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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Useful Photography Tip

The Lazy Way Around the Rule of Thirds in Photography

Chris Gampat
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05/16/2021
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon RF 28-70mm f2 L USM Sponsored Portraits f2.5, ISO 800, 1-50s,Canon EOS R,

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Technically speaking, the photo above could be awful according to the rule of thirds. When you first start out in photography, you probably center your subject. It’s inevitable. And it’s also just aesthetically the most pleasing until we start to learn more. In truth, ignorance is bliss. But you’ve probably never realized something really fascinating about the rule of thirds. However, I think that all the great photographers who came before us and shot film surely did. You’d probably even know this if you worked with early digital. The truth is that most photographers end up using the focusing points closer to the center anyway. Why? According to the rule of thirds, your subjects should more or less be just off-center. In the most basic sense, that’s the lazy way around the rule.

If you like this post, consider picking up a book on the Rule of Thirds in photography. It’s bound to help you out even more.

The Rule of Thirds

Fact: if artificial intelligence told you that your image was bad because you centered your subject, you’d probably wonder why. It would instead tell you to put your subject in the rule of thirds. But an AI has no concept of emotion or moment. However, lots of AI and useful photography tips tell you to compose based on the rule of thirds. So let’s look at it.

This graph right above shows you the rule of thirds. According to this, you’re supposed to compose along those lines and the intersections. Those are just general rules to how to compose your scenes. This can be done in-camera or by cropping later on. But think of it like tic-tac-toe. When you’re playing, you always want the center spot. It gives you the most advantage. And like tic-tac-toe, the rule of thirds is telling you to go for the center. But you’re also going just off of it. Alternatively, you could look at the center as an extensive area of the frame.

Could you think of this as a bullseye instead? Not really. A bullseye is the dead center of a target. The rule instead wants you to go for precision instead of accuracy. What do I mean by that? It wants you to repeatedly get your subject in the areas around those intersections. It doesn’t need to be in the exact spot each and every time. That’s the difference between precision and accuracy. 

Composing

An example of using the rule of thirds as well as selective focus to define depth.

The rule of thirds doesn’t take a bunch of other things into consideration, though. For starters, we mentioned the moment and emotion above. But there’s also composing by the depth of field. And color. You can use them all together to create a more effective photo.

But essentially, when you think about it, consider rethinking the rule. Don’t call it that. Rename as “just off-center.” If you’re using continuous autofocus, tracking, and center point focus, you can basically focus and recompose the camera. The camera will track the subject as you move it around. Of course, that’s providing that your subject is staying still. Still not understanding? 

Try This

  • Set your camera to the center autofocus point 
  • Turn on focus tracking
  • Turn on continuous autofocus
  • Turn on the rule of thirds overlay grid
  • Center your subject in the frame
  • Focus on a subject and keep the focus locked
  • Slightly move your camera until your subject is in one of the intersection points of the frame.
  • Adjust to taste

That’s all you need to do. It’s the positively most lazy way around the rule of thirds. But in the most rudimentary sense, it’s also the most effective.

AI artificial intelligence camera center color composing composition depth of field images rule of thirds
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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