Rule of Thirds and Album Covers

The rule of thirds is a concept in video and film production in which the frame is divided into into nine imaginary sections, as illustrated on the right. This creates reference points which act as guides for framing the image.

Points (or lines) of interest should occur at 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up (or across) the frame, rather than in the centre. Like many rules of framing, this is not always necessary (or desirable) but it is one of those rules you should understand well before you break it.

In most "people shots", the main line of interest is the line going through the eyes. In this shot, the eyes are placed approximately 1/3 of the way down the frame.

Depending on the type of shot, it's not always possible to place the eyes like this.

In this shot, the building takes up approximately 1/3 of the frame and the sky takes up the rest. This could be a weather shot, in which the subject is actually the sky.

The rule of thirds is interpreted differently by synthetic artists in comparison to organic. As seen here, this synthetic artist has based his album cover around his face as it is the biggest thing in the picture and is focused in the centre third where everyone looks first when they see a poster. This synthetic artist has chosen for it to be designed like this because the album is more about selling him as a person rather than his music. Him as a synthetic artist means that he is trying to sell his star image therefore to do this; he is exposing his shoulders so it is more revealing so people also buy his album because they are attracted to him in the cover. However, there is an argument that he does care about his music rather than his image because the whole upper third is album name and as nothing to do with his star image. 

This album cover conforms to the rule of thirds. This organic band show they are different through the placement of objects and titles in this cover. The middle third where people look first consists of a man sitting on the couch playing guitar. This is the major part of the cover and it connotes originality as they care about the music they make rather than their star image and how they are visually perceived. The use of the bold black and white in the top third shows that they want people to notice the album and band name as this is the reason they want to be well known. The colours contrast to the rest of the cover.