As you are interested in photography, then you must have heard about the Rule of Thirds. Basically, it relies on how the humans eye perceive a photograph . That’s why, according to the rule, the subject should be placed along imaginary lines indicating the best spots within the photograph.
While the Rule of Thirds is very important for composing good photographs, it is also the easiest to understand and apply of all the photography rules. All you need is just to know how you should frame your subject.
Imagine that your photograph will be divided into three horizontal and three vertical parts. This is done by putting four lines (two horizontal and two vertical) each at one third of the photograph, hence the name of the rule. Four intersection points will be formed at the meeting points between each nonparallel pair of lines . In general, the lines together with the intersection points should be used to align the main subjects of your photos so as to have one that complies with the Rule of Thirds.
In case of closeups, the subject itself will probably be bigger than the whole frame. As a result, interesting features within the subject should be aligned instead. An interesting example of this case is a closeup portrait where the facial features are the objects that form the composition. Most photographers align the eyes to the first horizontal line from top. This will put emphasis on the eye, frame the whole face, and leave no details out of the picture.
The Rule of Thirds is commonly used in landscape photography as well. If the foreground contains any subjects, they should be placed in compliance with the rule (usually along vertical lines). As for the background, horizons are usually aligned to one of the horizontal lines. A landscape scene may contain fields, mountain or clouds. In this case, a more general approach is recommended in which the different parts of the scene are considered as layers to be separated in the different sections (thirds) of the photograph.
Despite being important to the composition, some flexibility should exist when applying this rule. For instance, if you align everything in perfect compliance with the rule just to discover that an essential part will not be included inside the frame, slightly moving the viewfinder to include all the details will not cause any damages. Another example is when trying to create the mirroring effect using reflections. A more conventional alignment in this case is to put the line separating the real from the reflection exactly at the center.
The Rule of Thirds is an easy to learn, yet very effective technique. By using it, you will be able to produce photos that are very appealing to the eyes.
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