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Composition3 min read

LESSON 27

The rule of thirds and its limits

A useful grid, not a law.

IN THIS LESSON

  1. What the rule says
  2. Where it came from
  3. Its limits
  4. In practice: using the grid well

What the rule says

The rule of thirds is a rule of thumb for composing pictures, films, paintings and designs. Imagine the frame divided into nine equal parts by two horizontal and two vertical lines, then place the important elements along those lines or where they cross. The main point is to stop the subject from sitting dead centre and to stop the horizon from cutting the picture into two equal halves. Put the horizon on the upper line to stress the land or sea, on the lower line to stress the sky. Most cameras and phones can show this grid on the screen.

Where it came from

The phrase was first written down by John Thomas Smith in 1797, in his book Remarks on Rural Scenery. He built on a passage by Sir Joshua Reynolds about the balance of light and dark in a painting, and argued that a split of about two thirds to one third was more pleasing than an exact half. His examples were landscapes: about a third land and two thirds sky, or two thirds water to one third land. So the rule began as a painter's proportion, not a grid on a screen. The rule of thirds is often described as a simplification of the golden ratio, about 1.618 to 1, though the source notes little evidence that artists used the golden ratio deliberately.

Its limits

Even early on, people doubted the rule. Writing in 1845, George Field said that following such a rule every time would lead to uniform and monotonous pictures. That warning still holds. Strongly symmetric subjects, such as a doorway, a reflection or a formal portrait, often look best centred; lesson 31 covers that. A small subject in a large empty space can sit almost anywhere if the space is doing the work. And the grid says nothing about light, timing or what the picture means. Treat it as a quick way out of a dull, centred frame, not as a test every picture must pass.

In practice: using the grid well

This section is working practice. In portraits, put the eyes near the upper line, and leave more room on the side the person faces or moves toward. The source describes this same habit for filming moving people. In landscapes, decide which part matters more, sky or ground, and give it two thirds. Try placing a strong element on an intersection, then try it centred and decide honestly which is better. When editing, a crop to thirds can rescue a frame, but every crop throws away pixels, so get close in the camera when you can.

Try it today

  1. 01Turn on the grid in your camera or phone.
  2. 02Shoot one scene with the horizon in the middle, then on the upper line, then on the lower line.
  3. 03Photograph a person with their eyes on the upper line and space in front of their face.
  4. 04Shoot one symmetric subject centred, ignoring the grid.
  5. 05Lay the set side by side and mark which frames the grid helped and which it did not.