#3 Use a FrameBy Neil Turner
Composition #3 - Use a Frame
Keeping the viewer's interest within the confines of the edges of a photograph is not a simple task. There has been a lot of research into "Joe Average" and his attention span and the news for us photographers is not good. We have to use a selection of techniques to keep our viewer looking at our image for as long as it takes for him or her to understand what we were trying to say.
One of the simplest ways to hold attention into a picture is to incorporate a frame into the image. This photograph uses a none too subtle window in a child's playhouse to form a border - a kind of psychological barrier to the straying eye. All kinds of things can help with this task in compositional terms and because of the left to right, top to bottom bias with which we westerners read everything the top and right are the most in need of our help. Windows, doors, abstract shapes, blocks of colour and shadows can all perorm this elementary optical trick but there bis rarely an absolute need for the bottom of the photograph to have a retaining feature.
There are some other basic rules that may well be worth remembering too (all rules in photography can be broken) - such as avoiding having people looking out of a frame or cutting through joints on human (or animal) limbs. It's best to avoid having pointless details on the edge of a photograph or having the brightest point in a corner.
Like everything in photography, the best way to learn is to a). have a go, b).get it wrong and c).learn from your own mistakes. Digital photography gives us un-precedented opportunities to experiment at little or no cost, playing with elements of composition is one of the most useful and rewwarding things to practice.