Rule of Thirds

As a photographer, I appreciated the "Rule of Thirds" when I began creating presentation slides. I learned from my photo experience (as a hobby ... ), to place the "center" of a slide in the upper third of the space - not smack in the center of the slide. When using images of human faces, for example, put the eyes in this upper third. It make for a more interesting image, giving the viewers eyes a "path" through the image.

Another tip I recently learned is to have human images facing towards the center of the image, not towards the edges.

Here is an example of both ideas. Note how the positions implied by these faces are facing towards the center, and I put eyes in "third" positions.

I encourage everyone to consider these ideas when cropping images, and when creating a slide with images and text. Even text only slides (shudder!!!) can benefit from composition. Andrew Dlugan gives a great review of the Rule of Thirds at his blog "Six Minutes ..."