The Famous Rule of Thirds in Photography
As you are interested in photography, then you must have heard about the Rule of Thirds. Basically, it relies on how the humans eye perceive a photograph . The rule’s job is to put emphasis on the parts of the photo which will first grab the attention of the eye.
The reason why this rule is very well known is that it is pretty easy to apply. All you need is just to know how you should frame your subject.
A photograph is divided into a 3×3 grid similar to that of thee famous Tic-tac-toe game. This is done by putting four lines (two horizontal and two vertical) each at one third of the photograph, hence the name of the rule. Four intersection points will be formed at the meeting points between each nonparallel pair of lines . In general, the lines together with the intersection points should be used to align the main subjects of your photos so as to have one that complies with the Rule of Thirds.
Photographing at close range will yield a subject that is too big to be framed as a whole. Instead of aligning the subject itself, interesting parts within it are the ones that should be aligned. An interesting example of this case is a closeup portrait where the facial features are the objects that form the composition. Eyes are usually placed along the top horizontal line. This is mainly because eyes are the most important feature of the face, and that by doing so, the rest of the facial features will be well placed inside the photo too.
The Rule of Thirds is commonly used in landscape photography as well. If the foreground contains any subjects, they should be placed in compliance with the rule (usually along vertical lines). As for the background, horizons are usually aligned to one of the horizontal lines. A landscape scene may contain fields, mountain or clouds. These can also be aligned to the lines of thirds and, if possible, separated in different thirds, producing a well composed photograph.
Despite being important to the composition, some flexibility should exist when applying this rule. For instance, if you align everything in perfect compliance with the rule just to discover that an essential part will not be included inside the frame, slightly moving the viewfinder to include all the details will not cause any damages. Another example is when trying to create the mirroring effect using reflections. Here, the mirror line (the line separating the reflection from the real) is usually aligned at the middle.
The Rule of Thirds is an easy to learn, yet very effective technique. By using it, you will be able to produce photos that are very appealing to the eyes.
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