Composition and Framing | The Soul of Photography
Ever wondered why after having proper lighting conditions, your photographs aren’t much impactful as that of professionals. Yeah, experience can be the very first reason behind this. But there is another reason, i.e. Composition of frame. Framing plays an important role in implementation of your idea in a photograph. You can frame your image all according to you if your wanna show some creativity which was there in your mind. Framing is one thing in photography that is fluid. But there are few rules of framing and compositing a frame which can make any image look much appealing.
PS: It is not mandatory to use these rules every time. That’s why I called it ‘fluid’.
What is Framing?
Framing is a photography compositional technique of drawing viewer’s attention to the subject of your image by blocking the parts of the parts of the image with something or creating a path towards the main subject in the scene. It enables the viewers to see the image’s context and feel certain emotions presented on the image.
Let me now share few rules/techniques of composition to frame the subject in your image and grab all your viewer’s attention towards it-
- Symmetry
As we know, symmetry creates a sense of harmony in any design, architecture, furniture or art. In case of photography, it also creates a sense of visual cohesion where well structured composition produces an image displaying aesthetically pleasing proportion and balance.
Symmetry is achieved when two almost identical halves of an image seem equal in balance and importance. One needs to place elements vertically, horizontally or diagonally to create symmetry.
2. Rule of Thirds
This is the most famous rule of composition where a frame is divided into equal parts (both horizontally and vertically) and the subject is placed on any one of the intersection and not in the centre. By placing your subject at these spots, one creates a more visually pleasing image that naturally helps guide the viewer’s eye.
In this image above, the subject (man sitting on a wall) is placed at one of that point where the lines will intersect (if drawn). In case if he was placed at centre, the image would not have created much sense would have felt ‘unfinished’ somehow.
3. Fill the Frame
Filling the frame is another technique of composition where the subject of interest occupies a significant area in a frame. While doing this, one have to be mindful of everything he/she includes in frame (if there is any), except for the main subject. By filling the frame, one add instant impact to the image.
For instance, look this image above. The face of this lady covers up the whole frame which makes impact only on her (specifically on her eyes), which tells about the mood of this subject. Filling the frame also helps to pop-up the details of the subject.
4. Leading Lines
This composition technique is my personal favourite, as it helps to draw the viewer’s attention to the point of interest in a scene. Leading lines are not drawn imaginary lines (as those in Rule of Thirds). They are existing lines within the frame of photograph which the photographer has deliberately aligned by adjusting their camera. The word ‘lead’ clearly signifies the role of these lines.
You see, how thes edges of roads and trees besides are creating a path ‘leading’ viewer to the main subject. That’s how it works.
5. Positive/Negative Spacing
This rule of composition is kinda part of ‘Rule of Thirds’. The rule asks to leave a significant portion unoccupied, surrounding the main subject. Now, leaving the space depends on the direction in which your subject is focussing. Didn’t understood? Don’t worry, I’ll explain.
Look at this photograph. The main subject is framed at the centre here which means the photographer here didn’t used ‘Rule of Thirds’. But as I said, it’s not a compulsion to always follow these rules. Now, the empty space in front of subject (direction where he is looking) is positive space and the empty space behind him is negative space. Most of the time, negative space are to be avoided and the use of positive space is recommended.
But again, here is the twist. Photography also depends on photographer’s creativity. Therefore, sometimes photographers use negative space intentionally, to create a sense that they wanna show through their photographs.
The image here is the example. Above 90% of this frame is covered with the sky (negative space) and you can barely see the main subject. But this is the creativity photographer has shown here. He intentionally used negative spacing to create a sense of minimalism.
So, these were some rules of composition used while framing the subject. The combination of knowledge about these rules and one’s creativity can definitely create amazing shots. From next time, whenever you shoot something, try to use these techniques and you’ll feel the difference.
Thanks for reading!
