Rules of Third

Perhaps the most well know principle of photographic composition in the 'Rule of Thirds'

It's one of the first things that budding digital photographers learn about in classes on photography and rightly so as it is the basis for well balanced and interesting shots.

Rules are meant to be broken and ignoring this one doesn't mean your images are necessarily unbalanced or uninteresting. However if you intend to brake a rule you should always learn it first to make sure your braking of it is all the more effective!

What is Rules of Third?

The basic principle behind the rule of thirds it to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. as follows.

(My lines aren't exactly aliened but they look pretty close. Its just a tic-tac-toe grid.)

As you're taking an image you would have done this in your mind through your viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot.With this grid in mind the 'rule of thirds' now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

Not only this- but it also gives you four ' lines' that are also useful positions for elements in your photo (red lines).

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the interactions or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people's eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot- using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

In learning how to use the rule of thirds (and then to break it) the most important questions to be asking of yourself are:

• What are the points of interest in this shot?
• Where am I intentionally placing them?

Once again-remember that breaking the rule can result in some striking shots-so once you've learned it experiment with purposely breaking it to see what you discover.

Lastly-keep the rule of thirds in mind as you edit your photos later on. Post production editing tools today have good tools for cropping and framing images so that they fit within the rules. Experiment with some of your old shots to see what impact it might have on your photos.