[Scottm]

Perhaps the most important rule in photography/graphic design, when wanting to have a decent focal point, is the rule of thirds.



Definition::
"The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states 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."
-- Wikipedia's page for Rule of thirds

So, let's break this up.

Whenever making a piece, you should always split your canvas up into 9 equal parts.




Now, by placing your focal point in either one of the intersections of the lines, or along a line, it makes it more appealing to the eyes since they generally look to one of them naturally.

Before rule of thirds::


Split up into parts::


Now, move your image over so it is on the right/left intersection lines::



After rule of thirds::




Although it may not seem like it makes a huge difference, believe me it does.
So on your next sig/tag, be sure to keep this in mind with your focal point!

[Shane Hudson]

Not a bad tutorial, albeit short! The Rule of Thirds is indeed a very important technique that all photographers and graphic designers should understand and use. Of course, some great results can be made by purposely breaking rules such as these.

[Scottm]

Shane Hudson, on 17 January 2011 - 01:07 AM, said:

Not a bad tutorial, albeit short! The Rule of Thirds is indeed a very important technique that all photographers and graphic designers should understand and use. Of course, some great results can be made by purposely breaking rules such as these.

Thanks m8. It was hard to kind of go into extreme detail with it. So I mainly tried to show it through pics.

[dawmail333]

I heard about a rule even more effective: the rule of phi.

I didn't actually read it myself, but with my understanding of phi (Golden Ratio), it can produce nicer images.
Pretty much, instead of dividing the image into thirds, I think the lines were closer to the centre.

(Aha, google-fu: http://cwaynefox.com...do_with_it.html)