Have a choice? Choose an odd number

Sunday 2 February 2025, 22:55 by Nando Harmsen | 1,916 views | 2 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

One is rather lonely. Bringing more objects into the frame can make a photo more exciting. If you have a choice, go for an odd number. It even has a name: Rule of Odds.

In Dutch, it is called the Rule of Unequal Parts. It is a composition rule that says an odd number of objects works better than an even number. You see this in a triptych, or in a preference for three vases together on a sideboard.

Three ducklings in the mist. There were more swimming, but three was perfect.
Research shows that we unconsciously split multiple objects into pairs. You immediately see two, or two times two, or three times two. This seems to be how our brains work. If you have an odd number, something clicks: we are missing an object.

Five trees. I don't have much choice here, but that's fine. Five is perfect.
If you have three, five, seven or nine objects, there is always one left over when we unconsciously split them into pairs. This creates a kind of unease and we start looking for the missing object. As a result, we look through a photo more actively.

This is an unconscious process that makes the photo more interesting. We look at it for longer. This works for three, five and seven, and to a lesser extent for nine. These are numbers we can see without counting.

There aren't four flamingos in the frame, but a group of three and one next to it. That's how I experience it.
With more than nine, it is experienced as a group. It then no longer matters whether the number is even or odd. It is a group. The Rule of Unequal Parts no longer applies.

Is an even number wrong, then? No, of course not. Two, four or six works too. Sometimes you simply have no choice. But if you can make it an odd number, it often works just a little better.

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