Can someone give me a very basic explanation of the Rule of Thirds?

Shoot with your subject roughly a third into the picture, not centered.
 
Depends what camera you have but some can overlay a thirds grid in the EVF and LCD screen so you can see how the RoTs relates to actual scenes.

The rule can work wonderfully but it should be looked on as more a set of guidelines and there are plenty of excellent images that have no regard to the rule.

Dave
 
Yes, IGNORE IT!

The rule of thirds was originally an artificial device used to teach perspective to student artists.

Sadly it has become a whipping post for competition judges and has no real place in the world of photography.
 
Somelier said:
Yes, IGNORE IT!
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With respect I disagree - don't ignore it but simply be aware of it and use it when you want and discard it when you want...some compositions benefit from it and some benefit by ignoring it :)
 
Somelier said:
Yes, IGNORE IT!

The rule of thirds was originally an artificial device used to teach perspective to student artists.

Sadly it has become a whipping post for competition judges and has no real place in the world of photography.
Click to expand...

So why does everyone bang on about it still?
 
It comes from the 'golden mean' or 'golden ratio'. Which some Greeks decided worked well for a lot of stuff in art and architecture after studying various things in nature; crustacean shells, etc.

If you fire up the Googlemachine you'll probably find that Cartier-Bresson shot with a big spiral drawn over it. The spiral is derived from the golden ratio and happens to intersect a lot of 'points' on that photo. (So people on Flickr claim it's perfectly composed).

It's good to understand it, but don't live by it. Compose your photos based on what looks good for the subject. Never once have I thought, oh, I'll put that on a 3rd, and try to keep this bit on the opposite 3rd, when composing a shot.
 
Jayst84 said:
It comes from the 'golden mean' or 'golden ratio'. Which some Greeks decided worked well for a lot of stuff in art and architecture after studying various things in nature; crustacean shells, etc.

If you fire up the Googlemachine you'll probably find that Cartier-Bresson shot with a big spiral drawn over it. The spiral is derived from the golden ratio and happens to intersect a lot of 'points' on that photo. (So people on Flickr claim it's perfectly composed).

It's good to understand it, but don't live by it. Compose your photos based on what looks good for the subject. Never once have I thought, oh, I'll put that on a 3rd, and try to keep this bit on the opposite 3rd, when composing a shot.
Click to expand...

Haven't you? I have many times, I've also moved my camera position slightly to include lead in lines and moved my lighting to give lead in shadows too. The placement of a subject in a frame can give a dynamic rather than static feel to the shot.

Composition rules (guidelines) have come about as a result of hundreds of years of examination of what is aestetically pleasing to the eye and whilst not adhering to them will not destroy an image, their use can (and often does) improve it!
 
EdBray said:
Haven't you? I have many times, I've also moved my camera position slightly to include lead in lines and moved my lighting to give lead in shadows too. The placement of a subject in a frame can give a dynamic rather than static feel to the shot.

Composition rules (guidelines) have come about as a result of hundreds of years of examination of what is aestetically pleasing to the eye and whilst not adhering to them will not destroy an image, their use can (and often does) improve it!
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Couldn't agree more with this, you can't fight human nature and what is pleasing to the human eye. Certain things are pleasing and certain things just dont work. For example we here in Europe read left to right, in other cultures they read right to left, this effects the way we look at images, its something we dont realise but its in our subconcious. Many landscape shots are effected by this. There are many other things, but the rule of thirds is useful so that an image is balanced and not to heavy in one particular direction. Of course there are situations where it can be ignored but it is a usful tool to think about during composition and shouldnt be ignored IMO.
 
So instead of calling it the Rule of Thirds we should call it the Guide of Thirds :)
 
The funniest thing I find about the rule of thirds is how many people get upset about the sole mention of it! It's like everything. Learn what it is. Use it. It's an excellent composition tool. Same as DOF. Learn it. Use it. It's makes for very interesting photographs. It doesn't mean use it in EVERY photograph. Use it when it makes sense to use it. For me, the reason there's such a big deal about the rule of thirds is that you can see it being both intentionally and unintentionally being used in a lot of photographs. Even in some (just some!) photographs that intentionally break the rule, they have inadvertantly obeyed by it in another area of the same photograph :lol:
 
Somelier said:
Yes, IGNORE IT!

