add visual interest to your photos with the rule of thirds

8/13/2019 Add Visual Interest to Your Photos With the Rule of Thirds

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he original photo.

s it is, it's not a bad photo. fter all, it's hard to take a bad photo of a butterfly resting on a flower. -owever, it doesf have that %'m about to shoot you with my sniper rifle% look to it, and think could make this photo more interest

reposition the butterfly using the (ule of "hirds.

efore we go any further, let's see exactly what we mean by this (ule of "hirds.

ere's the same photo again, but this time, 've added the grid lines that 've been talking about. "hey're the hori1ontaertical yellow lines dividing the image up into = e)ually si1ed rows and columns;

he original photo showing the Rule of Thirds grid lines (in yellow) and the intersection points (circled

ed).


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he points where these grid lines intersect have been circled in red. ccording to the rule of thirds, our image will lo

more interesting if the sub&ect, which in this case is the butterfly, is positioned at or near one of these points, which a

moment it isn't. We're going to fix that.

s stated on the previous page, since we're cropping images here, we'll be making smaller versions than the origina

nd in this case, want to turn my photo into a more interesting 3x4. Since know exactly what si1e want my final

be, the easiest thing to do is to create a new document at exactly that si1e. 'll assume from this moment on that yo

so want a 3x4, but if you're after a different si1e, any time you see me type %3x4%, simply replace it with your own mensions.

tep 1: Create A New 4x6 Document In Photoshop

ince know 'm going to want a 3x4 when 'm done, 'm going to create a new blank 3x4 document in Photoshop byoing up to the File $enuat the top of the screen and choosing %e&..., which brings up the >ew !ocument dialog b

hotoshop's New Document dialog box

want my photo to use landscape orientation, meaning the width is longer than the height, so 'll enter ' inchesfor thidth and ( inchesfor the height. also want to make sure my photo prints nice and sharp, so 'll enter )** pi+els pe

nchfor the resolution value. 've also named my document %(ule of "hirds 3x4%, but you don't have to name yours i

on't want to. When you're done entering the values, click #5 and Photoshop will create your new blank document fou.

tep 2: Drag The Photo Into The New Document

ow that have both my original photo and the new document open on my screen, 'm going to grab my $o,e toolom the "ools palette or by pressing %0% on my keyboard, and then 'm going to click anywhere inside my photo an

rag it with my mouse into the new document;


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n this section of the tutorial, we're going to not only create our rule of thirds grid lines, we're going to record an actio

e're creating them so we only have to do this once.

nce we have the process saved as an action, the next time we go to crop an image using the (ule of "hirds, we can ack and let Photoshop make the grid lines for us. #f course, you don't technicallyhave to create an action for this if

ou're the type of person who has a thing for repetitive tasks, in which case you and have nothing in common. 'm

making an action.

tep 3: Create A New Action In The Actions Paette

o to your ctions palette it's grouped in by default with the -istory palette/ and click on the #reate %e& Actioni

the bottom of the palette, as shown below;

lic# the '&reate New ction' button in the ctions palette

his brings up Photoshop's %>ew ction% dialog box;

hotoshop's New ction dialog box.

ame your new action %(ule of "hirds rids% or something similar of your choosing. 'm creating my action in theefault ctions set, but feel free to create a new set or use an actions set you've previously created. "o be able to acc

his action )uickly with a keyboard shortcut, 've chosen the *B key from the drop$down list of *unction 5ey choices

ong with Shift and ?ontrol, which means that once 've recorded my action, 'll be able to access it by pressing

hift@?trl@*B the ?trl key would be the ?ommand key if was using a 0ac/. 've left the ?olor option set to %>oneWhen you're done, click the Recordbutton and let's begin creating these grid lines while Photoshop patiently and

utifully records each and every step along the way.

tep 4: A!! A New "ori#onta $ui!e

With Photoshop recording our steps, go up to the Vie& menuat the top of the screen and choose %e& -uide..., whic

ill bring up the >ew uide dialog box. We're going to add our first of four guides which will become our (ule of "

rid.


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hoose 'New uide' from the iew menu

or %#rientation%, select ori/ontal, and in the %Position% value box, type in )).)0, then click #5. Cou'll see your uide appear over top of your photo;

he first of four guides has been added to the image.

our guide probably won't show up in yellow.


