The Photographer's Eye: Graphic Guide

PART 1

FRAMING

There’s a subtle but important distinction between framing and, let’s say, composition. Framing the shot usually comes before anything else—the first decision. Composition (or design if you like) covers the whole range of organizing the image, while framing concentrates on enclosing the scene, even before thinking about the relationship between elements inside the picture. It’s no coincidence that the term comes originally from filmmaking, where a scene is enclosed (framed), after which the action plays out within it. There may not be quite this degree of separation in still photography, where the image is singular rather than multiple, ...