Rule of Thirds

The photographic Rule of Thirds suggests that the most important part of any picture should be located on one of the intersections of a 3 X 3 grid, or ...

the horizon should be on one of the two horizontal lines on the grid, or ...

an important vertical line should be on one of the vertical lines on the grid.

These are straight forward guidelines for the Rule of Thirds, right?

There are many times, however, when composing a photograph using the rule of thirds is not practical or in the heat of the moment one forgets the rule completely.

This is where Painter X comes to the rescue because Painter provides the means to re-visit the photograph and apply the rule of thirds thereby improving the shot.

Using The Rule of Thirds

1. Open the photograph with Painter X.

   Original Picture

   In my example I chose a shot at O'Hare airport. The rain had stopped but the dark clouds were still around and there was this neat rainbow way out there. I decided to make the little airplane-pushing tugboat the center of attention.

2. Enable the Layout Grid - Window > Show Layout Grid.

   Layout Grid

   Put a check mark in the Enable Layout ... box. This will superimpose a grid over the photograph and it will likely be larger than you want so you will need to resize the grid.

3. Resize the grid by using the Size sliders. I lower the top one and then put a check in the box between the the Horizontal and Vertical sliders. This causes them to change size by the same amount.

   Resized Grid

   I also found it helpful to change the grid lines color. The default green and blue were difficult to see so I went with bright yellow. This is done with the drop boxes.

4. Now you will want to move the grid about until you find the perfect place for it. To move the Grid it is necessary to select the Layout Grid icon which is located on the same button as the Divine Proportion flyout icon.

   Layout Grid Icon

   Once it is active (or selected) the cursor becomes a hand when you are over the image so you can move the grid around.

   Grid Moved

5. When the grid is placed correctly then the last step is to Crop the picture with the Crop Tool.

   Final Picture Conforming To The Rule Of Thirds