Rule of Thirds in Photography

As you are interested in photography, then you must have heard about the Rule of Thirds. Basically, it relies on how the humans eye perceive a photograph . The rule’s job is to put emphasis on the parts of the photo which will first grab the attention of the eye.

While the Rule of Thirds is very important for composing good photographs, it is also the easiest to understand and apply of all the photography rules. By just putting your subject in the correct position, you will have a photo complying with it.

Imagine that your photograph will be divided into three horizontal and three vertical parts. This is done by putting four lines (two horizontal and two vertical) each at one third of the photograph, hence the name of the rule. Four intersection points will be formed at the meeting points between each nonparallel pair of lines . In general, the lines together with the intersection points should be used to align the main subjects of your photos so as to have one that complies with the Rule of Thirds.

Photographing at close range will yield a subject that is too big to be framed as a whole. As a result, interesting features within the subject should be aligned instead. An interesting example of this case is a closeup portrait where the facial features are the objects that form the composition. Eyes are usually placed along the top horizontal line. This is mainly because eyes are the most important feature of the face, and that by doing so, the rest of the facial features will be well placed inside the photo too.

The Rule of Thirds is commonly used in landscape photography as well. A lone subject in the foreground (a tree for example) is a perfect candidate to be aligned to one of the vertical lines. Horizons in the background, if any, should be placed along one of the horizontal lines. A landscape scene may contain fields, mountain or clouds. These can also be aligned to the lines of thirds and, if possible, separated in different thirds, producing a well composed photograph.

In photography, it is very important to know exactly when to break the rules. There are some instances where the perfect alignment should be sacrificed for a better overall composition, such as when some important details are missing just outside the frame. Another example is when trying to create the mirroring effect using reflections. A more conventional alignment in this case is to put the line separating the real from the reflection exactly at the center.

The Rule of Thirds is an easy to learn, yet very effective technique. By using it, you will be able to produce photos that are very appealing to the eyes.

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