If you are learning photography and reading books about photography or taking courses, you have probably heard this term by now. It is the most well known and widely talked principle of photography composition. It is also one of the few rules for composing photographs. It’s not necessary to follow rule of thirds every time you shoot. You can have gorgeous shot without applying rule of thirds. Sometimes I find photographers talking about breaking the rule and apply their own. I don’t disagree with this argument and sometimes rules are meant to be broken. But if you want to break the rule, first you have to know what the rule is about and what this rule does to your photographs right? You can’t just say I am breaking the rule of thirds in this photograph without knowing what is rule of thirds. I have shot many beautiful photographs without using rule of thirds principle. OK fair enough, now lets talk about the rule first, and then apply in your composition and break it if you find necessary for your photographs.
What is the Rule of Thirds?
Rule of Thirds and sometimes also referred as Rule of Thirds grids is a photographic composition principle where you break down your photographs into third (both horizontally and vertically) like tic-tac-toe board so that you have 9 equal boxes framed inside your photograph. While you are composing your shot, you will imagine these boxes in your mind watching through viewfinder. Today’s some DSLR cameras allow you to have actual grid on your viewfinder screen. But you may feel it is disturbing as you go along with this rule time and again. Now when you draw rule of thirds grid on your mind, it gives you few important parts (four intersecting points and four lines; horizontal and vertical) of photographs where you should consider placing point of interest so that viewers find it more attractive and natural.
Theory behind the rule of thirds is when you place points of interest of your photographs to the intersection points or along the lines, it will be more balanced and look natural to the viewers. It makes use of natural tendency or the human eye to be more strongly drawn towards these intersections rather than to the center of the shot.
Usually when you shoot portrait photographs, eyes are the natural focus point and you should consider aligning their body to one of the vertical lines.
Likewise when you are shooting landscape, it is good practice to position horizons along with one of the horizontal lines so that photographs look more structured and well balanced.
Even if you can’t frame your subject using rule of thirds during composition, you don’t have to worry anymore. Nowadays there are lots of post processing tool and you can use any of those tools available to you to adjust rule or thirds principle during post processing.
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I usually do not follow these rules when I am out to shoot but like you mentioned, its good to know. Thanks for sharing.
That’s what everybody does and like I said it’s always not necessary to follow these rules. These are just standard guidelines.