The Ultimate Beginner's Guide for Street Photography 3 - The rule of thirds

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide for Street Photography 3 - The rule of thirds


This guide is not useful only to street photographers. There are many other photographers who use this rule despite from what category of photographers they are.

One of the most well-known rules of photographic composition is the "Rule of thirds"

The RoT (Rule of Thirds) is one of the first things that I have learned about in my first steps as a photographer. It is the base of well balanced and interesting shots. I am not saying that this rule is important if you want to have your images balanced. However, I think that if you want to be able to break the rules, you must first learn them and work on them. You then might be able to understand the difference between your shots with rules and without them.

What is the Rule of Thirds?

To understand the rule first of all you must take a picture and break it into thirds. Horizontal and vertical.
This will help you understand more effectively the rules.

From the beginning till the end of your shot, you should have those lines in your mind and let them help you make the frame easier. You might find those lines into the viewfinder of your camera too, or even at the liveview.

If you got this, you will identify 4 parts of the image were you should consider and line your points of interest as you frame your image. I use it to line the horizon of my shots. This is a helpful trick if you want your frame to be aligned.

The theory says that if you place points of interest along the lines, your photo becomes more balanced, plus it will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. It is known that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally instead of the center of the shot. So using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

Hope you find my guides helpful to make you even better and faster photographers.
I want to thank @mariaentela for her συντακτικό.