How to get rule of thirds on Nikon D3200 LCD?

There must be a setting somewhere. When I put the LCD on, by default Nikon put a silly 16 box grid instead of a 9 box grid as required for the rule of thirds. Well, not required, but it would be helpful. Is it possible to get the 9 box grid on a Nikon D3200?

I bet you're right… Most likely there's a simple setting for it somewhere.

And you know the easiest way to find out where/what that setting is?

READ YOUR MANUAL!

If you lost the book, download a new one from Nikon - the PDF versions are quite often better than the little paper books we get with the camera.

Nope, maybe you and I can make our fortune by make screen protectors with rule of thirds drawn on it.

ITMT, you can eyeball it like I do, or you can get some screen protectors and draw the lines on it.

Actually the "rule of thirds" is just a suggestion, so your subject does not have to be exactly at one of the four points of your nine grid rule of thirds.

In fact, most photographers used this rule without ANY grids on their viewfinders.long before digital cameras became affordable.

Just guess, using your eye to place your subject where it looks the best in the frame.

Actually, if you can visualize it, the 16 boxes of your grid can be divided into 4 equal areas. Then each of those 4 areas are split into 4 again, more or less making a target marking the center of each grid.

If you give it a chance, I bet you will get used to the concept of 16 boxes.

Compose your subjects through the view finder instead of the LCD. I know the D3200 doesn't have on demand grid lines but the view finder will help you to better compose your shots.

Nikon doesn't allow you to change the grid on their DSLR's. I don't think any company really lets you change the grid in live view. The same applies to the view finder. Most higher end DSLR's today have LCD screens superimposed on the viewfinder. They have fixed grid lines that can be turned on and off.

However after market companies make focus screens with grid lines and even focus screens with split prism circle and a microprism collar. This is useful for manual focus lenses or just manual focus in general.

As wisely stated by others, the rule of thirds is best done by eye and by experience. There's no "training wheels" mode that will give it to you on the D3200 lcd.

But here's a workaround, if you want to experiment. Find a clear screen protector, such as the ones used for smartphones, and trim it to the size of your D3200's screen. With a ruler and a fine-point Sharpie, divide it into a 3x3 grid. After affixing it to your lcd screen, you now have a temporary rule of thirds learning screen that you can remove after you've outgrown it.

Remember, the "rule" is only a guideline. What it does is get you away from the subject-always-in-the-center photos that bore the heck out of most of us after a while.

A grid is a grid is a grid. Instead of getting four intersections, you have four inner boxes. Position your subject close to any of the outer edges of any of the inner boxes. The outer boxes are borders.