Common framing mistakes

Learn framing from the mistakes of others

FORGETTING ABOUT THE BACKGROUND

A common mistake many people make is to concentrate all their attention only on the subject when they look through the camera’s viewfinder, unconsciously ignoring the surrounding elements. Only afterwards, when their film is developed do they look at their prints and wonder how they missed those unsightly power lines that cut through the background or the television antenna growing out of the top of Uncle Herb’s head, or the building in the background of a golf course picture.

Train yourself to quickly look beyond and around your subjects at everything that will be in the picture before pressing the shutter. It can be done quickly once you become used to doing it. Consider what unsightly elements might harm the composition, and then take action to eliminate them. Can you change your shooting angle to get rid of the power lines or the garbage truck in the background? Can you ask Uncle Herb to move sideways a bit so the sprouting antenna is now out of the picture? You get the idea.

The trick is awareness. Once you know what to look for and practice it with every shot, it soon becomes second-nature and you will frame your pictures properly without thinking, automatically eliminating distractions and unsightly surroundings.

SHOOTING A VERTICAL SUBJECT HORIZONTALLY

Many people seem to have their minds set on taking on all pictures with the camera held so that everything is framed like a wide landscape. They just don’t think to turn their cameras 90-degrees for subjects that are more vertical than horizontal.

People, for example, are usually longer than they are wide, even when seated, and yet too many horizontal people shots are taken when a turn of the camera would do so much to improve it.

Be conscious of your subject’s height, whether you are shooting a waterfall, a Christmas tree or your kids, and shoot vertically when the subject's dimensions call for it.

And remember, a good picture contains a subject and context, and nothing else, so by turning your camera vertically, you can usually move in closer to a tall subject and eliminate more extraneous detail.

The family group shown in the picture at the bottom of this page, even though there are three standing together, is still taller than it is wide, yet the photographer is shooting with the lens in horizontal mode. This photographer is not sure if he's shooting a family group or a landscape, and is trying to get both in the same image. It's a common mistake, and it's not the only one being demonstrated here.

To solve the first problem, he should move closer to fill the frame with his subjects, turning the camera so the trio will be vertically framed. The resulting family picture would be much more pleasing. Now, for the second problem - the light and its intensity.

KEEP THE SUN OVER YOUR SHOULDER - NOT!

Another common mistake evident in this picture is having the subjects face into bright sunshine, causing them to squint.

The old "rule of thumb" of having the sun over your shoulder when you take pictures does not apply when people are your subjects. In fact, there are few photography situations where this advice makes sense, since not only does full frontal sun make people squint; it also provides flat lighting, lessening a scene's three-dimensionality.