The Rule of Thirds

My camera, like most others, has an optional grid that can be imposed on the LCD viewer. It consists of two lines bisecting the image horizontally, and two more bisecting vertically. Before I learned bout the rule of thirds, I thought the lines were just there to help me take straight pictures, and I did not always use them.

Now I understand that I can use the lines to follow the rule of thirds, which states that a photograph will be more visually interesting and arresting if I decide what the main focus of interest is, and place it on or near one of the intersections. This technique keeps you from taking a bunch of clunky shots with the subject sitting dead center.

Boring.

The photograph above shows what happens when you ignore the rule of thirds. I placed the ghost dead center and wound up with a very static, uninteresting shot. But all is not lost! If you mess up and take a boring shot, you can try to improve it with the cropping tool on your computer. The one on mine automatically imposes the 'rule of thirds' grid so that I can position the subject more interestingly.

Much better!

 

 

 

 The rule of thirds makes it easier and more natural for the viewer to focus on what you want them to see. Here are some more examples of before and after cropping experiments using the rule of thirds.

By the way, it is still not a great picture because I did not make sure there were no trees growing out of their heads. But you can see that it is more satisfying to look at, and it makes the winding path more subtle and interesting. The figures are positioned at the first vertical line on the left.

 

 

Ehhhh.

Dynamic!

You can also use the grid on the LCD viewer to position the horizon line, thus avoiding having a photograph with the horizon line right across the middle - that looks clumsy and unsatisfying. Having it at the upper or lower horizontal line is better, depending on whether you want to emphasize the sky, or the earth or water. Either one works, as long as you don't have the horizon right in the middle.

I did take this one using the LCD rule of thirds grid. It helped me to see the horizon as the line between sunny grass and shady grass. Having the massive tree only partially in the picture gives it a nicely framed effect, and it is positioned on the right vertical line.

These last three photos were also taken with the grid.