The Rule of Thirds

If you are taking photographs for your own pleasure, as I assume you are, then you only have to come up with pictures that please you.

If you ask around randomly what composing a good photo is, they'll tell you to put your subject dead centre and you can't go wrong.

Let’s see if they are right…

Why don’t you go through your family photo album right now? You'll find dozens, maybe even hundreds of photographs demonstrating this very advice. Some of them might be good pictures, capturing the essence of your uncle, your mother, or your pet dog, but maybe not great photos.

You may be able to overlook the huge empty spaces or people with their heads cut off but no-one else will. Producing pictures that are pleasing to someone other than yourself will make your photography much more rewarding.

One of the most popular 'rules' in photography is the Rule of Thirds. It is also popular amongst artists. Think this photo below looks polished and professional by chance? Not really...

The Rule of Thirds is a term which means taking the viewfinder, or photograph, and dividing it with imaginary lines into thirds, both vertically and horizontally. Think of it as setting a tic-tac-toe board across your viewfinder, creating 9 small squares. (Some digital cameras even offer this grid as an option to toggle on and off using your viewfinder or the LCD on the back of the camera's body. This is very helpful to the beginning photographer if your camera has this feature.)

By placing your subject on one of the cross sections, where the horizontal and vertical lines meet, you're creating a much more pleasing snapshot. As well as using the intersections you can arrange areas into bands occupying a third or place things along the imaginary lines. It is fairly simple to implement.

Good places to put things; third of the way up, third of the way in from the left, you get the idea.

Duff places to put things; right in the middle, right at the top, right at the bottom, away in the corner.

In general, place people or things (your subject) to the right or left of the center (on those imaginary dissecting lines).

For landscapes, put the horizon or the point of interest above or below the center of your frame (again, on the imaginary bisecting lines)

Rule of Thirds helps produce nicely balanced easy on the eye pictures. Also, as you have to position things relative to the edges of the frame it helps get rid of 'tiny subject surrounded by vast empty space' syndrome.

Example
In example above, the subject is framed by placing it in the very center of the shot. It's an okay photo. But, if you move it slightly off-center, notice how much more pleasing it looks? More polished and more professional?

Once you have got the hang of the Rule of Thirds you will very quickly want to break it! This is fine. As I said earlier these 'rules' are best used as guidelines and if you can create a better image by bending or ignoring rules then fire away.