There's a basic guideline that helps the composition of many photographs called the Rule of Thirds. Put simply this involves placing key objects in your photos at thirds across your picture. For example it's usually is better to position the horizon one third of the way down a picture rather than being across the center. When cropping an image the XPE displays lines at thirds across and down the image to help position objects to follow these composition guidelines.
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See also
Google 'rule of thirds'