What is the rule of thirds and why do photographers use it?

The rule of thirds is something that’s been around for a long time. The word rule is a little misleading. It is actually more of a guideline in a rule. in fact, it is a guide. The composition of a photograph is very subjective. But one has to agree that there are some compositions there are more appealing than others. It is often difficult to articulate why one photograph may look better than another one when all that has changed is the composition. Most often this is related to the way we look at everything in the world. Your brain has a way to determine how it’s going to look at a scene and in what order is going to consume it. There are countless factors at work here. There are some simple ones such as how your eye will automatically look at the brightest part first and then work its way from there as well as leading lines. Leading lines simply referred to shapes that are made up by all the components in a photograph that form shapes such as triangles or lines where the eye is automatically guided by these lines to arrive at a particular place in the photograph. These are two very simple examples but there are countless other factors the influence the way you look at a photo. The rule of thirds was introduced as a basic guideline to help photographers and painters with the type of overlay that will help you get started when designing an image whether that be a photograph or a painting.

The rule of thirds is actually very simple. A photograph is divided into 3 columns. This is done by drawing 2 lines from the top to the bottom of the photograph resulting in three columns. Then do exactly the same thing but horizontally, that is, draw 2 lines horizontally in order to end up with three horizontal rows.

The result is that you end up with a photograph with four sections where lines cross. It is very similar to a tic-tac-toe grid that is placed on top of the photograph. Here is an example of what it looks like.

When this grid is placed on top of a photograph, it gives you a guideline as to where your eye is going to look at that photo first.  Now, as I indicated earlier this is only a guide the rule of thirds can definitely be bent and sometimes even broken. Have a look at the two photos below. They are the same photograph only one is cropped using the rule of thirds and the other one is not.  You will see that the subject in these photograph is the small yellow pilot boat.  In the first photo the yellow boat is not actually on any of the lines. In the second photo, the crop has been changed to place the yellow boat on an intersection of lines.  It is important to understand that these are the same photograph.  The only thing that has changed is the crop.

Here are the same photographs but with the lines removed to make it easier to see them.

You will notice that the first image simply looks like a snapshot.  The yellow boat is near the center of the image and it looks ok.  Simply changing the crop or moving the camera to place the yellow boat over an intersecting line makes the photograph more intersting.

The majority of people are going to prefer a photograph cropped using the rule of thirds. There will be a small number of people that will prefer the other photograph and this is why the rule of thirds is simply a guide and not a hard rule. In fact, the rule of thirds is not the only guide that can be used to help you place subjects in a photograph. Below are some samples of other guides that can also be used but the rule of thirds is probably the best known one.

In fact, most cameras will allow you to turn on the rule of thirds on your viewfinder or the LCD panel on the back of the camera. This is a great way to let the camera help you on how you should compose your photograph so that you place your subjects in an area of the photograph that most people will find pleasing. This is a great way for new photographers to start getting into the habit of thinking about composition and where the subjects need to be. This will help you become more accustomed to using this rule. You will find that even when you don’t have the guidelines in your camera switched on , you are going to start to notice that you will automatically start to place your subjects in the correct spots. Again, this is not to say that the rule thirds should be followed every single time. It is just a way to get you to start thinking about the composition of the photograph before you press the button. Most professional photographers don’t have these guides turned on. It is just something that they’ve been programmed to do over and over so it is done automatically by the subconscious. Once you start using the rule of thirds, you might start to receive feedback on the quality of your photography. People will comment that your photos are getting better. They won’t be able to articulate what exactly is getting better just that they like your photographs more than they did before. By implementing the rule of thirds guide, and then some of the more advanced guides, you’ll find that you can influence the person looking at your photograph so that they look at the components that you want them to look at first and then lead them into a separate part of the photograph in order to tell a story.  Overall your photographs will be more interesting and people will spend more time looking at them. So if you haven’t implemented the rule of thirds in your photography , make sure you switch on the template in your camera. If your camera does not have this feature, try to visualise the lines in your viewfinder or in the back of the LCD screen.  I promise it will make you a better photographer.