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Apparently,  the most popular principle of photographic composition is the ‘Rule of Thirds‘.

This has been discovered by ancient greek artists and has been used by almost every artist/painter since then. It’s also the first thing that beginner photographers start with. The benefit is immediate: As soon as you reshoot your composition according to these rules, you will see how pleasant the photo becomes.

Before proceedeng, I want to remind you that rules are good things to remember, but sometimes breaking them is necessary to achieve more creative results.

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The key idea behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image into thirds (three vertical and horizontal lines) so that you have 9 parts. Like it is shown below:

Many entry-level cameras have the feature of drawing those lines on the camera screen or even in viewfinder. This simplifies the beginner to comply with the rule of thirds more efficietly.

As you’re taking an image, you draw those lines in your imagination. With this grid in mind, key four positions are identified for your composition: the key element of interrest should be placed somewhere near the crossing lines.

Photography rule of thirds

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot – using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

Example of using rule of thirds

Bear in mind, that choosing the right spot among the for cross-points depends on the subject itself. If for example you are shooting a portrait, where the subject is looking on the right side, it is always better to leave more space on the right.

You can start playing with the rule of thirds even with the photos that you have already taken. Choose any of your photos that you think this rule is missing and open it with your favorite photo editing software (Aperture in my case).

You can start cropping your initial photography in such way that the subject is near the one of those four spots. You will be glad with the results. Have a nice cropping!

*One more tip: Using the rule of thirds gives one more benefit in commercial photography: You automatically discover the nice space for putting marketing slogans on it.

Examples