Add Visual Interest To Your Photos With The Rule Of Thirds

Step 3: Create A New Action In The Actions Palette

Go to your Actions palette (it's grouped in by default with the History palette) and click on the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the palette, as shown below:

This brings up Photoshop's "New Action" dialog box:

Name your new action "Rule of Thirds Grids" or something similar of your choosing. I'm creating my action in the Default Actions set, but feel free to create a new set or use an actions set you've previously created. To be able to access this action quickly with a keyboard shortcut, I've chosen the F2 key from the drop-down list of Function Key choices, along with Shift and Control, which means that once I've recorded my action, I'll be able to access it by pressing Shift+Ctrl+F2 (the Ctrl key would be the Command key if I was using a Mac). I've left the Color option set to "None". When you're done, click the Record button and let's begin creating these grid lines while Photoshop patiently and dutifully records each and every step along the way.

Step 4: Add A New Horizontal Guide

With Photoshop recording our steps, go up to the View menu at the top of the screen and choose New Guide..., which will bring up the New Guide dialog box. We're going to add our first of four guides which will become our Rule of Thirds grid.

For "Orientation", select Horizontal, and in the "Position" value box, type in 33.3%, then click OK. You'll see your first guide appear over top of your photo:

Your guide probably won't show up in yellow. By default, guides are drawn in cyan. I've changed mine to yellow to make them easier to see. You can change the color of your guides as well by going to Photoshop's Preferences and then to the Guides, Grids & Slices preferences. The option to change the guide color is at the very top.

Step 5: Add A Second Horizontal Guide

Let's add a second horizontal guide. Again go back to the View menu and again choose New Guide..., to bring up the New Guide dialog box. Choose Horizontal again for "Orientation", and this time, type 66.6% for the "Position" value:

Click OK, and the second guide appears over the photo:

Step 6: Add A New Vertical Guide

Go back to the View menu once again and again choose New Guide... (see how this is becoming time consuming and boring?). This time choose Vertical for "Orientation", and type 33.3% for the "Position" value:

Click OK, and we now have three guides over our image. We're almost there:

Step 7: Add A Second Vertical Guide

Still awake? Good, because we have just one more to add. One last time, go up to the View menu, choose New Guide..., select Vertical for "Orientation", and finally, type 66.6% for the "Position" value:

Click OK, and we're done! We now have our Rule of Thirds grid thanks to our four guides:

Step 8: Press 'Stop' To Finish Recording The Action

Now that we have our Rule of Thirds grid, we can stop recording the action. Click the Stop icon at the bottom of the Actions palette to complete our "Rule of Thirds Grids" action:

Now that we've saved the grid creation process as an action, the next time we need it, we can simply select the action from the Actions palette or use whichever keyboard shortcut you assigned for it We won't have to do this manually again.

And now that our Rule of Thirds grid is in place, we can finally use it to crop and move our image into position, which we'll do next.