Tip #13: The Rule of Thirds

One trick to level up your photos.

Let’s chat composition. It’s natural to want to center your subjects in a photo. Centering your subject is good, but having every photo centered can get...boring. You can use something called the “rule of thirds” to make more visually compelling photos. This allows for some negative space in a photo. It helps tell more of a story with the scene included, create balance and draw attention to the subject with the negative space.

What is the rule of thirds? There are two lines vertically and two lines horizontally in-camera. You line your subject up over one of these lines. When photographing people, the eyes are usually over the top horizontal line. See how and examples below for iPhone and then Android:

Turn on Grid for iPhone

Open the iPhone settings App, scroll down to Camera and then activate the grid.

Turn on Grid for Android

Open the Camera and click on the top Settings icon, then "More settings".

Select "Grid Type" and choose a 3x3

Horizontal Alignment

Line your subject under one of the horizontal lines. If it's a close up, lining the eyes up on the top line is a good use of the rule of thirds. 

Vertical Alignment

Experiment with placing your partner under one of the vertical lines in the camera's grid. When your loved ones are looking off to the side, combined with negative space, it will create a compelling visual impact.