Sadly it has become a whipping post for competition judges and has no real place in the world of photography.
Click to expand...

I agree! And what about the other "rule" these judges seem to live by....don't put the horizon line in the middle except for reflections? They don't even look at the photo as it was intended, they just go straight into "rule quoting" mode and say you can't have the horizon there....nil points! Photography is meant to be an art form - not a book of rules! :lol:

(stands back and lights blue touchpaper....)

Cheers
 
For some reason the golden mean/ rule of thirds just works. It's mathsy magic and is everywhere you look (in nature and man made buildings etc). Studies have also been done where subjects look at images that either conform to it or not, and more people prefer pics that use the rule, though they couldn't really explain 'why'. Mathsy magic.
 
EdBray said:
Haven't you? I have many times, I've also moved my camera position slightly to include lead in lines and moved my lighting to give lead in shadows too. The placement of a subject in a frame can give a dynamic rather than static feel to the shot.

Composition rules (guidelines) have come about as a result of hundreds of years of examination of what is aestetically pleasing to the eye and whilst not adhering to them will not destroy an image, their use can (and often does) improve it!
Click to expand...

I mean that I compose my shots based on what looks good to me at the time, and what works for what I'm trying to convey. Often the result may conform to any number of 'rules' but I certainly wasn't stood there thinking, hmm, I'll try applying such a rule to this, see if that works.
 
I'd say I use thirds in about 90% of my shots and cropping to put a focal point in the photo on a third noticeably improves the shot most of time - in Lightroom you can use the before and after tool to test the theory.

Phil
 
I generally follow the rule and occasionally it does improve a shot and sometimes for me it makes no difference. I do it to comply with the expected which on reflection is a bit sad. It has it's place but a lot of the time it just creates empty space which adds nothing to the subject. Basically just use it as you see fit, take a shot centered, take it off centre as well... then use the one you like!
 
dougiew said:
I agree! And what about the other "rule" these judges seem to live by....don't put the horizon line in the middle except for reflections? They don't even look at the photo as it was intended, they just go straight into "rule quoting" mode and say you can't have the horizon there....nil points! Photography is meant to be an art form - not a book of rules! :l


All 'good' art has to adhere to some principle. Throw away the rule book and you end up with something like Tracy Emin's bed, lol...
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I think it's good to know about the rule / guide of thirds as it teaches you to explore other things than putting a subject bang in the centre of an image. However, as others have said, putting subjects on the thirds doesn't neccesarily mean your shot will be of a better composition - for example, some shots demand strict symmetry, and others may work because of large areas of negative space - obvisouly the examples are endless.

I am always surprised though, that no one ever mentions that colours/tonal range have an incredible influence on the balance, dynamic and flow of an image as well as the obvious geometry in a scene.
 
If you're shooting for competitions it may pay to appease the judges...
If you're shooting for yourself, do whatever looks right to you - it's your bloody photograph...
 
Arkady said:
If you're shooting for competitions it may pay to appease the judges...
If you're shooting for yourself, do whatever looks right to you - it's your bloody photograph...
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Rob, that wee short phrase from you sums it up exactly for me not just for the rule of thirds but for a lot of other stuff too. :thumbs:

Tommy.
 
Generally speaking I find the majority of my shots sit a lot better to me when they are following the rule of thirds, however that's not to say I strictly use it all the time at the expense of missing important parts out of the image that would have otherwise been lost had I followed the rule.
 
It comes from the 'golden mean' or 'golden ratio'. Which some Greeks decided worked well for a lot of stuff in art and architecture after studying various things in nature; crustacean shells, etc.

If you fire up the Googlemachine you'll probably find that Cartier-Bresson shot with a big spiral drawn over it. The spiral is derived from the golden ratio and happens to intersect a lot of 'points' on that photo. (So people on Flickr claim it's perfectly composed).

It's good to understand it, but don't live by it. Compose your photos based on what looks good for the subject. Never once have I thought, oh, I'll put that on a 3rd, and try to keep this bit on the opposite 3rd, when composing a shot.
Click to expand...


James - I think you are confusing the rule of thirds with Fibonachi's spiral.
 
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