The rule of thirds and the rule of odds in food and product photos

Where the rule of thirds comes from

The name is older than photography. The painter and engraver John Thomas Smith used it in Remarks on Rural Scenery in 1797. He was writing about landscape painting, and his advice was to give the sky about two thirds of the picture or about one third, never an even half. In his own words, two thirds to one third was “a much better and more harmonizing proportion, than the precise formal half”.

Smith wrote about proportions of light, dark and mass. He did not draw a grid of nine boxes. The grid with four “power points” is how photographers later put his idea to work, and it is still the quickest way to stop a subject sitting dead centre by habit.

It is a habit worth having, but it is not a law. When researchers checked thousands of photos in 2014, the highly rated ones followed the rule about as rarely as the unrated ones. Adobe’s photographers put it plainly: “It’s not really a rule. It’s more of a guideline.”

How it works in the frame

Two lines across and two lines down split the frame into nine equal parts. The four crossings are where the eye goes first, so they are where the main subject sits. Most of the rest of the frame becomes breathing room.

On an iPhone, turn the lines on in Settings › Camera › Grid. Turn on Level in the same place: it helps keep a horizon straight and tells you when the phone is flat over a table. Apple’s camera guide covers both.

Thirds in food and product photos

Food and product photographers lean on the grid for two practical reasons.

1. The hero gets a crossing. Put the main plate, cup or product on one of the four crossings, not in the middle. The eye lands on it first, and the frame feels like it has somewhere to go.
2. The open side does a job. Keep the other two thirds simple. Magazines, menus and shop banners put their words in that space, so a photo with a clear third is a photo someone can design with.
3. Lines lead in. The edge of a board, a spoon handle, a ribbon or a shadow can run from a corner toward the hero. Practical Ecommerce suggests using the props’ own edges this way.
4. Don’t leave too much empty. Space is useful up to a point. Push the product too small in a wide, empty frame and it looks lost rather than calm.

If you are not sure, do what Adobe’s Derek Boyd suggests: take it three ways (centred, on the upper left, on the upper right) and choose later.

The rule of odds

The rule of odds says a group of three or five main subjects looks more natural than two or four. Food stylists use it all the time: three cookies, five strawberries, three glasses on a tray.

The usual explanation is that an even count pairs up. Two things become a matched set and four become two pairs, and the eye stops looking. An odd count has a middle and does not split evenly, so the eye keeps moving across the group.

Be honest with yourself about what kind of rule this is. It is a stylist’s and designer’s convention, not a finding from perception research, and no one is on record as its inventor. Expert Photography makes the point that an odd count does not improve a photo on its own. A coffee pot with one cup can be stronger than the same pot with a third thing added just to make the number odd.

Use it this way:

• Count the subjects, not the crumbs. The rule is about the things that carry the picture. Loose garnish, beans or scattered sugar do not need counting.
• Three is the workhorse. Three items give you a natural group without crowding a small frame. Five works when the pieces are small, such as five pastries around a plate.
• Two is fine when it is the point. A pair of matching cups or a couple’s drinks is about the pair. Mirror them deliberately and it reads as symmetry, not as a mistake.

Three items, one triangle

Three items almost always want a triangle: one larger and further back, two smaller in front, or one at each of three points that do not line up. Two Loves Studio teaches food compositions built on crossing diagonals, with the plates along the lines and space left open around them.

A triangle gives the eye a loop to follow, so it moves from the biggest item to the next and back. Vary the sizes and heights. Three identical items in a perfect row line up like soldiers. Change one size or nudge one back and you get depth.

When to break the rule

Centre the subject when:

• It fills the frame. One drink shot tight, one product edge to edge. There is nothing to balance it against, and an off-centre crop only wastes space.
• The scene is symmetrical. A pair of cups, a straight-on shelf, a doorway. Symmetry needs a centre line.
• It is a flat-lay grid. Knolled tools or a box of six pastries look right when they sit square in the frame (more in flat lay photography at home). Digital Photography School notes that some flat lays are better as central, symmetrical compositions.
• The shop asks for it. A marketplace main image is usually the product centred on a plain background. That is a listing standard, not a creative choice (what each marketplace asks for).

Before you press the shutter

• Is the hero on a crossing, or deliberately centred?
• Is the open space clean enough to put words in?
• Do you have one, three or five main subjects, or a pair on purpose?
• Do three items form a triangle with different sizes or heights?
• Is anything pointing the eye out of the frame instead of into it?