The Rule of Thirds

There is a 'rule of thumb' used by many artists and photographers.

The idea is to imagine an image as being divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines.

Rather than centre important elements of a painting or photograph, you can create a more interesting and more balanced composition by placing the important elements along these imaginary lines or their intersections.

You can see the rider in the photograph is at the intersection of two of the lines rather than in the centre of the frame.

This will often come in handy but remember - rules are made to be broken!