What is the rule of thirds in photography?

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What is the rule of thirds in photography?

There are a lot of people who think that photography is just about holding a camera and placing a good lens at it. However, the truth is entirely different from what it looks. In order to pursue better photography skills, one needs to learn certain rules associated with it. One such rule is the rule of thirds. This is a very prominent rule to be applied in photography. Almost every photographer uses this particular rule to get the best composition and ultimately for the best pictures.

The first thing that you need to understand is that it is actually a very important rule to be followed and every photographer should learn how to implement it. Also, if you have applied the rule of thirds to the process of clicking up the pictures, it would result in some great pictures. At the same time, one should have this thing in their mind that while clicking pictures, it is not compulsory to apply the rule of thirds, as it is not applicable for every technique and one could get good pictures without it also. In the section below, we have discussed more this rule.

About rule

If we talk about the category of the technique in which it could be placed, then it is called as composition techniques. If you talk about the initials of photography, then this is a very important technique to be learned. The best part about this technique is that it could be applied to almost everywhere and one could really produce good pictures with the help of it. It is not that, you have to apply it everywhere, but if you have started photography, this rule would be your savior.

The technique

There is a very simple technique involved in this rule. It is basically the division of a particular picture into parts, in one’s mind. There are two horizontal and two vertical lines that could be used for this division. Once you have divided the picture in your mind, you could put the entire important element in that scene. The main idea behind this technique is that the picture that has elements off center is better than the pictures that contain all the elements in its center.

Also, the important thing is that, if you know how to use the rule of thirds, you could easily turn a bad looking picture into a good one. Even the spaces that are not in use and are not found useful by a lot of photographers, can be used in a better way. The benefits that you get after applying it are actually the reason that all the photographers use this rule as the go-to element in their initial days.

The method

Now that, we know what it really means, it is time to know how it is implemented. The first thing that we want to mention here is that you really need to learn about this term in technical terms. We could not say that it is extremely easy, but once you have it, you could easily apply it, whenever and wherever you want.

When you are clicking a photograph, you should first look at the frame closely. Once done that, you need to think about the important elements that should be there in the photo. Now that you have decided, which particular element is important, you need to put them towards the lines or the intersection of the imaginary grid that you have formed. Lining them perfectly is not required as long as they are close to each other.

One important thing that you need to keep in your mind here is that this rule might require you to move a bit. This is, however, good for you, as you could find a better composition of the picture that you are going to click. Also, even if you are not using the rule of thirds, this habit will force you to look at things more carefully and to observe things from a better perspective.

The best part is that there are some cameras that have this feature that could allow your phone to create a grid map. If you have this camera with you, then you are free from the guesswork. This will help you with creating the positions of your photos in a better way.

Points where it could be applied

As we have mentioned above, that the rule of thirds could not be applied in every photography. So, here is one of the examples, where you could actually apply it.

The most popular genre, where this particular rule is applied is a landscape. As we mentioned already in the method above that there are certain important elements that need to be included and once you have decided what to include, you just need to shift it towards the lines or the intersection of the grid. In the majority of the landscape shots, the horizon is set towards the center of the frame.

However, this is not the correct way. If you do the positioning in this way, it could give the picture a split effect, which is not good. Try to shift the horizon towards one of the horizontal lines. One could add other objects too that could complement the picture in a good way. Make sure that whatever add on the image you are using should go well with the image.

So, this was all that you could know about the rule of thirds and the things related to it. With all the points that are mentioned above, one could clearly get an idea about this particular rule of photography. Also, these points tell us the importance of this rule and how a photograph becomes good with the application of this rule. This is one single rule of photography that could be even adopted by a beginner also. It is just that, you should learn the method and then the way in which it is implemented.

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