Danny Schweers

Rule Of Thirds

Rule of Thirds - River Sunset

When you compose an image using the Rule of Thirds, vertical elements in the viewfinder are placed one-third from the left or right edge of the frame, horizontal lines are placed one-third from the top or bottom, and sometimes both.

If you do NOT have strong vertical or horizontal objects in the scene in front of the camera, you can still use the Rule of Thirds by placing significant items one-third from the left or right, one-third from the top or bottom, or both.

For example, in the sunset photo above, the horizon line forms a line one-third from the bottom edge. Also, the brightest part of the sky, although not a vertical object, is placed one-third from the right edge of the frame.

In the most general terms, the Rule of Thirds says to compose your image so that items are not dead center. Don’t use the camera like a pistol! You are not shooting a bullseye; you are placing an image within a frame. You are composing an image.

In general, composing an image makes it more appealing, more interesting, more eye-catching. It can be the difference between art and a random snapshot. Using the Rule of Thirds and other compositional rules will give your photography a time-tested classic look. But maybe you do not want that look! In that case, create your own rules!

Rules of composition are never mandatory. The Rule of Thirds can be helpful when strong vertical or horizontal elements are in the scene being photographed, or when you are wondering where to place an object in the viewfinder. There are many other rules of composition. The Rule of Thirds is one of the easiest to use.

Rule of ThirdsSome people struggle with the idea of placing objects in the viewfinder. The idea here is turn the camera to the left or right, to point it a bit upwards or downwards, so that objects move in the frame to the position you want them. Most people know how to get objects in the center of the photo. This is the next step, moving the camera so that objects in the viewfinder move around in the frame. This is composing the image within the camera frame.

Many people find struggle trying to visualize where the one-third lines might be. Many cameras have the option of turning on the one-third lines so you can see them as you are taking photos. My advice is simply to imagine where the one-third lines are. You can be off a bit! Besides, you can always crop your image in post-processing to align elements exactly, if you are an exacting kind of person. Sometimes I am!

Can you see how I used the Rule of Thirds in this portrait? The face is centered 1/3 line from the left, and the eyes are aligned with the 1/3 line from the top.

You can consider the four spots where the lines cross to be the “sweet spots” of the image rectangle. Even if there are no vertical or horizontal lines in the viewfinder, you can still move your camera so that the most important element in the scene is centered at one of these sweet spots.

Click here to see all the posts in Danny’s “Take Better Photos” blog.

Examples

All photos copyright Danny N. Schweers unless otherwise noted.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai, published sometime between 1829 and 1833. The big wave is centered one-third from the left and from the top while Mount Fuji is one-third from the bottom and right. You can argue that Mt. Fuji is not EXACTLY at the sweet spot. Why isn’t it?
Rule of Thirds - Calming Mule
Most digital SLR cameras produce images that have 2×3 proportions. Horizontal images will be two units tall and three units wide, perfect for 4×6-inch prints or 12×18-inch prints. In this photo of a mule, you can see a very strong vertical line one-third from the right. The mule fills two-thirds of the frame, which is a square. This image was featured in Your Daily Photograph.
Full Moon With Clouds. The moon is one-third from the top and from the right.
The body of this catbird is centered one-third from the right, facing into the image. I could have placed the bird’s eye in the top right sweet spot. Would that be a better image?
Four Corners, Navaholand, Utah. The horizon line is one-third from the top. The wall is, more or less, one-third from the bottom. The people’s torsos fit nicely into the middle third of the image.
Baltimore Tunnel. Two of the cars are at the intersections of lines, and the vanishing point is one-third from the bottom. With a little cropping, the vanishing point could be placed exactly at the lower left sweet spot. Would that be better?
Red-eye flight back to Philadelphia from Death Valley. My wife’s face is centered one-third from the right and the porthole of the plane is nearly one-third from the left.
Light painting of an egg on a steel plate. While the egg is not exactly centered in the upper-left sweet spot, its shadow is centered on the lower-left sweet spot.
Father and son in river, Wimberley, Texas, 1984. In addition to the wonderful light and the handsome subjects, this image uses both Rule of Thirds and Lines to Corners.
Father and son in river, Wimberley, Texas, 1984. In addition to the wonderful light and the handsome subjects, this image uses both Rule of Thirds and Lines to Corners. I love the way the father looks at his son, and how his son looks at us. One reason the father has strong arms and hands is because he is a potter by trade, turning mud on wheels.
After using the Rule of Thirds, it can become automatic. That may be what is going on here. I walked quietly past my wife as she lay sleeping and was impressed by the light falling on her and the contrast between her and the wide-awake dog. So I got my camera. Afterwards, I cropped the image to a square format and, with a little tweaking, invoked the Rule of Thirds. Now I wonder if I have been shooting Rule of Thirds for so long it has by-passed my consciousness and I just see it without thinking about it. To put it another way, it could be that I was impressed with this scene because it obeyed the Rule of Thirds.
Woman looking east from Lincoln Memorial towards the Washington Monument. The woman’s torso is placed 1/3 from the left. The left edge of that massive stone column goes right down the middle of the photo, splitting it in two, creating a frame within the frame as seen below. In that frame within the frame is the top of the woman’s torso, the Washington Monument, the sky, and the reflecting pool. Within that smaller frame, the woman’s torso is 1/3 from the right. Also, furthering the geometric regularity of the image, the top of her head and the top of the monument are on a diagonal within the frame within the frame. Does this make it a good composition? Geometries are one thing; good images, another. What I find surprising here is how useful the Rule of Thirds can be when cropping an image.
Detail of above photo, the frame within the frame.

Click here to see how one photographer used the Rule of Thirds and Lines to Corners.

Click here to see all the posts in Danny’s “Take Better Photos” blog.

 

 

DannySchweers.com

Danny Schweers teaches photography lessons in and around Wilmington, Delaware. To learn more, click here to contact him.

Categories of Posts