The world would be boring if every photo were a straightforward shot with the subject perfectly centered. Variety makes life more interesting. This rule draws lines that divide an image into thirds horizontally and vertically. You can often place your subject onto one of those lines to make the photo more interesting, but it’s stronger to compose an entire scene while dividing the landscape into thirds.

Or: A Guide of Thirds and Halves

Take a moment to look at this first photo. What would you say it’s a picture of? Many people say it’s a picture of a trail, but those people are missing a lot of the photo. This is a picture of a forest, which is made more interesting by a trail that splits the frame neatly in half. The trail creates a symmetry in the forest - which is to say, it cuts the image into two halves that are similar. Also, the vanishing point of the trail is halfway up the frame, which establishes a horizon line right in the middle. While the forest fills 2/3 of the frame, it’s the mixture of thirds and halves that makes this a good shot.

The trail also works as a leading line to guide the viewer into the forest.

Here’s another example, this time with a horizontal orientation. Looking at the horizontal lines first, you can see that the bottom line separates the foreground from the background. The top line separates the background mountain from the sky. By keeping the background feature in the bottom 2/3 of the photo and allowing the featured peak to push above it, the dramatic jut of the mountain is emphasized. The vertical lines divide the photo into three obvious pieces: tree, mountain, tree. One natural tendency is to set the tree trunks directly on the grid lines because of the rule of thirds. The trees are still organized into their own sections and fill the left and right thirds of the frame. They don’t have to sit directly on the grid to fit into the concept of thirds.

Remember that “thirds and halves” is a guide to taking better pictures, not a rule that requires strict adherence at all times.

To continue, I need to be clear that this is not a picture of a mountain. This is a picture of four friends watching the sun set in a national park. With that said, the mountain juts above the horizon and crosses into the top third of the image. The lowest third of the image can be broken into another set of thirds to show that the hikers’ heads rise above the “horizon” just like the peak of the mountain.

Slicing the image vertically would show that the hikers occupy the middle third, but balance the two halves. Again, thirds and halves.

One side note on framing: The pink lines make it clear that the trees are not perfectly balanced around the mountain. Natural scenes are often imbalanced. Because this is a photo of hikers, I chose to balance the image around the hikers rather than the trees.

One last example here: The gray grid divides the photos into thirds. The sky is the top third, the mountains are the middle third, and the foreground and the valley is mostly in the lower third. Just like the previous photo, you can divide this one further into more thirds and halves - but in this photo, I’ve circled some points of intersection.

In the bottom third of the photo - halfway up - a hiker is visible. He’s positioned exactly one third of the right edge of the frame. Above that, the second green circle is exactly halfway between the top and bottom of the photo. It’s one third of the way from the right edge. Where these lines intersect, the mountains give way to the valley below.

The prominent peaks are on the top line, one third from the top of the frame. There’s something important each place the lines cross each other.

It’s easy to draw a mental tic-tac-toe board over the scene in front of you. Use that to get comfortable with dividing the landscape into thirds. As your compositional skills improve, you’ll be able to start using halves of thirds and thirds of halves to make your photos much, much more interesting. You just have to remember that variety is what makes photos interesting, and that the “rule” of thirds is actually a guideline to aid in composition.

This is a great time to read my guide to practicing photography, even if you’ve read it before. There are only a small handful of simple rules for photography. The difficult part is applying those basic rules consistently, and the only way to do that is practice thoughtfully and frequently. If you’ve read the practice tips recently, you’re ready for another lesson. After thirds and halves, it’s time to learn about depth.