Fractions Are Tricky

or so says my 7 year old...

The only fraction you need to worry about here is 1/3.  The "rule of thirds" is a basic photography concept that can give your photographs some interest!  This isn't just a guideline for photographers.  Anyone who takes any type of picture, whether it be a DSLR camera, a point and shoot camera, or even a camera phone can benefit from this tactic. 

Most cameras offer a grid option that you can choose from your settings menu which places the 'rule of thirds' grid right onto your camera screen.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Now, what does the "rule of thirds" do??  Lets have a look...

Here, I have placed the subject of my photograph (my sunglasses) right in the center.  Yes, it is an adequate picture that shows off my $10 sunglasses -- if you lost sunglasses as much as I do, you'd understand that $10 is a steep price to pay for them. 

Looks pretty good, right?  I mean, its not going to win any prizes or anything, but its a decent black and white of a pair of sunglasses.  Now, lets take a look at our "rule of thirds" grid.

 Here, you can see how the glasses are almost perfectly placed right in the center of the photograph.  Lets take a look at the sunglasses again, this time with the center of the glasses placed at one of our intersecting lines -- One of our "thirds".
 

Its a little more interesting,right?  This would be the photograph where my mom would say, "Thats a really nice photo.  Too bad its not in the middle," and where I would turn my head with an amazing eye roll, thinking all the while "I'm trying to be artsy, mom!", but never actually saying it because... well... It is my mom after all.

 

 So, lets look at the rule of thirds applied to this example.
 



Right.  Here you can see where the center of the glasses is interected by the lines in that top right corner.  Rule of thirds.  Ka-Bam!

But.... but not exactly what we had in mind.  Where is our interest?

I have one last example prepared.  This is really what we are trying to achieve!
 

 Take a look at the glasses and their position in the photo.  They are turned to the side slightly. They may appear to be centered, but check out the focus.  There is a bit of a blur towards the bottom lefthand corner of the photo.  The sharpest point in the photo is again, at the intersection at the top right of the photograph.

 

Lets look at the grid.
 





 

I never knew I owned such interesting sunglasses!

 

Lets hope you have more interesting subjects than some $10 sunglasses, but anything inanimate can provide some great practice -- running toddlers? Not so much.

 

There you have it.  Photography lesson numero uno.