Composition: Rule of Thirds

Hello again!

If you’ve done any research or learnin’ about photography, you’ve probably heard about “Rule Of Thirds.” While most rules are meant to be broken, this one really is useful to know. 

Rule of Thirds is one of the most basic compositional concepts. It’s the idea that your frame is broken up into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. It’s best to have the most interesting parts of the image fall on those lines of thirds. It’s a fun little trick that will instantly make your photos more interesting!

Let’s take a look at a few examples!

Here, you can see the real action of the image is where this couple has their faces together, and I have placed that on the intersection of two lines. The concept is that this image is more interesting with the subject off-center, than if it was directly centered.

Again, in this example I’ve placed the couple near the lower horizontal and left vertical lines. In this example the couple is not placed directly on the intersection of those two lines, and that’s perfectly fine. Applying this “Rule of Thirds” is something you just eyeball; I don’t want you guys out there trying  to precisely measure for this while you’re shooting. Just start trying to imagine those thirds lines there.

To practice this technique, you can select “Grid View” in your camera’s menu. Your camera will show you these lines of thirds by superimposing a grid over what you see through your viewfinder. After a little while, go ahead and turn that off because, again, this is just another flavor of composition to experiment with, not something to worry about measuring precisely. 

Get out there and take this trick for a spin, then share it on social media and tag #NSPphotoacademy- we’ll be eagerly waiting to see how you use the Rule of Thirds!