THE RULE OF THIRDS

Well, lets come into business. Some of you may have heard about the rule of thirds, and if you haven't, learn about it here. When I started photography, I didn't use to follow this rule, but one day, I learnt about it from a website, and applied it while shooting, and was flabbergasted by the amazing results it yielded.
So, what's the rule of thirds?
Imagine two horizontal and two vertical lines, spaced equally, across your photo. You'll get 9 equal rectangles (assuming the standard photo shape to be rectangular, the length and breadth ratio being 1.33).

You'll get something like this.

Imagine a subject posing for you, with a noticeable background. See the right vertical line, and consider two cases.
In the first case, imagine you subject centered along the right vertical line, and in the other, imagine the same centered in the photo. Remember, I've already said that the subject has some noticeable background.

1st case, subject posed along right vertical line.   (Google images)

      

second case, subject centered in photo. (Google Images)

     In which case the photo looks more stunning? I bet, all of you'll say the first.
That's the rule of thirds. Place your subject along the lines, and you'll get amazing results.
Let's have a look at some more images, and I'm sure you'll be able to apprehend the rule-of-thirds used in the photos.
      

See how the subject is aligned along the line

Here's a non-living subject. See how the horizon is aligned along the lower horizontal line also. (Both- Google images).

While shooting faces, it gives amazing results if eyes are placed at intersecting points.

Google images

Google images

   









Now, the only question that remains is how to add those lines while shooting. Well, every camera allows it, they are called guidelines. Meddle with your camera a bit, and you'll find them. After some days, you'll develop the sense, there will be no need to use guidelines from then on.
Lastly, have a look at my photos. I have not added the guidelines, you'll understand by yourselves.

Chang La, on the way to Pangong Lake.

Pastures of Ladakh, India.

The mighty Pangong Lake.

 Here you can see how I've followed the rule of thirds in first image, broke it in second, and slightly deviated from it in the third. You needn't necessarily follow the rule-of-thirds every time you shoot, sometimes breaking the rule also provides amazing results, but there's an old saying, "You gotta follow the rule before you break it."

I forgot I had this one in my shot list, it's a good example of living subjects shot using the rule of thirds.