I’d heard Photography People say “rule of thirds” long before I learned what it actually was, and it always sounded so mysterious. A secret rule that photographers use to make Art instead of Snapshots! I avoided learning about it, because I hate rules, but when I did, I actually found it very useful and now I use it all the time.
The Rule of Thirds isn’t really a rule. It’s more of a guideline. I think most people would agree with that, even people who don’t have my hard-line aversion to rules. It’s one of many possible options for composition. You could call it the Tool of Thirds: another tool in your toolkit for solving a particular problem.
Where should I put my center of interest?
The problem the Rule of Thirds seeks to solve is this: “Where should I put the center of interest in my image?”
The most obvious way to compose a picture is to put the center of interest right smack in the middle. This is what most people do if they haven’t thought about the composition. The problem is that this arrangement can be static, meaning it doesn’t get people’s eyes moving around the frame. The viewer looks at the middle and then they’re done. In a dynamic composition, by contrast, you lead people’s eyes all around the image, from the center of interest, to other areas on the page, back to the center of interest, all over the place.
So, where’s a more dynamic place to put the center of interest?
If it’s not going to go right in the middle of the page, the Rule of Thirds suggests: how about a third of the way in?
How to Use the Rule of Thirds
Divide your paper into thirds, horizontally and vertically. You will come up with four intersection points.
Place your center of interest at any of those intersection points.
It’s also common to put the horizon line at or near one of the Rule of Thirds horizontal lines.
Practical Applications
In reality, I don’t draw Rule of Thirds gridlines on my paper before I paint. Instead, I tend to use the guideline before or the actual painting, such as:
- When taking a reference photo: My camera has Rule of Thirds gridlines that I can turn on when composing the shot. (This also helps me get my horizons straight.)
- When editing my reference photo: My photo editing software has Rule of Thirds gridlines, too. This allows me to keep the Rule of Thirds in mind when cropping.
- When pre-planning/thumbnailing: I’ve been known to draw rough Rule of Thirds guidelines on a small thumbnail when planning a composition.
- When editing a painting: You can always crop your painting in postproduction. An analog way of doing this is to literally cut off the edges of your painting or hide them under a mat. Even Winslow Homer did it!
If I do use the Rule of Thirds in my undersketch, I will tend to measure and draw a dot at the intersection where I plan to put something, not draw out the whole lines. A little dot is easier to hide.
Alternatives to the Tool of Thirds
The “Not Here” Windowpane
Another, simpler way I have seen this same idea described is in Powerful Watercolor Landscapes by Catherine Gill and Beth Means, in their discussion of where to place the “what.” (They call the focal point the “what” as in “what is this a painting of?”) There, they just draw lines across the vertical and horizontal middle of the page and say: Don’t put it there. Anywhere else is fine.
This is the exact same idea as the Rule of Thirds, which guides you to place your center of interest in the middle of those four panes. It might feel more intuitive to you if you are inclined to think of lines on the page as where you shouldn’t paint instead where you should. It might also be easier to measure/eyeball halves instead of thirds.
Golden Mean
There’s nothing particularly special or magic about one-third of the way into the page, and some people argue that it’s effective only because it approximates the Golden Mean. This is a different “grid” that’s actually a spiral based on the Fibonacci sequence. The cool thing about this spiral is that it’s frequently found in nature (for example, snails’ shells.)
You can orient the spiral any way you want in the frame, but your center of interest would be at the smallest point with the most lines. This happens to put it about a third of the way in from any corner, just like the Rule of Thirds.
I like the idea of the golden mean, but in practice I find it hard to use because I can’t quickly eyeball it or draw it freehand.
Just Putting It In the Middle
Just because “right in the middle” is most people’s first instinct doesn’t mean it’s always wrong. While pushing yourself to consider other placements can help you come up with fun, surprising new compositions, sometimes an image just calls out to be totally balanced and to have the center of interest in the middle.
This is why I think of this as a tool, not actually a rule. You aren’t “breaking the rules” by putting your center of interest in the middle, or at another point. You are simply using a different tool instead: the tool of symmetry or balance.
If you’re unsure where to place your center of interest, however, the Rule of Thirds can be an easy shortcut that gives you Pretty Good results most of the time.