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