sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

No none of the rules of compisition are absolute. in the tigers case the uncropped is better. you are filling up the frame with the centert of interest and eliminating all non neccesary information. actually you are obeying another rule of compisition. You have to know the rules in irder to break them. Its not like the popphoto swat team is going to bust in your home because you violated the rule of thirds"watch out ed he's armed with a tripod and knows how to use it. :lol: Let me suggest one book. "learning to see creatively" by bryan Peterson(my favorite photographer) He will show you in plain english what the rules are and when to break em in addition he will open your eyes to a wide range of subject matter. This book has had an enormous impact on my photos and is one of two bookds every photographer should own. the other is understanding exposure same author. :thumbup:

henrycrafter Loc: Orem Utah

Rule of thiords is a guide NOT a law

janab

I like the cropped only because it really puts the emphasis on the tiger.

photogirl Loc: Sequim, WA

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain your thought process before you took your picture. It is one thing to put those thoughts into words but for some people getting substance from those words is a challenge, the visual you took time to create helps to take care of that problem.

I have enjoyed taking pictures for years not for the sake of taking quality pictures but because I like to use them to remember experiences and I like to enrich those experiences by noticing more of my surroundings so I look for things to take pictures of (circular sort of thing.) Now I am trying to take pictures that others might enjoy too so am thinking more about things like composition and lighting which was never an issue. I am also learning how wonderful it is critique images. Another way to improve. Recently found this site and am certainly enjoying reading the comments and seeing the photos.