help people find your wonderful challenge entries.

Next week, Patti will feature a new challenge. It will go live at noon EST in the USA. Tune in to find out more about the challenge then. Please see this page for more information about the Lens-Artists Challenge and its history. If you don’t want to miss any future challenges, please consider subscribing to the team members’ websites. Here they are:

• Tina of Travels and Trifles.
• Patti of P.A. Moed.
• Ann-Christine of Leya.
• John of Journeys with Johnbo.
• Anne of Slow Shutter Speed.
• Sofia of Photographias.
• Egídio of Through Brazilian Eyes.
• Ritva of Ritva Sillanmäki Photography.
• Beth of Wandering Dawgs.

That is the story behind the shots. If you liked this post, you may also be interested in others featuring Blue Curls, Eastern Brown Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Lens-Artists, Orange Blister Beetle, Texas, Wildflowers, and Wildlife. Until the next time, keep clicking and capturing the beauty your eyes find.

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Sources:

• Rule of Odds in Photography — DIY Photography: diyphotography.net/rule-of-odds-photography-composition/
• Composition Tip: Three Subjects is the Magic Number — Outdoor Photography Guide: outdoorphotographyguide.com/post/photo-composition-tip-three-magic-number
• Eastern Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis) — Texas Parks & Wildlife: tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/bpelican/
• Great Blue Heron — Audubon Field Guide: audubon.org/field-guide/bird/great-blue-heron
• Nemognatha piazata (Orange Blister Beetle) — iNaturalist: inaturalist.org/taxa/465221-Nemognatha-piazata
• Phacelia congesta (Blue Curls) — Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=phco2