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Photo Answers
Visible thirds
Q
Does Photoshop
have a rule-of-
thirds grid I can
keep visible all the time?
Caroline HartA
Most editing software, including
Lightroom, Camera Raw and
Photoshop, will allow you to
have a rule-of-thirds grid visible
on the image when you are using the Crop
Tool as a compositional aid. In Lightroom
you can change this to a different overlay
(such as the golden spiral) really easily by
pressing the letter O while using the Crop
Tool; but like you Caroline, I find the
rule-of-thirds grid most helpful.If you are shooting raw and
using Camera Raw to edit, you’ll
know the Crop and Rotate Tool
has a rule-of-thirds grid visible
when you use it, and that’s
the same in Photoshop itself
when you select the Crop Tool.
However, if you want to have the rule-of-
thirds grid visible on an image even when
the Crop Tool isn’t selected, you need
to set it up via Preferences and the
Guides, Grid & Slices options.Here’s how to do it:
1 In Photoshop, press Cmd+K (in macOS)
or Ctrl+K (in Windows) to open Preferences.
2 Click on Guides, Grid & Slices.
3 Where it says Grid in the dialog box,
change the settings as follows.
Colour: Light Gray (you can choose anycolour you want, but I like this)
Gridline Every: 100 Percent
Subdivisions: 3
4 Click OK.Once you’ve done this, a simple grid
that divides the image into thirds both
horizontally and vertically can be switched
on and off at will. To turn it on, press Cmd+’
(apostrophe) in macOS or Ctrl+’ in Windows.
You can use the same keyboard shortcut
to switch it off, too. Now you’ve got full
control over your composition!Andrew
JamesAndrew is a highly
experienced writer
and photographer –
if you have a problem,
he is here to help.Andrew^ JamesIf you want to see a rule-of-thirds
composition grid even when you’re
not cropping your image, there’s
a simple Photoshop trick.