Rule of Thirds

Minnesota 9-12 Media Arts Standards
Used in this Lesson

  • 1. Demonstrate knowledge of the foundations of the arts area.
  • 1A. Analyze how the elements in media arts such as image, sound, space, time, motion and sequence, are combined to communicate meaning in the creation of, presentation of, or response to media arts.

  • 1b. Evaluate how the principles of media arts such as repetition, unity and contrast are used in the creation of, presentation of, or response to media artworks.


  • 2. Demonstrate knowledge and use of the technical skills of the art form, integrating technology when applicable.
  • 2a. Integrate tools, materials, and techniques to create original products for artistic purposes.

  • 2b. Integrate linear and non-linear software including video- and sound-editing software to create original products for expressive intent.

  • 3. Demonstrate understanding of the personal, social, cultural and historical contexts that influence the arts areas.
  • 3a. Analyze how a work in media arts influences and is influenced by the personal, social, cultural and historical contexts, including the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities.

  • 4. Create or make in a variety of contexts in the arts area using the artistic foundations.
  • 4a. Create a single, complex work or multiple works in media arts.

  • 4b. Revise creative work based on artistic intent and using multiple sources of critique and feedback.

  • 6. Respond to or critique a variety of creations or performances using the artistic foundations.
  • 6a. Analyze, interpret and evaluate a variety of media artworks by applying self-selected criteria within the traditions of the art form.

  • 6b. Justify choices of self-selected criteria based on knowledge of how criteria affects criticism.

    • Additional Tie-ins

  • Math: Division into thirds
  • Composition
  • Golden Rectangle and rule of thirds
    • When taking photographs you can use the rule of thirds as a guide in the off-center placement of your subjects.

    Before you snap the picture, imagine your picture area divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically. The intersections of these imaginary lines suggest four options for placing the center of interest for good composition. The option you select depends upon the subject and how you would like that subject to be presented.


    Students will turn in 10 photographs that they've taken using the rule of thirds. On two of them, they will draw a grid of "third-lines" similar to the examples here.

    A short demonstration on dividing photos into thirds is given in class. Written instructions can be found here.

    All 10 Photos must be resized to 9 inches wide, 72 pixels per inch and put into a folder labeled with the students name and placed in our Photo class folder on the network.

    Evaluation:

    Each of the 10 photos will be graded on clarity of the photo, 1 point, and how well each photo adheres to the rule of thirds, 1 point.
    Total 20 points