My first photo lesson: The rule of thirds

If you’re looking to improve your photos, one of the first places to start is with your composition.
Let’s say you have your eye on a beautiful sunset. Many people would simply point the camera toward the west and click, the top of the frame filled with sky and the bottom half with land or sea.

But you can do better than that. If brilliant pink clouds are what caught your attention, make the most of them by placing the horizon line low in the frame.

On the other hand, if the landscape is more compelling, make it fill the lower two-thirds of the frame, leaving just a sliver of sky.

Basically, to get a pleasing balance to your image, the horizon should be placed either high or low in the frame.

Your eye has a natural tendency to scan a photo, searching for the most interesting parts of an image to rest upon or leave the frame. So your objective is a more interesting, asymmetrical division of your frame. It’s called the Rule of Thirds. Here’s a good discussion of how it works from Richard Burke at eHow.

If your subject dictates a vertical (or portrait) orientation, the same rules apply. Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid across the frame. Place the most interesting elements of your image along those lines. Take several shots, paying no attention to the rules, and then placing the subject about one-third of the way into the frame at each corner (along the intersections of your tic-tac-toe grid). See which ones draw your eye toward a pleasing resting place. You’ll know what I mean if you visit Richard Burke’s link above.

Generally speaking, the way you frame a photo either draws your eye toward the most interesting elements, or leads your eye away and out of the frame with no area of special focus.
You could spend decades studying the fine points of composition, but the Rule of Thirds is a foundational principle that will help you improve the next photos you take.