Rule of Thirds

It occurred to me recently that I never talked about one of the most basic compositional rules of thumb. The Rule of Thirds is a guideline in composition to help with making your photos more interesting. While the concept is simple, the possibilities are great. If you imagine that your frame has a tic-tac-toe board overlaid on top of it, the lines are where you should be placing your subjects. In other words, your frame is split into 9 equal sections and important compositional elements are placed on these lines or points where the lines intersect. The points themselves are considered power points, meaning that they carry more weight than other parts of the photo.

The facing of your subject will also add to the story you are trying to tell. For instance, if you place a man running on the left third of the frame and he is facing left, then it gives the feeling that he is running away from something. If he is facing right, he is running to something. You can then place other elements on the other side of the frame to support this feeling. You are leading the viewer's eyes either to or from the other side of the frame. Similarly, a bench can be on the left side of the frame and facing to the right to be seen as inviting. If the bench was facing left, it would look more abandoned. You could also give the feeling of something heading away from you (subject back to you and is at the top third of the frame) to the feeling of something heading to you. There are many possibilities from just using the Rule of Thirds and facing.

In the photo above, I wanted to give the sense that the subject was in deep thought. The facing towards the long side of the frame gave me the feeling of being receptive of thoughts or waiting for enlightenment. The people in the background suggested she was in a cafe of sorts. But the noise did not bother her, as per her expression. But if they were actually behind her, the context of the picture changes. It would suggest that the noise did bother her and that she put her back to them so that she can think. It's still the exact same scene, just photographed differently.