Two distinct, equal lights, should never appear in the same picture : One should be principal, and the rest subordinate, both in dimension and degree: Unequal parts and gradations lead the attention easily from part to part, while parts of equal appearance hold it awkwardly suspended, as if unable to determine which of those parts is to be considered as the subordinate. John Thomas Smith then continues with an expansion on the idea, naming it the "Rule of thirds": In his book Remarks on Rural Scenery, Smith quotes a 1783 work by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in which Reynolds discusses, in unquantified terms, the balance of dark and light in a painting. The rule of thirds was first written down by John Thomas Smith in 1797. Likewise, when photographing a still subject who is not directly facing the camera, the majority of the extra room should be in front of the subject with the vertical line running through their perceived center of mass.Įxcerpt from John Thomas Smith's illustrated book, published in 1797, defining a compositional "rule of thirds" If filming a moving subject, the same pattern is often followed, with the majority of the extra room being in front of the person (the way they are moving). When filming or photographing people, it is common to line the body up to a vertical line and the person's eyes to a horizontal line. Michael Ryan and Melissa Lenos, authors of the book An Introduction to Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film, state that the use of rule of thirds is "favored by cinematographers in their effort to design balanced and unified images" (page 40). ![]() The main reason for observing the rule of thirds is to discourage placement of the subject at the center, or prevent a horizon from appearing to divide the picture in half. The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section. For example, the brightest part of the sky near the horizon where the sun recently set does not fall directly on one of the lines, but does fall near the intersection of two of the lines, close enough to take advantage of the rule. Some proponents claim that points of interest in the photo do not have to actually touch one of these lines to take advantage of the rule of thirds. The tree sits at the intersection of two lines, sometimes called a power point or a crash point. The horizon in the photograph sits at the horizontal line dividing the lower third of the photo from the upper two-thirds. The photograph on the right demonstrates the application of the rule of thirds. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject. The guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. The rule of thirds is a " rule of thumb" for composing visual images such as designs, films, paintings, and photographs. ![]() ![]() This photograph demonstrates and shows the principles of the rule of thirds
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