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Please don’t be afraid when you come across the term Rule of Thirds. To be honest, it literally almost blew my socks off but I’m brave enough to do my own research and with a little bit of pedagogy techniques that I’ve learnt so far, I believe its time to reveal to you the Rule of Thirds For Dummies.

For your information, this article is placed on the Jargon Buster category as well as In depth photography category just in case you need to share with others or as your future reference. Cheers!

What is it?

It’s nothing big actually. If you have seen lots of pictures in your life and you’ve tried to mimic a few of those, you might probably have already applied the ’scary’ Rule of Thirds. To be specific, in most cases we will put the subject in the centre of frame (noted B in the diagram below), however the Rules of Thirds (simplified as ROT) defies that fact. It’s better if we illustrate it this way (see the picture below).

Diagram (above): Sample frame of a picture

So, with ROT, we now have the ability to change the way we present our pictures and our composition, by putting the subject around the section of A and C (noted in the diagram above). Here are two examples:

Credit: Photo by Mike Baird

Credit: Frangipani on polished stones by afby – Buy this picture

See, have not we told you that it’s actually nothing? And you might have already applied these rules prior reading this article : ) Now, what we need is to learn when to use it. This is probably the best part of it.

When to use it?

Since we had enough of memorizing much more important stuff in life, we have summarized the use of ROT. Only two, easy right?
1. Showing perspective

Perspective is defined as the appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer. ROT comes into play when you want to show the depth of field and/or perspective element in a picture.

If you learn Technical drawing, in perspective section, you will at some point come across the term vanishing point. It is a point where all subjects will meet at one point at infinity (Wow, that’s heavy). Let us see an example by what we mean by using ROT to show the perspective elements in a picture.

Credit: Indian Railways by prakhar

The picture above shows a perspective view with a vanishing point (but less of a subject), where the railways start to disappear from the horizon. In order to combine ROT, perspective mode with vanishing point with an interesting subject is quite challenging.

It requires a bit of luck and skills to pre-imagine what the picture you would like to get. However, keep practising and we sure one day you will get what you want.

Oh, and please share with us if you have interesting pictures on LENSA flickr group or leave the link at the comment section below.

2. Showing a point of direction/interest

Again, from the picture below, it is a good example for the usage of ROT in showing a point of direction as well as interest. If you look at the picture carefully, it will tell you two things:

• something is going on the right side of the picture
• the photographer and his equipent is the main highlight of this picture

Credit: Photo by Mike Baird

Practical use

The picture below is taken by our editor, Rafie while a random band performing at the high street in Cardiff. Despite taking the picture from the front, what he did is to have a picture in his head what kind of picture he would like to produce. After that, he took a walk to the side of the band and took few shots.

This is another way to use ROT where you are showing lines of people or instrumentation in a picture. To the left of the picture is nothing while on the right, it is where the subject or point of interest in the picture. What don’t you give a try today?

What now?

Now you know what ROT is and its usage, it’s now time to put that knowledge in good use. Now rules are meant to be broken, and the ROT is just a helpful tool in composition, you are not dictated by it. Depending on your picture and subject, placing a subject in the middle of the frame may also work.

In the future, we will show you how to play around with the ROT vertically and horizontally. Share with us your pictures at our flickr group and we will find some time to comment on it. Until next time, happy snapping!

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