Composition: The Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a composition rule that helps photographers compose their images in a way that will draw the viewer in to look at a specific subject.

It woks like this:

You split the image into thirds in  both directions.

Your subject gets placed on the points where the lines intersect with each other.

In the photo above, the subject lies on two points where lines intersect. One point is at the eye; this gives some emphases to the eyes by using nothing more than a simple composition technique.

Using the rule of thirds with landscapes

This rule works mostly the same for landscapes as for portraits or any other kind of photography. The only difference is that you may be unsure of what your subject is in the landscape. It's important to have a subject and points of focus when you take a landscape photo or you may end up with a more abstract photograph. (which can be good if that's what you're going for, but that's not the focus of this post)

This is an example of a landscape photograph that has no subject. It may be hard to understand what this photo even is because there is no focus on any kind of subject. 

This photo begins to improve in this matter. However, there is still not clear subject besides the sun.

So, how do you use the rule of thirds to compose your landscapes into great photographs?

Find a subject and find elements you can use to draw the viewer's eye to that subject.

Your subject can be anything. A tree, an animal, a building, or anything that you find interesting enough to hold the position of the subject.