Parts of the Whole - Rule of Thirds
06 February 2009
The rule of thirds is a rule of thumb when it comes to composing an image. The Greeks first wrote about it in relation to art and artists have used this idea when composing paintings and drawings. It has since become one of the main rules of photography and it goes something like this. Basically that rectangular space that makes up the image is divided into thirds horizontally and vertically and you try to place the focus of your photograph prominently so it covers about a third of your photograph. It’s very simple and often helps give your images a balanced composition. When you are taking a photograph, take a moment to think about composition. Where your subject is in relation to everything else matters quite a bit in photographs, and empty space isn’t something you want avoid. A photographer once described it as playing Tic Tac Toe on the photography, you want to get through in a row somehow. Slightly odd analogy perhaps, but one that fits quite well.
Imagine that your viewfinder or LCD has 2 horizontal lines and 2 vertical to create 9 distinct boxes. When you are taking a portrait photo for example, you try to place the person’s eyes level with the imaginary top horizontal line, or have the person take up a space about equal to 3 boxes.
With landscapes you can aim for the horizon to be level with the imaginary bottom horizontal line, or place a tree or building on the first or last vertical line. This rule applies to just about anything you want to take a photo of. Just compose the image so that the focus point of the image takes up about a third of the space.
The same rules apply to cropping. You might have been rushed taking the image and you have a photo that looks a little unbalanced. You can simply crop away the excess part of the image so your subject features prominently on one side or the middle of the image.
Course the rule of thirds doesn’t mean you have to put everything on the side away from the centre, placing something right in the middle works just as well, and you can also have the subject take up two thirds, and have some space in the rest of the image. The rule of thirds is just a sort of guideline to help you compose your images, and like any good rule out there, it can be bent or even broken. At the end of the day, you as the photograph have to decide if the image looks good and what you mean to show.
With landscapes you can aim for the horizon to be level with the imaginary bottom horizontal line, or place a tree or building on the first or last vertical line. This rule applies to just about anything you want to take a photo of. Just compose the image so that the focus point of the image takes up about a third of the space.
