Using the “Rule of Thirds” or other constructs to ensure your image is balanced and working towards where the eye goes first in a image is a way to improve your images or at least verify the image against a standard grid.

I was watching a webinar yesterday and the presenter didn’t know that the Crop Tool in Capture One could display a “Rule of Thirds” or other grids as an overlay on an image. You can also show the grid at anytime by clicking on the Grid Icon on the Toolbar at the of the Capture One workspace.

So at any point in time you can show the currently configured grid by just clicking on the icon. You can also set up to display the current grid every time you select the crop tool. This will allow you to crop and position an image to a pleasing position. You turn on the grid in the crop tool by checking the Show Grid While Cropping checkbox in the Crop tool.

The Grid tool controls which of three different grids Capture One provides displays when activated. The most common and adjustable one is the Rectangular grid. The Long Edge and Short Edge values determine how many lines in each direction. The 3×3 pattern is your standard Rule of Thirds. You can make any number of grids with this option although at some point you may have more lines than image if you get carried away. Similar to the Rectangular grid is the Golden Ratio grid with I won’t go into much here other than to say it a center weighted 3×3 grid.

You can change the color of the grid so if you are working on an image with one predominate color you can find something that you can actually see. Follow Crop keeps the grid contained in the area of the crop. The image with the rectangular overlay looks like this.

The other option is the Fibonacci Spiral which is starts with a small square and doubles the size of the square over and over 1×1, 2×2, 4×4 etc. Which gives a spiral which that can be used to move from the subject of the image around and around as the eye would go.

The Clockwise and Mirror checkboxes are used to determine which quarter of the image the spiral starts on.

So Capture One has the tools to aid you in balancing your image that can come in handy. I usually have the 3×3 Rectangular grid set when I crop. It doesn’t hurt to see where things line up but remember you are the image maker and if you want to place the subject of the image somewhere other than what some rules says, go ahead and do it. If you are trying for balance the Grid Tool just might help.