Photography Basics: Composition - The Rule of Thirds

(5-10 Minute Read)

Hey Guys! Today’s Blog post will be Part 1 of my tutorial series “Photography Basics: Composition” Here we will break down each compositional technique one at time, explaining what they are, how to apply them to your photography and show you some examples of photographers I really admire, so you get a good idea of how this techniques work visually. As it says in the headline, today we are talking about The Rule of Thirds, but before we get into what this is, I wanted to establish some core definitions of what Composition is and how to identify certain components of your images.

What is Composition? 

Composition is the artistic arrangement of elements in a canvas. Where “Canvas” is the space where your art resides, and “Element” is what you put into the canvas, that makes your artwork.

Composition in Photography?

Composition in photography is the way you arrange or organize the elements you put inside your photograph. Where you decide to place your subject, what you decide to hide from your frame, how close or far are you away from the subject, etc.

Now that we’ve covered this basic definitions, lets move on to our first compositional guideline The Rule of Thirds.

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The Rule of Thirds is a compositional guideline, used to create a more balanced and visually pleasing imagery. It is created when one divides a canvas into thirds vertically and horizontally. This divisions create 4 intersections that are refer to as “Points of Interest” or “Points of Tension” in which the subject is placed to create a more natural and balanced imagery. 

*We often see this in our phones camera but ignore it completely not knowing that it is actually trying to help us make a better image.*

Applying The Rule of Thirds to Your Photography:

One of the most basic uses of The Rule of Thirds, is to place your subject directly into one of the four points of interest. Composing this way will naturally lead the spectators eye into the subject and then wonder around, observing the rest of the image. In this Image by Aaron Smith we can observe the skater on the top left in the peek of its action, and the follow up by looking at the scenery which could be a market plaza in some town. As you can see Aaron creates not only a visually balanced image but also builds a narrative using only this technique. 

In this photograph by Alexandre Souetre, he demonstrates that one is not completely obligated to position the subject directly into a point of interest to apply The Rule of Thirds. Sometimes a little bit of distance from this points will create some type of dynamism, which is great for minimal images like this. Remember the idea is to be a bit “off-ish” to not put your subject in the plain center of the frame, because it will look boring more times than not.

In this portrait by photographer Eugene Smith, we see he purposely puts the closest eye into the top left point, which is something a lot of portrait photographers do because eyes carry the most expression and feel in a photograph.

*Something to point out about the composition in this image is, that Eugene also positions the nun on the left side of the frame where her eyes now suggest an action because of the way she is looking up and beyond the frame. Eugene leaves the right side of the frame empty because it allows for the action to happen and the spectator to follow. Think about what would’ve happen if he positioned the nun on the right side of the frame instead of the left side.*

Using the Verticals:

Now, there is something you might include into your composition with the rule of thirds other than placing the subject in a point of interest. What if we use the Vertical lines to compose our shot? Well if you actually started using the vertical lines to position your subject, instead of the points of interest, it would still work. In the end you’re composing dividing your frame into thirds, and that’s basically the point. In this portrait, Matt Stuart puts the subject (the officer) on the left side of the frame where he is completely isolated from the multitude on the other side of the frame. Taking a great, balanced portrait that actually makes sense.

In this other portrait by photographer Asher Moss he uses the right side of the frame which creates once again dynamism, something that might not happen if the subject was in the center. Also, it incites action when there is literally nothing going on in the background.

Using the Horizon:

If we can use the vertical thirds to compose, what about the horizontal ones? Well photography master Ansel Adams gives it best with this landscape photograph. The horizontal thirds can be used to place the foreground, middle ground and background to create a perfectly balanced landscape and perspective. Something not many landscapes photographers do, but certainly something that can be done to make an image work better.

Now a few more examples: I will leave you with a couple of images from various photographers just to get a better feel for what can be done with The Rule of Thirds. Now remember, this is not actually a rule but a guideline to get better photographs through better composition.

That is it for today’s post, I really hope you enjoyed it and learned a lot from this. I will try to make part two by next week although I don’t guarantee anything. If you wish to learn something else or want to give you input into this tutorial feel free to comment, also please share and subscribe to the mailing list if you would like to receive an email every time I post something new. I’ll see you next time.