Stop Using This Rule — You’re Holding Your Photos Back

The rule of thirds is dead. If you have been told your entire photography life that the rule of thirds is the key to creating amazing photos, I've got news for you. It's not. In fact, it's the last least important rule that you should be following when you're framing up your landscape photos. I'm going to show you why and what you should be focusing on instead if you want to create jaw-dropping photos that people want to hang on their walls. So, if you've never heard of it before, the rule of thirds is that simple grid that you use to line up your photos, usually by placing the subject along the intersecting lines. This rule is so common and simple that nearly every camera has this grid inside the viewfinder. But here's the hard truth. If all you're looking for is the rule of thirds, your photos will be boring. And that's because the rule of thirds only helps you line up your subject, but it does not bring attention to the subject in your photo. Take a look at this photo of Mesa Arch. This image does not follow the rule of thirds. There are no points of interest on the intersecting lines of the photo. The horizon does not line up with the top or bottom third of the photo. Yet, this photo has won international awards. And that's because it follows a more powerful rule of composition, which I like to call hidden natural patterns. In this case, the hidden natural pattern is balance and symmetry. The photo has the same amount of visual weight on the right compared with the left, which brings focus onto the center of the photo, where you can see the sun rising directly in the center of the arch. And I planned this photo out for the exact date when the sun rises directly in the center of the arch. But you have to join Photography Academy Prime using the link below to learn tricks like that. Now, here's another photo that breaks the rule of thirds, yet it is more powerful because it uses another hidden natural pattern. This is a pristine beach in the Florida Keys. I woke up at sunrise to capture this place without any distracting footprints in the sand. Now, let's overlay a rule of thirds grid on top of this image. And you will see that there are no points of interest on the intersecting rule of third lines. And the only place that sort of lines up with the rule of thirds is the horizon being on the top 1/3 line. But the reason this photo works so well is because it has a leading line that pulls the viewer's eye from the foreground to the background. It's a simple image without distractions that traps the viewer's eye in any place other than at the end of the leading line. I could have lined up the leading line on the left third, but then there would be just empty space on the right side. Or if I lined it up on the right third, the image would feel unbalanced. But there are two more hidden natural patterns I want to show you. But before I do that, if you're learning any cool tips or tricks, make sure to leave a comment down below and subscribe to get more gold nuggets just like this that will help you take the best photos of your life. Now, this next hidden natural pattern is very cool. It doesn't follow the rule of thirds. Here's a photo of a birch forest along the eastern edge of Washington State in a little town called Levvenworth. I traveled here just to capture this photo because of the repeating patterns. Now, repeating patterns are very powerful because they have no one point of interest. As long as there are no distractions or objects that take attention away from the pattern, then they will create a powerful photo. And the hidden natural pattern that is far more important to use than the rule of thirds is called framing. Framing is when a photo has dark or untextured sections on the left and the right side of the frame that pushes the viewer's attention into the center. This is a way to force the viewer's attention to go where you want it to since the eye is always attracted to the brightest part of an image. And here's a great example of a waterfall in Oregon called Wananta Falls. Notice how dark the green edges of the falls push your attention towards the bright waterfall. I intentionally darkened the edges of the frame to create that effect using vignetting. If I had lined up the water onto the left or the right third, this image would be much less powerful. So, are you seeing this? The rule of thirds is dead. It doesn't matter and it is not the reason why your photos are either good or bad. Instead, start using hidden natural patterns and remove distractions in your photos to make them more powerful.