What is this rule of thirds thing anyway? Basically, it’s a rule of the thumb designed to help you compose powerful images. As with most rules in photography, it is important to learn it, understand it, and make it your friend, before you start breaking it. The biggest argument is that once you know what conventionally creates a strong photograph, you can make informed decisions as to how you can adapt and bend the rules to create even stronger compositions. The great thing about the rule of thirds is that you can use it as little or as much as you want: It’s always there, and you use it when you need it. Well, a long time ago, a Kodak photographer described it as “playing Tic-Tac-Toe” I think that is fairly accurate: Divide up the view mentally into nine equal segments - two horizontal lines dividing the plane at 1/3rd intervals and two vertical lines dividing the plane at 1/3rd intervals. At the intersection of these lines you will have four “dots”. These foci are where you would place a point of interest for a subject. As you compose, you would put major planes on the lines – horizons on the horizontal lines, buildings and trees on the vertical lines. Here’s an example from Yellowstone Lake: Notice that the horizon and the trees are close to the lines. Sometimes in your viewfinder you can show guides, I tend to turn them on. About those guides - when you have something with an edge or a line - like a horizon, you would place the horizon on one of the two horizonal 1/3rd lines. The bottom if you want to concentrate on the sky, and the top one if you want to show more of the ground. This is not a hard and fast rule, notice that in this next example the foreground, midground, and distance are separated in general by thirds. The intersection of the lines creates a focal point. Some photographs will draw attention to the subject by placing the object on the intersection of these lines. This windmill in Nebraska is a good example of simple composition on the rule of thirds. This next photograph of a tree puts a barbed wire fence and a tree covered by ice on the focal point. It’s all open to discussion — don’t stick to the rules religiously! The rule of thirds is open to modification.