The rule of thirds

Artists of old discovered it and good photographers always use it to improve their photo-composition images. Take a picture area and divide it into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, where the lines cross in the picture area is a Golden Mean, or the best spot in which to place your main subject of interest as it is the focal point of your image. 

Four spots exist where these lines cross the Upper Left the Lower Left, the Upper Right and the Lower Left parts of the image. Note that all these Golden Mean spots are away from the centre position in the image. Two of the best Golden Mean spots are the Upper Right and the Lower Right because the eye enters the picture frame at the lower left hand corner of the picture frame, travels to the centre of the picture area and then reaches the right hand position where it stops.

One reason the eye enters a picture at the lower left side is because we are taught to read from Left to Right in school. These psychological facts have been proven over time. When you're in an art gallery or art museum that shows the Old Masters paintings, notice how many have the centre of interest, a figure, a haystack, a house, an animal etc in one of these Golden Mean positions in the painting.

Do not place to centers of interest in two Golden Mean positions, especially on opposite sides of the image. The eye will have a lot of trouble as it will keep going back and forth from one centre of interest to the other and will get confused and tired and want to leave the image.

Visualise in the viewfinder in your camera the cross lines of the Rule Of Thirds (Golden Means) and try to place your main subject at a Golden Mean location. Your photographs have more style, interest and impact.

Implied lines hold a picture together - they are not actual lines that you can see in the picture area, they are implied and are made up by the way objects are placed. Actual items or objects do make lines such as, railroad tracks, telephone wires and so on.

These implied lines can actually create a response in various ways: the vertical line denotes dignity, height and strength. Vertical lines are found in trees, tall buildings, fences, people standing up etc. Tall buildings show height, strength and dignity. Tall trees show height and strength in images.

The horizontal line denotes repose, calm, tranquillity and peacefulness, such as a person lying in the grass sleeping, flowers in a field, the flatness of a desert scene. Make your photograph illicit these feelings if you look for them in the picture area and use them in your images.