Photography is an art. Not only does it require good camera gear but great sensibility, technical skills, creativity, courage to experiment, and practice to become an extraordinary photographer.
When it comes to composition in photography, your skill, practice, and uniqueness determine the value of your images. In short, with adequate training, you can capture a great picture even out of bleak scenery.
What is the Rule of Thirds?
The rule was first discovered by the ancient Greeks but has been brought back to popularity lately thanks to digital technology and social media sharing. It's a good idea to learn about the Rule of Thirds because pretty much all modern smartphones have a built-in "rule of thirds" grid that you can enable when shooting images, whether they're still photos or videos.
In photography, the rule of thirds is golden for people who have just begun their shooting career. Applying this rule can quickly improve your photos and allow you to capture an accurate frame.
You can rely on your intuitive judgment, guesstimating ability, and sense of aesthetic to click a high-profile photo. Still, a fixed rule can allow you to attain accuracy that, with time, also sharpens your insight into taking pictures.
The rule of thirds you might have come across is a guideline, rather than a hard-and-fast rule. However, it can certainly serve as a good starting point for budding photographers.
In essence, the rule of thirds suggests breaking an image into nine equal parts using two equally spaced vertical and horizontal lines. These grids fill up the entire frame and consequently divide it into three columns and three rows respectively. In this way, you end up with nine smaller rectangles inside the large one. The goal of framing your subject in accordance with this principle is to determine where your focus lies within these imaginary boxes by placing them at the intersection points created where the lines meet. According to this theory, important details or elements should sit at or around these points of intersection.
The rule of thirds tries to arrange the visual elements in your photo by aligning them along with these points of intersection. According to this principle, you should not place your subject dead center but offset it slightly. Doing so will draw more attention to the object without overwhelming the viewers with its presence. This technique will help you create a balanced photograph that does not look haphazardly arranged.
If you are wondering what kinds of subjects work well within the framework provided by this classical compositional tool, landscape photography is an ideal candidate for applying it successfully on every shot. It has long been argued that placing the horizon line exactly across one of those intersections can result in some dynamic landscape images. As expected, big cities also sit well within the imaginary grid.
There are many variations on the rule of thirds. You can occasionally experiment with placing your subject slightly above or below the intersections, but only if doing so does not spoil the general balance of your photo. Placing it very close to one intersection will generally have a negative impact on the final product. If you place it too far from any intersection point, then attempting to align it along these lines becomes pointless.
The most important thing about this compositional tool is that you should break all rules once you master them; however, until then, try seeking inspiration in photos that implement this method well and use it as a stepping stone for framing your own shots creatively. A good photographer always knows when to break the rules!
The technique of Rule of Thirds
The technique behind the rule of thirds is all about arrangement. The way you arrange a subject and an object within the frame while shooting a photo determines if it’s a good or bad composition.
If you are unsure how to draw the lines to set an accurate frame mentally, then change your digital camera settings. DSLR cameras use a rule of thirds in the grid option. Once you select it, the horizontal and vertical lines will appear on the screen, making it convenient to capture a perfectly arranged image.
Application of points of interest
Placing your subject at the points of interest creates a balance in the photo. A viewer naturally focuses on these points when looking at an image due to the relationship between the negative space (background around the subject) and positive space (the primary issue). That’s why when you position significant features of your subject at intersection points, the photo becomes attractive and fascinating.
Rule of thirds in landscape photography
In landscape photography, you usually do not have a single point of interest. So, you can divide the photo into one-third and two-thirds. For example, you could capture two elements like the mountain and a sky in a picture where the mountain takes up 1/3 of the space while the sky takes 2/3 to create fluid scenery.
Using this method, you can capture a fantastic view, where you highlight one component of nature using the 1/3 space and another to support it by capturing the 2/3 portion.
The rule of thirds also applies to any other type of landscape photography. For example, if you take a picture of a lighthouse and the view behind it, you could break up your image into 1/3 for the sea and 2/3 for the lighthouse. This way, your viewer will focus on both specific items in your image.
Is it okay to break the rule of thirds?
Honestly, after you gain considerable experience in photography, you are free to let go of all rules for the sake of expressing your creative and unique ideas through photos.
An image that tells a moving and inspiring story wins hearts even if no formal rules of composition are applied in it. Yet, in the pursuit of becoming an expert at what you do, you should learn all rules of composition, techniques, and skills. Only then, you become qualified to abandon formalities in photography and surpass conventional norms.
For now, if you lack the capability of displaying innovative ideas through the images, then use the rule of thirds to take decent photos.
It can be. If you're looking for a unique shot, sometimes the "rule of thirds" doesn't work with what you want to take a picture of. Look at the photo above - if you only looked at the rule of thirds, this would not have been a very good picture. But! The lighting was really cool and combined with the shadows it creates an interesting image that certainly breaks up your standard rule-of-thirds-photo.
That's just one example though. Another time that this might come into play is when taking selfies or group photos. It's true that by following the rule of thirds, your face will never truly be centered in your photo unless it truly fits what you're trying to do which can take away from the quality of your photo. It would seem as though breaking this rule wouldn't be a good thing, but it can actually create a better picture if you break it in the right way.
For example:
The text in the image is definitely breaking the rule of thirds, and it seems like there's a bit too much negative space on either side, but it still looks good. There wasn't any other place that we could have put this information without making the picture look bad (and believe me, I tried to find one), so we ended up having to break the "rule" in order to create a better-looking picture.
The subject's eyes are also broken from the centerline which you're not supposed to do according to the rule of thirds. But again; it doesn't look so bad and in fact makes my point above about selfies and group photos more valid because they normally aren't centered at all and they don't look bad at all.
So... should you break the rule of thirds if it doesn't work with what you're trying to do? Use your own judgment and make sure that breaking this rule won't destroy the picture; only enhance it. There will be other times though when there isn't a good reason to break it because then you'll just be looking for attention rather than creating a nice photo for others to enjoy. An example of that would be the image below:
This image is just kind of ridiculous. It's not really working because we have two separate subject matters within the same picture which makes both parts poor quality compared to if they were their own pictures - one being a portrait and another being the scenery. So, in conclusion:
If you want to break the rule of thirds, go ahead and do it if there's a good reason for it. If you just want an excuse to be different or to cause attention, don't bother. Just learn when you should or shouldn't break this rule so that eventually when you are qualified enough, nothing will stop you from breaking all rules for your own creative endeavors!
Conclusion
You’ll be able to click engaging photos soon if you keep practicing the Rule of Thirds. Use the camera’s grid to aim better, taking dynamic and fluid pictures. Hopefully, this composition technique will help you to improve your photography skills.
In conclusion, the rule of thirds is a guideline that is used when photographing subjects. It states that there should be an even number of focal points in the image and that these focal points should be divided into three sections using two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. This will leave four intersections where the subject's main features may be placed for optimal composition. This article explained how to use this rule, why it works so well, and where it originated from. Hopefully, you have learned something useful about photography today by reading our article!