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reating the second hori*ontal guide at a position of ++.+,

lick #5, and the second guide appears over the photo;

he second guide added.

tep 6: A!! A New &ertica $ui!e

o back to the Vie& menuonce again and again choose %e& -uide...see how this is becoming time consuming an

oring+/. "his time choose Verticalfor %#rientation%, and type )).)0for the %Position% value;

reating the first %ertical guide at --.-,

lick #5, and we now have three guides over our image. We're almost there;


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he third guide added.

tep ': A!! A Secon! &ertica $ui!e

till awake+ ood, because we have &ust one more to add. #ne last time, go up to the Vie& menu, choose %e& -uidelect Verticalfor %#rientation%, and finally, type ''.'0for the %Position% value;

reating the second %ertical guide at ++.+,

lick #5, and we're doneA We now have our (ule of "hirds grid thanks to our four guides;


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ll four guides ha%e been added" creating our Rule of Thirds grid.

tep (: Press )Stop) To *inish +ecor!ing The Action

ow that we have our (ule of "hirds grid, we can stop recording the action. ?lick the topicon at the bottom of thections palette to complete our %(ule of "hirds rids% action;

lic# the top button at the bottom of the ctions palette to end the recording and complete the actio

ow that we've saved the grid creation process as an action, the next time we need it, we can simply select the action

he ctions palette or use whichever keyboard shortcut you assigned for it We won't have to do this manually again.

nd now that our (ule of "hirds grid is in place, we can finally use it to crop and move our image into position, whi

e'll do next.

We've created a new 3x4 Photoshop document. We've dragged our original photo into this new document. We've addwo hori1ontal and two vertical guides to create our rule of thirds grid and saved the process as an action. ll that's le

o now is move the sub&ect of the photo into one of the four intersecting grid points.

fter careful consideration, 've decided that my photo would look best with the butterfly positioned in or close to thght intersection point, shown below circled in red;


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he top right intersection point where /'%e decided to place the sub0ect of my photo.

m going to move it into place and shrink the photo down in si1e at the same time using Photoshop's %*ree "ransformption.

tep ,: Seect The )*ree Trans-orm) .ption

se the keyboard shortcut #trl3TWin/ #ommand3T0ac/ to )uickly bring up the Free Transformbox and haround your image. When you do that, if it looks like nothing has happened, it's because your photo is larger than the

ocument you've dragged it into and the sides of the image are extending out beyond the document window where yo

an't see them. We'll fix that problem in the next step.

tep 1/: Press )Ctr0/) in )Comman!0/) 5ac To *it 7er8thing .n Screen

ress #trl3*Win/ #ommand3*0ac/ to fit your entire photo, including everything that's extending out beyond t

oundaries of the document window, onto the screen, at which point the *ree "ransform box and handles will also b

sible. 've circled the *ree "ransform handles in red below, since they're a bit hard to see in the screenshot;


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t the entire photo on screen to gain access to the 1ree Transform handles.

tep 11: 5o7e The Su9ect .- The Photo Into Position

With my *ree "ransform box around my image, the first thing 'm going to do is move the sub&ect of my photo, the

utterfly, into place. want him or her/ to appear somewhere in that top right grid intersection point, so 'm going to

nywhere inside my photo and drag the butterfly into position. think the spot where its front legs and body meet wocely;


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lic# inside the image and drag the sub0ect into the intersecting grid point that wor#s best for your ph

tep 12: Drag The Center Anchor Point .- The *ree Trans-orm ;ox To The $ri! Point

0y sub&ect is in place, but there's still )uite a bit of the original photo that's still extending out of view, and want tos much of it as can in this new version of the image, so 'm going to drag the corner handles of the *ree "ransform

nward to fit more of the photo into the visible document area. Problem is, as drag the handles inward, my butterfly

oing to keep moving out of position on me, and 've already got it where want it. *ortunately, can avoid that prob

y first moving the center anchor point of the *ree "ransform box to that top right grid point. "hat way, my butterflyay in place as 'm dragging.

ou'll find the center anchor point, yep, you guessed it, in the center of the *ree "ransform box circled in red below


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he 1ree Transform center anchor point.

o move it, simply click it and drag it to a new location. 'm going to drag it to that top right grid point;

he center 1ree Transform anchor point now mo%ed to its new location.

tep 13: Drag The *ree Trans-orm "an!es Inwar! To *it 5ore .- The .rigina Photo Into T

Image

ow that the center anchor point has been moved into place, it's time to finish things off by dragging any one of the ransform corner handle points inward, shrinking the si1e of the original photo thereby allowing more of it to fit into

ew (ule of "hirds version of the image.

s you drag any of the corner handles inward, hold down hift3AltWin/ hift3Option0ac/ as you drag. "he S

ey will constrain the proportions of the image, and the lt or #ption key will cause the image to shrink inward fromcation of that center anchor point, which is exactly what we want. 'm going to hold down Shift@lt, since 'm usin

? here, and 'll drag the bottom left corner point inward to fit as much of my original photo into my new 3x4 image

an;


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nd here's my more interesting looking %(ule of "hirds% 3x4 version, a subtle yet definite improvement;

he final result.

nd there we have itA Even if you're not a professional photographer and the only time you snap photos is on familyacations, you can use Photoshop and the (ule of "hirds design trick to easily make ordinary photos seem a little mo

xtraordinary.

add visual interest to your photos with the rule of thirds

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