New CiC Techniques Page: Rule of Thirds

[McQ]

This is a rule that you're all probably very familiar with, but still an important topic nonetheless. It's a quick and easy intro:

Composition: Using the Rule of Thirds

As usual, don't hesitate if you have any recommendations or other feedback.

[KentDub]

I like it

[Colin Southern]

I reckon I could get quite good at this "rule of thirds" thing with a bit of practice

[McQ]

I reckon I could get quite good at this "rule of thirds" thing with a bit of practice

lol, well it's certainly not in the same category of say the diffraction or tilt/shift articles

Gotta have articles that span the technical gamut though...

[Steaphany]

When I need to check the rule of thirds balance of an image, I turn on the grid in photoshop to scale things as I crop.

You may want to add this to the page instructing readers to turn on rulers or grids when they want to ensure an image is matching with the rule rather than guessing by eye.

[McQ]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll add that in, along with a mention of how some people use special viewfinders with built in gridlines (esp for architectural shots).

[wjh31]

maybe a nod to golden ratios and triangles if this is meant to be a general composition article...

[Steve S]

Since your talking about the rule of thirds, you may as well throw in 'golden sections'. Sometimes the rule of thirds doesn't make the best composition.................you should check both and see which looks best.

[KentDub]

Never heard of it... maybe enlighten us?

[Steve S]

Never heard of it... maybe enlighten us?

It is similar to the rule of thirds, but the lines cross at a different point.

The rule of thirds, the lines are at exactly 1/3 the width and height of the image. With golden sections the lines are at 3/8 and 5/8(golden sections.) instead of 1/3 and 2/3(rule of thirds). I hope that makes sense.

[Steaphany]

The Golden Ratio, Golden Section, Golden Number, or Golden Mean is represented by the number 1.618033988749895... and is supposed to be prevalent in nature and man made designs. Some attribute a spiritual significance to the value because of it's universality.

Here is a site dedicated to the subject and it explains the mathematical basis:

http://goldennumber.net/

To apply this to photographic composition, check out this cute tool:

On-Line helper for testing photo for Golden Section

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steaphany,

That's a brilliant implementation for checking things by applying the different rules and dragging edges to see if cropping improves the capture composition, etc.

Probably best used sparingly, or one may become dependent upon it.

Thanks for sharing that, definitely one to bookmark for future use; i.e. when I can't decide which crop works best.

[Donald]

Any GIMP users will/can note that Golden Sections is an option (along with 'thirds') in the crop dialogue.

[wjh31]

Here are a couple of good examples for the golden ratio stuff, I mentioned it earlier in the thread too

[David]

I agree with comments re Golden Section, I'm sure Leonardo Da Vinci would concur on its importance were he around today. However, "Thirds" is easy to understand and apply. I've noticed when I've tried the two methods that the Golden Section seems to my eye to give "better" results when there are pronounced straight edges. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, these are rules of thumb.

David

[Steaphany]

I've noticed that in all the "Golden" reference material, even the links that I provided, no one actually defines where to place the Golden grid. So, I did some math and calculated the exact positions:



Since Photoshop has a Grid Shape which can be applied to an image to easily apply the Rule of Thirds, I'll be looking into creating a Golden Grid shape to eliminate the need to find a calculator.

[Steaphany]

It took some work shrinking this file down, but here is a Photoshop file with a Vector path which defines a Golden Ratio Grid:

GoldenRatioGrid.psd

If everything works as I intend, and hope, just open this in Photoshop, make sure the Golden Ratio Grid is selected in the Paths Palette and from the Edit menu, click on "Define Custom Shape" and enter a name for the new custom shape in the Shape Name dialog box. I used Golden Ratio Grid.

The new Golden Ratio Grid shape appears in the Shape pop-up palette when adding a Custom shape to a shape layer of an image. Being a vector, it can be scaled and used as a guide to determine the best position to crop an image.

Just don't confuse the new Golden Ratio Grid from the Grid shape that comes by default in Photoshop, which is perfect for the Rule of Thirds when used as I describe above.

Since I'm unfamiliar with other Adobe image editors, I do not know how this would be applied.

[Steaphany]

Here is another version of the Golden Ratio Grid, Vertical and Horizontal lines without the border:

Attachment 837

I tried to determine how the Golden Triangle would be applied to an image but found on Wiki:

Golden Triangle

is defined as an isosceles triangle in which the two longer sides have equal lengths and in which the ratio of this length to that of the third, smaller side is the golden ratio, which does not match with the photo examples shown on the other sites.

[Colin Southern]

It took some work shrinking this file down, but here is a Photoshop file with a Vector path which defines a Golden Ratio Grid:

I don't think you can display a *.PSD file here Steaphany - I don't think a browser knows what to do with it.

[Steaphany]

Actually Colin, the only oops was my border-less Golden Ratio Grid, Attachment 837, didn't come through. Here it is:

GoldenRatioGrid.psd

These *.PSD files are not here to be viewed through a browser. They are here so anyone could download either the Bordered or Border-less version, open the file in Photoshop, Elements, or Lightroom, and load the vector path into the program as a Custom Shape to be used as a guide later on.

Just as the Javascript web page which applies the Golden Ratio to an image, this Golden Ratio Grid can do the same thing all within Photoshop, Elements, or Lightroom.