The Rule of Thirds
Posted by tasultaz on January 7, 2010
The rule of thirds is a common, and one of the most basic, rules in photography. Basically this rule merely states that the view finder is divided into thirds and then your goal, as the photographer, is to avoid the center third of the image. This is the rule at it’s most simplistic form. Allow me illustrate.
Below is one of my images, divided into thirds.
In this image you will see that there are two sets of thirds, the vertical thirds and the horizontal thirds. Which portion you decide to put your focal point is entirely on you. Your goal is to make the image as visually appealing as possible. In this case, I felt that the road had much more character than the plain blue sky, so I position my focal point, the converging lines near the center-top third of the image.
The arrow points to my focal point in this image. If the road had been plain and the sky was filled with puffy white clouds, then my focal point could have been moved to the bottom-center third. We would have seen little of the road and had lots of blue sky and puffy clouds.
As with all rules, this one is not set in stone. By all means, if the image lends itself to being centered, do it.
