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The Rule of Thirds
By sirsnapalot | July 28, 2007
The Rule of Thirds is probably the #1 guideline in photography for taking good pictures. Keep in mind that it’s a guideline, and not actually a rule. Just if you are beginning in photography, or people just aren’t reacting to your photos in a way that you would like, this is a good place to start.
The idea behind it- and it applies to paintings as well, is that more often than not, placing your subject smack in the middle of your presentation might possibly turn off the viewer. Placing your subject off to one side or the other, or offsetting up or down, depending on the circumstances, can many times make a difference.
The image above, a rather uninteresting shot of a fire hydrant, illustrates the placement in the center. It’s not a very good photo, and won’t win any awards.
The next image shows a standard 4:3 ratio print (most common in digital cameras- film and many SLR’s are 3:2 ratio) and shows lines at the 1/3 points left-right and top-bottom. The idea is to place your subject along these lines.
If you take the photo of the fire hydrant (taken for the sole purpose of this demonstration) and move it to one of those lines, you end up with a bit more pleasing photo- the fire hydrant now has a bit of “space” on the left, opening up the picture a bit.
I used this picture because in my archive, I couldn’t find any shots (easily at leasT) that had both a before and after aspect for this demonstration. It was easier to go outside and take a couple of shots for the demonstration.
Here are a couple of photos where the Rule of Thirds is followed, with pleasing effect. The first one places the cat on the right side, with nothing but lawn to the left, giving the feeling of an open yard, which was the case and the effect I wanted to get across.
This final shot I took in 2006 for a paying customer that wanted an iconic shot of Dallas. I took a friend (for safety) to a rather dangerous part of Dallas (Trinity River Basin) on the southeast edge of downtown and waited until post-sunset to take this shot. It also follows the Rule of Thirds- the dark foreground occupies roughly the lower third, while the buildings occupy the middle third, and the sky occupies the upper third. I don’t make a lot of money from my photography, however, I did manage to make a fair amount on this shot. And I managed to take a shot I had dreamed of taking- an icon shot, one that shows Dallas’ skyline in the best possible way.
And, though it is called the Rule of Thirds, as always, there are no real rules. It is a great guideline and a great starting place when composing a scene. However, play with the composition through the viewfinder and takes what works best and will convey the image you want to convey. More on this later.
Ciao,
Jeff
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