Rules of thirds questions - General

I dont know if this is the right section or not, it seamed it so yea... Anyways last semester I was in a Marketing course and for like just two pages in a chapter we went over the Rules of Thirds. I googled for more research because it seamed like it was something people in photography or any photo/movie production needed to know, and 2 pages wouldn't do it. So first I want to know if what im saying makes sense and then a question. If you have a photo of an ocean or something in the ocean, or lake you want the horizon to be aligned with the upper third if the main subject is closer to the foreground, but if the main subject is closer to the horizon I align the horizon with the bottom third? At both of the same times I will align the main subject to either the left most or right most third depending on if im trying to convey direction or such... (yea tell me if that all makes sense). Now if that is true, my question is.. is there any rules of where the floor meets the wall, like should that be aligned with a third or anything? I hope I made sense in my questioning 0_0

They call it a rule but it's really more of a guideline. The rule of thirds is all about making your composition more interesting and less standard. Example:[IMG]http://mikeatkinson.net/tutorial-images/t6/13-Rule-of-thirds.jpg[/IMG] Here the photographer placed the bird in the upper left corner, just where the lines intersect. You can also see the bird is looking into the picture so to speak. It would look weird if the bird would look to the left because it would leave this huge space open to the right of the bird. When doing stuff with oceans or landscapes, you usually make a choice in where you want the viewers attention to go: The sky? Or the foreground. Let's say you have a boat in the ocean. The boat would be the main subject and thus the ocean would need the most room. In this case you would have the ocean extend to the upper line. This would mean you have 2/3 ocean and 1/3 sky. Would the sky be the main subject because of a beautiful sunset then you'd reverse it: 2/3 sky and 1/3 foreground. Take these rules with a grain of salt. It's good to learn them but they are guidelines and nothing is stopping you from breaking these rules

Same goes for moving objects. Leave space in the direction they're travelling in. (So in short: put some room in the direction an object faces.)

But if everyone follows the rule of thirds to make things less standard... ...doesn't it become the new standard? (Sorry for the gap, it was a perfect philosoraptor moment).

The rule of thirds is just something that formed out of the fact that having your subject in the middle of the frame can get boring. Whoever invented it was not a fan of Pokemon Snap. There's no reason to limit yourself. If you can make a photo work where something is dead center then why wouldn't you take it? It's oftentimes a better composition when your primary subject is shown in the context of the surroundings and I'm really tired just don't worry about it and practice. None of these pictures are mine: [img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4887235664_c0c0f915f2.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0903/gh0903-1.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.spfineprintsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Prints-for-Sale.jpg[/img] [img]http://dpexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/crw_7310-centered.jpg[/img] The rule is just a cop out in explaining how it can be beneficial to certain aesthetics of a photo by not centering a subject, and fails to mention that it can do just the opposite and take away from a centered, successful one. Too many variables in photography for such rules IMO.