Breaking the Rules in Photography is Really Dangerous!?
There's a famous saying that goes...
"You need to know all the rules before you can break them"
This can be a very dangerous mindset!
And to be honest, I've never quite bought into that.
It's something I’ve loved discussing with my clients and students since my days as a guitar teacher. Creativity often thrives in moments where rules are bent, twisted, or ignored entirely. Even when you don't fully understand them yet.
Think about it—we have decades upon decades of evolving photographic rules about composition, exposure, and technique. If you wait to master every single one before creating, you'll never start.
Instead, it's about learning something, applying it your own way, and mixing different influences to create something unique.
To give you a music analogy: diatonic notes are the ones that naturally fit within a specific scale, like the white keys on a piano in the key of C major. Playing non-diatonic notes—those that fall outside the scale—might seem “wrong” at first.
But it’s all about how you justify those notes—your intention shapes whether they’re heard as mistakes or deliberate choices. Most of the time, it’s the confidence and purpose behind a note that defines how the audience perceives it.
Take, for example, jazz pioneers like Charlie Parker, who pushed beyond traditional boundaries by playing "wrong" notes that turned into the foundation of bebop. Or Jimi Hendrix, whose unconventional use of scales and tones redefined what was possible on the guitar.
Other than landscape photography, I love taking portraits, and one of the photographers whose work I've always admired is Annie Leibovitz. She was able to combine photojournalism with theatrical lighting and fashion aesthetics to create her amazing signature style. She didn't wait to master every photography rule before developing her voice.
It's like how KISS took their love of The Beatles and comic book superheroes and created something entirely new – essentially "The Beatles on steroids." They combined seemingly unrelated influences to create their distinctive style.
You can start creating with whatever tools and knowledge you have right now. Sure, you could go back and study every detail of the Zone System that Ansel Adams developed, learn all about the technical aspects of large format cameras, and master every classic composition rule – but that could take years.
And while you're studying all that, you're not out there actually making images.
Chances are, you might never create anything at all.
The photos you admire today are often full of "broken rules" – dramatic center compositions when the rule of thirds was "mandatory," intentionally overexposed highlights when "proper exposure" was the norm, or motion blur when tack-sharp images were expected. These rule-breakers have already become new standards.
You don't need to know everything to create something meaningful.
Maybe you discover you love how a lens flare looks when you shoot directly into the sun, even though that's traditionally considered a "mistake" in landscape photography.
Or perhaps you find that slightly underexposing your images creates a mood you love. Later, you might open a photography book and realize, "Oh, that technique I stumbled upon? That's actually called 'low-key photography,' and photographers have been doing it since the 1930s!"
That's perfectly fine – you found your way there through creative exploration, just as many musicians discover they've independently stumbled upon chord progressions or techniques that were pioneered by others decades ago.
The joy and value are in the discovery and personal creative journey, not in following a predetermined path of rules.
That being said, Marty Neumeier, in his book The 46 Rules of Genius, talks about what he calls the Genius Paradox and how to resolve it by reacting to the rules—either embracing them or breaking them, observing the results, and then rewriting the rules based on your own experience.
The principle essentially suggests that to follow the rules of creativity, you first have to break them. And in doing so, you end up following them—because the most important rule is to break the rules.
“You’ll find that there are rules for creativity—your rules. They may not be the ones that others follow, but they’ll be true and useful to you.”
I’ve spent years exploring and teaching the balance between rules and creative freedom. There’s a better way to express yourself authentically, truthfully, and in alignment with your goals than by rigidly applying any ‘rule’ you come across.
It’s exactly what I focus on in my photography workshops to help you accelerate the process of improving your skills and vision.
With the right guidance, you can skip the overwhelm of trial and error, concentrate on what truly matters, and start creating images that reflect your unique perspective.
What About You?
What are your thoughts about "photography rules"? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts! I'd love to hear from you!
And if you found this helpful, please forward this article to a friend or fellow photographer who might benefit from it.
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