Foundations of Photography: Composition - Filling the Frame

Foundations of Photography: Composition – Filling the Frame

Foundations of photography: composition and filling the frame. Filling the entire frame makes for some very pleasing compositions. It eliminates all the background distractions and really emphasizes the subject. There are many ways to do this. First, you could just move closer to the subject. Second, use a zoom or telephoto lens to fill the frame. As a last resort, you could crop the image on the computer in post processing. Doing it this way will cause you to lose a lot of image data, however.

The best way to learn is to practice. Try this exercise.

Photography Composition

Find an interesting subject, whether it’s a tree, a building, a person, anything. We will use a tree in this example. Now, take a photograph with as much of the subject in the frame as you can. You can likely see that there is a ton of distracting things in the background. Maybe there are more trees and bushes or a building or something in the frame that distracts the viewer from the main subject. Next, walk right up to the tree and point your camera upwards. Take another photograph. You can still see that the subject is a tree, but the image isn’t cluttered with other things. It’s mostly leaves and branches and maybe a little sky peeking through. Finally, find an interesting leaf hanging on that tree, zoom in so the leaf is the only thing in the frame, and take another shot. The shape of the leaf may even tell the viewer what kind of tree they are looking at.

Try taking a portrait of someone up close. Crop part of their face so that you only see the eyes, or so you can only see from the bottom or their chin to their hairline. Flowers are great for filling the frame. The main subject could be the center of the flower with the pedals serving as the background.

With practice you will soon be making incredible photographs by filling the entire frame. Make sure you contact us and let Advanced Media Integration put all those awesome photographs on CD or DVD.