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Tut 01 : The Rule of Thirds, what's behind ?So here we are, my first little article about "photography" ! Sorry in advance for my bad English, hope you will be able to get through

To begin this adventure, I wanted to start up-front with a concept I am sure many of you have heard of : drum-roll... "The Rule of Thirds" !
It is certainly the most controversial and well known composition rule. Half of the world says :
Follow this rule ! it is the key to lovely pictures
The other half screams :
This is nonsense, there is no rule, be free and walk your own path !
So where is the truth ? who's right or wrong ? What should I do ?
I do not say that I have the answer, but at least I can share with you what I feel about that. And what I feel is that this rule is actually less of a rule and more of a particular case. Yep, you heard me right, this rule may actually be seen as a simple example of much larger concepts.
The Rule
If you're not familiar with this rule, here is a little reminde

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Submitted: June 22, 2011
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Teleconverter Comparisonby *MarquisDeAhhs

Resources & Stock Images / Tutorials / Photography

Recently, someone asked about teleconverters. I suspect, but am not totally sure this individual was trying to figure out an inexpensive method of having a 400mm lens by possibly using a kit lens, and a teleconverter to get more reach. Since I made the mistake of investing $250 for a 2X converter thinking the same thing, I decided to do a little comparison.
Now, honestly, if we just wanted to compare simply image quality, I probably should have shot the lens normally, for best image, then shot the 2X converter resetting the lens as close as I could to the same focal length, you would have essentially the same image, but with vastly different qualities. I did however want to be fair. The 2X converter will give you more magnification but at a loss of quality.
This is a little study I did with my Tamron 2X SP converter. The file download is in PDF format, if you wish to take a closer look at the images.
I seldom bother to use the 2X converter. Unless I'm shooting a landscape, I prefer to shoot handheld rather than off a tripod. Secondly, whenever you increase your focal length, you run the risk of camera shake. So, I would simply recommend that if you really need to get up close and personal buy a long lens, or learn to stalk closer. One thing I did not really mention in this article. A Teleconverter will make your lens a "worse" performing lens. So, if you have one of the lesser expensive kit lenses, it isn't going to make it better, it will make it worse! Another issue, is hunting, since the teleconverter restricts light, it will tend to cause the autofocus on many cameras to hunt, especially on low light shots.

~PlumCrazee Jun 25, 2011 Photographer

Nice comparison study, Bob. I made the same mistake and now have an expensive paper weight. The results I got were definitely disappointing.

*MarquisDeAhhs Jun 25, 2011

I think if a person were limited to only like one lens, like back when we could buy cameras off the rack with a 50mm f/1.4 lens, then they wanted an option to go to 100mm this might just be fine... Maybe it has to do with "expectations" as well. Maybe some folks don't mind images that aren't as sharp.

I guess I just hate to see people make the same mistake you and I did. Like I said before to another, if I'd have shot these so that on the shots without the teleconverter, the lens was shooting at optimum, and both images were effectively at the same focal length, you would see glaring differences in image quality.