What is the Rule of Thirds and Headroom?

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image into 9 parts. The rule states that an image should divided by two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. They must be equally-spaced. The most important elements of your composition are where the two lines come together.

Using the Rule of Thirds will help to produce a nicely balanced picture that enable a viewer interact with it image more naturally. The Rule of Thirds is more of a guideline that is intended to help the photographers when they are uncertain as to where they should place the key elements in a scene.

What is Headroom?

The headroom refers to the distance between the top of the frame and the top of the subject's head. If there is too much headroom then it will make the subject appear short. However it will have the opposite affect if there is very little headroom in the frame. The correct headroom will allow the subject to have enough space around their head to make them look comfortable in the frame.

This picture shows the correct amount of space between the top of the frame and the top of the subject's head (Headroom). This allows the subject to look comfortable in the frame.