I enjoy your blog, which I actually found through Garr Reynolds's blog. I have gone through a number of Keynote templates through the years, including designing my own. After all was said and done, I have pretty much completely moved over to the "Bevel" theme over at:

http://www.keynotethemepark.com/content/pages/set8.html

There are many beautiful themes over at this site (some more distracting than others), but I find that the masters in this theme are the perfect mix, with single images as backgrounds, to combine simplicity and aesthetics.

As a photographer, I have a love/hate relationship with the rule of thirds, it's not a rule, it's more of a guideline. It should always be presented as "sometimes an image is more interesting when the main subject is placed on one of the grid lines"

In your example, also notice that the photographer is using another compositional "rule" or concept, that is a ratio of 2/3rds sky to 1/3 earth (water in this shot). This gives the sky a nice open feel, with the earth not weighing down the composition too much. Imagine what the image would look like if the tree were positioned in the upper left corner. It would still follow the rule of thirds, but it wouldn't be as strong.

One of the best explanations of when to use and not use the "rule of thirds" comes from an excellent book,"Universal Principles of Design" by
Lidwell, Holden, and Butler where they suggest not to use the rule of thirds when there is a "...strong Primary element that is reinforced by the surrounding space"

Since I believe that presentation slides are read and scanned more like magazine ads with a mixture of text and images, and less like straight photographs I would be more likely to apply the rules of graphic design, and less likely to use the rules of photographic composition.

After all as I photographer I make an assumption that any viewer will be able to see my entire photograph, so I can compose freely. When I construct presentations, I have to assume that the lower portion of my slide may be obstructed in some way. Either the screen is too low for the audience, or someone's head or hat may block part of the slide. In this case I may lose impact if I put valuable information in the lower part of my slide.

I highly recommend the book "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes?" For a scientific look on how to create with words and images in ways that get your message across.

In general I don't think the "rule of thirds" is a good concept to use when designing slides, unless you are talking about placing a photo on the upper right intersection of the grid. It would depend on what the goal of any slide is. There may be many examples where it is a good idea. I am guessing we shall see.

Maybe I’m missing something, but aren’t most of the picture-and-bullets masters in Keynote using rule of thirds composition? If so, you might be able to use those as a jumping off point.

I’d support thannclark’s view to an extent- as another photographer/designer, I think the ‘Rule of Thirds’ can feel too much of a constraint at times.

However, I can also see that a powerpoint pres will need a very bold grid, and one that’s easy to work with. So I wouldn’t get too bothered by criticisms of the rule of thirds in your case. Especially since most screens are 3:2 aspect- ideal for the rule of thirds.

Finally, your previous slides weren’t that bad- I liked the use of a single ‘iconic’ image- much more memorable than lots of clutter and detail.

Go well

In an effort to create more effective presentations, I have abandoned the Powerpoint/Keynote environment altogether and started using OmniGraffle for creating slides. Most of my presentations are geared toward presenting rather complex scientific principles to rather non-technical audiences, so a move away from bullet points and text-laden presentations was critical. I find that using Omnigraffle, while it lacks some of the niceties like timers and presenter notes, pushes me to create slides from scratch, based on the particular information that I am trying to communicate, rather than forcing my ideas into pre-defined templates. I make heavy use of the drawing and flow chart tools within OG, which are far better than those in Keynote.

I too was impressed by Garr’s golden ratio principle, and implemented a 3x3 layer within OG that I simply turn off when it is time to present. I use it regularly, and find that it improves the consistency of the presentation.