PHOTOGRAPHERS who are members of Thurrock Camera Club have celebrated the end of a competition that has taken place over several months and six rounds.

The club's Projected Digital Image (PDI) League competition reached its conclusion with the winners being selected from the sixth round of submissions.

The round six winners were League One: Maggie Diamond - Caught fly; League Two: David Whyman - Please don't eat the daisy and League Three: Tony Coleman - A snowy day in the lake.

The overall winners were League One: Tom Irving; League Two: David Whyman and League Three: Tony Coleman.

And Thurrock Nub News is pleased to bring you the latest in our monthly series of tips for photographers, provided by club members.

Here we learn about The Rule of Thirds.

When speaking to experienced photographers about composition tips, you may hear them speak about something called the rule of thirds.

The rule of thirds is one of the most useful composition techniques in photography. It's an important concept to learn as it can be used in all types of photography as a guide to producing images which are considered to be more engaging and better balanced.

What is the rule of thirds?

The rule of thirds involves mentally dividing up your image using two horizontal lines and two vertical lines, to create something that looks like an elongated noughts and crosses grid and providing you with four crosshairs as a type of targeting sight.

To assist with this concept, many cameras today and some phone camera software will have a feature that can display this grid on your screen overlying the composition of your intended image.

When taking your picture, once you have the real or virtual grid captured, the idea is then to position the important elements in your scene along those lines, or at the points where they intersect.

As part of this process you will be required to consider what elements of your photo are most important, and try to position them at or near the lines and intersections of the grid. Generally these elements of your picture don't have to be perfectly lined up to create the best result as long as they're close.

The rationale for this approach is that many photographers consider an off-centre composition to be more pleasing and looking more natural than one where the subject is placed right in the middle of the frame.

This technique works for almost all types of photography, and is especially effective for both for portrait and landscape shots. It works hand-in-hand with other techniques too, like leading lines that was a subject of a previous tip.

In the example "Cyclist 2" the photographer has placed the main subject of the cyclist on the left hand third of the frame which allows room for him to into the scene capture the flow of his movement.

While this type of image would normally be seen with movement from left to right, along the viewers natural eye to follow the subject moving into the frame, the angle of this image suggests he is moving downhill and the use of a slower shutter speed conveys a sense of speed which provides an interesting effect to the overall result.

In the second example, "The Woman in Red" the photographer has placed the lady on the left hand third of the image and has mirrored her position with the tree on the right hand third vertical third of the picture to create a sense of balance. The mixture of black and white scenery against her bright red dress also draws the viewer's eye to the desired subject in this case.

In the final example, "Caribbean Triple" the photographer has spaced elements of his image along the horizontal lines of the imaginary grid, thereby dividing different features into separate thirds within the photograph's frame.

This provides the viewer with interest in different parts of the picture with the lower third showing the boats and the lovely sea colours, the middle third evidencing the small cloud and the top third capturing the incoming aircraft adding drama to the scene.

This approach provides different elements throughout the picture that will help to hold the viewer's attention on the scene for longer.