What differentiates an amateur photographer and a professional is not the mastery of technical details. A good photographer knows how to compose an image well. There are many rules of composition; we will study one of the most commonly used ones. And that composition rule is called the rule of thirds.
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds means that you have to place your subject at any one-third of the image frame. Most of the cameras these days have an option to display various types of grids. The grid that is the most common is the 3*3 grid. So, the points where the lines meet is the point where your subjects should be placed. You would have to consider other factors along with it. Placing an image randomly on any of the points will not make an image great. Give it some thought on which point would make the most sense.
Here are some tips for you to learn and master this rule.
The Rule of Thirds is based on the fact that the human eye is naturally drawn to a point about two-thirds up a page. Crop your photo so that the main subjects are located around one of the intersection points rather than in the center of the image:
Your landscapes will be optimally pleasing to the eye if you apply the Rule of Thirds when you place your horizon line.
If the area of interest is land or water, the horizon line will usually be two-thirds up from the bottom. Alternately, if the sky is the area of emphasis, the horizon line may be one-third up from the bottom, leaving the sky to take up the top two-thirds of the picture:
As you’re taking an image you would have done this in your mind through your viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot.With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image. Not only this – but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.
Before you snap the picture, imagine your picture area divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically. The intersections of these imaginary lines suggest four options for placing the center of interest for good composition. The option you select depends upon the subject and how you would like that subject to be presented.
Diagonal rule
diagonal rule of thirds
One side of the picture is divided into two, and then each half is divided into three parts. The adjacent side is divided so that the lines connecting the resulting points form a diagonal frame. According to the Diagonal Rule, important elements of the picture should be placed along these diagonals:
Golden Section rule
Golden Section rule of thirds
t has been found that certain points in a picture’s composition automatically attract the viewer’s attention. Similarly, many natural or man-made objects and scenes with certain proportions (whether by chance or by design) automatically please us. Leonardo da Vinci investigated the principle that underlies our notions of beauty and harmony and called it the Golden Section. Long before Leonardo, however, Babylonian, Egyptian, and ancient Greek masters also applied the Golden Section proportion in architecture and art.
To get a clearer sense of these special “Golden” composition points, imagine a picture divided into nine unequal parts with four lines. Each line is drawn so that the width of the resulting small part of the image relates to that of the big part exactly as the width of the whole image relates to the width of the big part. Points where the lines intersect are the “golden” points of the picture:
