Photography Guides: The Rule Of Thirds.

Basic stuff here i know but sometimes its good to refresh yourself on composition and just how important it is to a good photograph. You can discuss settings, aperture vs shutter speed, what ISO is appropriate etc.. All day. But without good composition, the photo is nothing more than a technical demonstration. Composition is to me, what separates a good photo from a great photo, and is the single most important thing you can learn when it comes to photography.

We are influenced by the rule of thirds everyday, without realizing it, in adverts, photos, paintings. What is it? Essentially its a format for good composition, used by photographers, painters, anyone in the visual industry so to speak. You need to imagine that your composition, what you see through your viewfinder, being divided into thirds equally along both its shortest and longest sides, see the photo at the top of the article for reference. It doesn't matter if the picture is landscape or portrait, you still divide into thirds equally along both its longest and shortest sides. For square pictures, you still divide by thirds along the upright and the horizontal.

What we are looking for are the intersections where the lines cross, rather than the individual boxes. If the focal point in a photo falls along one of these lines, then we can say it confirms to the rule of thirds. This is just a guideline though, remember that. You should never get too caught up with trying to put your focal point directly on one of the cross sections for every shot. Also, remember, if you don't manage to apply this rule to a photograph you have taken, you can always crop the photo to comply to the rule of thirds, so long as it doesn't affect the composition you were initially shooting for.

Apart from the intersections, the horizontal and vertical lines can play an important role in composition themselves. For instance, with the horizontal line you can place the horizon of a landscape at the upper or lower line, rather than just in the center, leaving you with a more unique composition than if you had just put it dead in the middle.

That's essentially there all is to it. Once you know it well, you will start seeing it everywhere. For instance look at Van Gogh’s starry night. The focal points are along the lines and intersections rather than the center, it is visually far more pleasing this way. It seems people are subconsciously drawn to those 4 intersections in a picture. Another thing to remember, is that this isn't a “rule” so to speak, more of a guide. But its up to the individual artist to make use of it however they want. Good Luck.