Rule of Thirds

I recently received a tip from my filmmaker friend, Alex Wendler, that one of his primary foci when shooting stills is how the rule of thirds interacts with foreground, middle ground, and background of his image.

Say Alex is taking a landscape-orientation photo (where the long edge is along the top/bottom). Alex mentally divides his viewfinder into three horizontal rectangles. He then orients his camera so that the foreground of the image fills the bottom rectangle, the middle ground fills the middle rectangle, and the background fills the top rectangle.

If you’re taking a portrait-orientation photo (where the short edge is along the top/bottom), the process will be flipped by 90 degrees. First, divide your viewfinder into three vertical rectangles. Next, orient your camera so that the foreground of your image roughly fills either the left or right rectangle, the middle ground fills the middle rectangle, and the background fills the remaining rectangle.

 This is not a hard-and-fast rule, and you can break it to capture a special image. However, using this spatial division as a starting place can help to give your photos a more professional look, guide the viewer’s eye through the photograph, establish context for your image, and tell a more complete story.