Use the Rule of Thirds to Compose Beautiful Photos
The rule of thirds is a guideline to help you take quality pictures that you can be proud of.
Luckily, the iPhone has a setting to help you to quickly compose a photograph using the rule of thirds.
We’ll show you how to turn on that setting, but first—you may be wondering:
What exactly is the rule of thirds?
Naturally, because a picture is worth a thousand words, we’ll show you an example of the rule of thirds using one photo:
This photo does not use the Rule of Thirds
That’s because the key elements of the photo — the clouds, the mini-Statue of Liberty, the horizon line along the water—do not lie on a grid line or at grid-line intersections.
Basically, there’s too much sky and it overwhelms the more interesting elements in the photograph.
Here is the same image, cropped (to get the rule of thirds).
Most will agree that it’s a more dramatic photo.
Notice the key elements of this cropped photo are placed on and within the grid lines. There’s a balance that is more pleasing to the eye.
I should also note this: a large part of the more appealing nature of this shot is that the key features appear closer after the photo was cropped.
However: hopefully, after seeing these examples, you’ll get a sense of what the rule of thirds means when taking a photograph.
The iPhone will help you to visualize it…
This is the grid setting for an iPhone
When turned on, it will show up in front of whatever you want to take a picture of.
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Here’s how to turn on the Grid setting in your iPhone to help you to compose photos using the rule of thirds:
Use your Settings app.
Tap on “Camera”
Turn on the Grid, by tapping the button.
Then, open your camera on the iPhone, and you’ll see the grid in view.