The Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds is a compositional technique. Originally applied to photography, it extends to videography as well.
While some people will tend to center everything, the rule of thirds is an alternative method of composing a shot to make it more interesting. If you look on YouTube, you’ll notice that a lot of people, especially those filming themselves, will center themselves in the shot. But, if you watch the average TV show or movie, you’ll see that most shots, even of people, are not typically centered on the screen. Even on talk shows and in interviews, you’ll notice that people are off center, even in close ups.
What many camera people are using is the rule of thirds.
With the rule of thirds, a shot can be divided into nine equal parts, 3 horizontally and 3 vertically.
The lines are where your eyes are naturally drawn to an image, so it helps to align points of interest along those lines. Additionally, the red dots are focal points so things of interest can also be highlighted in those regions.
As an example, in a typical newscast, you’ll notice that the news anchor is aligned with one of the vertical lines. And, the news desk, if shown, may be aligned with the lower horizontal line.
In an interview, you may see the host aligned on one vertical line and the guest on the other in more distant shots, while close-ups will have a person’s face aligned with one of the two vertical lines.
Of course, knowing about the “rule” and the visual interest it projects, you can also break the rule for different visual effects.
For more information, you can read about the Rule of Thirds on Wikipedia.
I deliberately use it sometimes, but more often than not just go with my gut feeling. Of course, maybe I’m just using what I internalized from books and college courses from before digital photography.
The rule of thirds has been around since 1797.
But you’re right that you’ve probably internalized it all, and you no doubt learned about the rule of thirds too. When I first started in videography and learned about it, I was mentally drawing the lines almost every time I watch TV.
But, public access TV was the worst. Ugh. Most of the time, I cannot stand to watch it.
Whoa. At first I didn’t even see those red dots. This is all very interesting stuff and now that you’ve brought it up, I do recognize seeing it in action on television and in movies.
Yes!
I just learned about this in a photography class I was taking.
~ZZ
Your blog said I am commenting too quickly … is that the third rule??
9 boxes … I see 9