Rule of Thirds Tip.

[andy153]

For beginners out there, quoting Wikipedia :

The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

You can have this grid to switch on and off in Photoshop and Elements and I suppose any other editing software out there where you can define your grids.

In Photoshop you go to Preferences, move down and choose "Guides, Grids & Slices... " Set for Gridline at 33.3 and change the pixels/cm to Percentage. Then change subdivisions to 1.
If you are using a Mac like me then pressing the command and ' keys lays the grid over your picture to check thirds. Repeating the key stroke switches it off. I'm not too sure of the keystroke sequence with Windows but I think it is similar.

This link takes you to the Wikipedia entry where there is an example to illustrate the rule with a grid placed over it. LINK

Hope I'm not teaching granny to suck eggs but I find it useful.

[nirofo]

Yes the thirds grid pattern in Photoshop can be very useful, especially when cropping from a larger frame. Personally I try to use the rule of thirds in the majority of my photo's at the camera to subject copmposing stage, unfortunately there are times when you just don't have the time or the option to frame it the way you'd like it.

nirofo.

[Tugboat]

thankyou Andy for posting this..I will do some reading and see how much the gray matter absorbs!!

[cswift1]

Yes, for some completely mysterious reason, many images simply look more interesting when this rule is followed. I'd love to know exactly what it is about the human brain that makes that so.

That being the case, there are many images I've taken that completely break the "rule" and are equally compelling.

There's an excellent Stieglitz shot (I think) where this guy is walking across a puddle of water, and walking out of the shot! Another rule totally broken. And yet the image is compelling and would be very much less so if the "rules" were followed.

My whole take on this is similar to what the professional tennis players probably went through: in the beginning, they were surly taught all the rules of how to hold the rackette, etc., and this is a good thing. We need to learn the basics, understand the template. But at some point, the pro players break many of these rules. See some of the more radical grips that pros use nowadays, grips that were once not even dreamed of.

It's the same with us photographers. Know the basics, and after you're comfortable with them, forget them forever.