“Two subjects create balance, four create order, but three invite the eye to wander. In photography, the beauty of an odd number is that it leaves just enough imbalance for the image to breathe, move, and tell a story.” – MJ Martin
Why Three Often Feels Better Than Two
There is a curious little principle in photographic composition called the Rule of Odds. It suggests that when several similar subjects appear within a photograph, an odd number, particularly three, will often produce a stronger and more visually engaging composition than an even number such as two or four. Adobe’s educational material on composition describes the Rule of Odds as the idea that odd numbers of subjects tend to be more interesting, while even numbers can create symmetry that may feel more formal or predictable. (Adobe Edex)
The important word, however, is “often.” Photography has guidelines, not commandments. The Rule of Odds is useful because it helps us understand how the eye explores a photograph.
The Special Power of Three
Three subjects create something that two subjects cannot easily produce: a centre.
Imagine photographing three brilliant red maple leaves floating on a quiet Canadian lake. Our eyes might move from the first leaf to the second, then to the third, before returning through the composition. The three objects create a visual conversation.
Now remove one leaf. With two objects, the photograph becomes more like a balance scale. Our attention tends to move back and forth between them. There is often less mystery because the visual relationship is immediately understood.
Add a fourth leaf, and another phenomenon can occur. The mind begins grouping the subjects into pairs. Instead of seeing four independent characters within the photograph, we may subconsciously see two groups of two.
Three resists that easy division.
It is rather like three people sitting around a campfire. Two people create a conversation. Four people can divide naturally into pairs. Three people continually change the relationship among themselves. That small instability produces visual energy.
Creating a Visual Triangle
Three subjects also provide the photographer with an opportunity to build a triangle within the frame. One object can sit higher, another lower and left, and the third lower and right. The viewer’s eye can then travel around this invisible triangular structure.
This does not require three identical objects. A landscape photographer in the Canadian Rockies might compose a scene around a foreground boulder, a solitary spruce tree, and a distant mountain peak. Those three visual anchors can give an enormous landscape structure and direction.
Adobe notes that effective composition should encourage the viewer’s eye to move through the photograph, while Nikon emphasizes simplifying a composition and removing unnecessary elements to strengthen the image. (Adobe) The Rule of Odds combines both concepts beautifully. It gives the eye enough information to explore without necessarily overwhelming it.
Two and Four Are Not Wrong
There are excellent reasons to photograph two subjects. Couples, reflections, symmetry, friendship, opposition, and duality can all benefit from pairs. Four subjects can be particularly effective when geometry, repetition, order, or symmetry is part of the story.
Composition therefore should never become mathematics performed through a viewfinder. Nikon describes composition as a series of deliberate choices about what belongs within the frame. (Nikon USA) The Rule of Odds simply gives the photographer another way of making those choices.
The Photographer’s Experiment
The best way to understand this principle is to test it. The next time you find four flowers, rocks, people, trees, or other repeating subjects, make three photographs. Compose one with two elements, another with three, and another with four.
Then ask yourself: Where does my eye go first? Does it remain in the photograph? Does three create movement while two creates balance? Does four strengthen the pattern rather than weaken it? Most importantly, what emotional response do you want the photograph to produce?
The Rule of Odds is not really about counting objects. It is about controlling relationships. And very often, three is the smallest number capable of turning a collection of subjects into a story.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.