Have you ever noticed how in movies, actors are often positioned off-centre in the frame? 1
After you learn this, you'll never be able to not to notice and you will be obsessed about it every 2
time you watch a movie. 3
Movie makers and photographers use a technique called Rule of Thirds to add some visual interest 4
to the shot. 5
It goes like this. 6
If you divide a screen in 3 equal parts, both vertically and horizontally, 7
the intersection of those lines will be the visually most interesting spots to place your subject. 8
If the object is big like Angelina Jolie here, then you'd place her across that entire vertical line. 9
And if it's an image of landscape like this, then you would position the horizon on one of the horizontal 10
lines. 11
Putting a subject in the dead center is something that is expected. 12
It's symmetric, has equal space around it, it's safe and comfortable. 13
That's also what a non-photographer would usually do, or a non-designer. 14
He would grab a camera and point directly at this object. And that's usually boring. 15
But placing your subject off center, creates tension. 16
It's unexpected, yet looks intentional. Like there is a specific hidden reason behind this 17
and we want to know what it is. 18
A camera app on your phone probably has this option. 19
I know iPhone does. Turn it on and try it. 20
Your photos will significantly improve by doing so. To demonstrate this point, 21
let's take a look at this simple example. 22
We have a box that is placed in the dead center of the canvas. The distance between the edges of the canvas 23
and the box are identical on all sides. 24
The result is symmetrical, stationary and box is it at rest. 25
It's not moving. 26
If we move the box a little off center, it instantly adds tension. 27
But this is not a good kind of tension, because it looks like the box is supposed to be in the center, 28
but it's not. 29
This looks like an error. That a designer missclicked or didn't notice. 30
But if we move the box quite far off-centre, then the result looks intentional. 31
It doesn't look like it was meant to be in the center, but that it's deliberately out of balance. 32
This creates a good kind of tension giving us a visual interest. 33
The rule of thirds isn't a law, it's more of a soft guideline. You can sometimes go quite far from those 34
intersection points. 35
This rule comes super handy when you work with faces. 36
Take a look at this example. 37
The face of this model is in the center of the frame. And this makes it appear like he's too low in the 38
frame. 39
The empty space above his head is sort of pressing him down. To fix this, we move the model on one of 40
the top intersection points. Use always the eyes as your guide. Eyes are the focal point of any human 41
face. 42
That's where we always look at first. 43
Now this is much better look. And the space above him is small enough, so it's not pressing down on him. 44
And another great news, this works no matter the size of the face. The person can be far in the frame 45
or in extreme close up. 46
As long as we keep those eyes aligned, with that intersection point, it will always look correct. 47
Watch what happens when we zoom in. 48
Still looking great. 49
Let's zoom in more. 50
Looking great. 51
No doubt. One last time. 52
Still looks good. No matter how far we zoom in. 53
This is the beauty of rule of thirds. It's a super simple guideline yet can make photos look way better. 54
Now, 55
rule of thirds is a soft guideline and it has exceptions. 56
There are a lot of cases when you will have better results, 57
if you don't follow this rule. On an image like this, the center is the best position and you shouldn't 58
use the rule of thirds. 59
Why? 60
Because the central point of view is the intention here. 61
The photo is in a first person perspective. 62
We are seeing the view from the guy's eyes. And with his perspective obviously the most natural placement 63
is center, because it wouldn't make sense for him to see things sideways. 64
There are more examples of center position being the correct choice. 65
For instance, when the subject placement and other elements in the image, actually create the visual 66
interest in the center. The road edges, the yellow road marking in the middle, the gap between the 67
palm trees. 68
All that is creating visual interest in the middle. 69
Keeping this rule in mind, helps you pick out good, better photos when you're searching for them on stock 70
photography sites. 71
For example if you're looking for a photo for a split screen, like in our exercise. Then in those cases 72
a photo with a model that is in the center, is a better choice. Because in cases of a split-screen you 73
get this narrow, portrait mode of the photo. And in the narrow photos, 74
it's not the best option to use, 75
rule of thirds. 76
But if you're looking for a background photo, especially one where you're going to place a content on, 77
then off center the alignment will be the best bet. 78
So this way, you'll look through the photos and you'll find the one, where there is enough room for you to 79
move a subject towards one of the lines of the rule of thirds.