How to Improve Images With the Rule of Thirds in Photography
There are many rules to photography, but one of the easiest ways for a hobby photographer to improve pictures immediately is to apply the "rule of thirds" to picture composition in photography.
Implementing this technique will increase the visual appeal of your photos.
This visual concept goes way back.
The ancient Greeks documented the artistic principle that there are four areas in any picture to which the eye is naturally drawn.
Locating these areas is simple.
And one of those principles is indeed, the rule of thirds.
Whether you want to compose a horizontal or vertical picture, mentally divide the field of view into three equal horizontal and three equal vertical areas.
This is the equivalent of drawing a tic-tac-toe grid across the field.
The areas will be rectangular, not square.
The important hot spots are the four places where the lines intersect.
Whatever the main object of your photo is to be, try to place it at one of these intersections, rather than in the middle of the composition.
For example, locate a single face at one of the intersections with the persons eyes on the corresponding line.
If you have one person standing, locate them on one of the vertical lines, not in the center.
Essentially, you want to place them "off center.
" Besides, everyone normally places their subject smack dab in the middle, so be different.
This technique can be applied to every type of photography.
In landscape shots, for example, it works well to place the horizon along one of the horizontal lines of the grid.
Then adjust the camera left or right until the primary subject appears at one of the four hot spots.
With photo editing software, like Adobe Photoshop, so easily available, poor shots can often be transformed later by means of careful cropping.
When trimming a picture to improve it, don't take equal portions off each side, but rather find your important subject and crop the picture to place it at one of the grid intersections.
Once you get practice, you want to compose your picture as close to the end result as possible because too much cropping can leave your photo with an unnatural shape.
Now that you know the "rules," the rule of thirds, that is, you can break them.
However, keep in mind that this rule is a rule because, visually, it works.
And you will take better pictures.
Implementing this technique will increase the visual appeal of your photos.
This visual concept goes way back.
The ancient Greeks documented the artistic principle that there are four areas in any picture to which the eye is naturally drawn.
Locating these areas is simple.
And one of those principles is indeed, the rule of thirds.
Whether you want to compose a horizontal or vertical picture, mentally divide the field of view into three equal horizontal and three equal vertical areas.
This is the equivalent of drawing a tic-tac-toe grid across the field.
The areas will be rectangular, not square.
The important hot spots are the four places where the lines intersect.
Whatever the main object of your photo is to be, try to place it at one of these intersections, rather than in the middle of the composition.
For example, locate a single face at one of the intersections with the persons eyes on the corresponding line.
If you have one person standing, locate them on one of the vertical lines, not in the center.
Essentially, you want to place them "off center.
" Besides, everyone normally places their subject smack dab in the middle, so be different.
This technique can be applied to every type of photography.
In landscape shots, for example, it works well to place the horizon along one of the horizontal lines of the grid.
Then adjust the camera left or right until the primary subject appears at one of the four hot spots.
With photo editing software, like Adobe Photoshop, so easily available, poor shots can often be transformed later by means of careful cropping.
When trimming a picture to improve it, don't take equal portions off each side, but rather find your important subject and crop the picture to place it at one of the grid intersections.
Once you get practice, you want to compose your picture as close to the end result as possible because too much cropping can leave your photo with an unnatural shape.
Now that you know the "rules," the rule of thirds, that is, you can break them.
However, keep in mind that this rule is a rule because, visually, it works.
And you will take better pictures.