Have you ever thought of why photographs and pictures are placed in a frame for display. Aside from art-decor, one of the main function of a frame is to focus the viewer's attention onto the photograph.

However, usage of frames are not restricted to finished and printed photos. By composing your photos through natural frames you can focus the attention of the viewer to the subject of the photograph. Framing, if executed correctly and purposefully also creates a sense of depth.

Many creative possibilities exists to be used as frames such as doorways, windows, hanging branches from trees, a hole in the wall - well you get the idea.

In the photo above, I have used a turret-hole as a frame to capture the essence of the picture and to depict the powerful sensation of a cannon aimed into the city beyond. Without the dark frame of the turret's hole, this composition would have lost this impact. The direction of the cannon also draws the viewers eyes to explore the city beyond in the background. You can also feel a sense of depth with the use of this framing technique.

In the shot of the pier walkway above, a simple wooden doorway is used as an basic but effective framing element. A smaller aperature is used here to keep both the frame and background subjects in sharp focus.

As shown in the final black and white photograph above, a frame need not always cover all four borders of the photo. An interesting frame is formed by the diagonal lines of the buildings to the top left and bottom right of the photo diverging as it moves from the bottom left to the top right of the photo, framing the skyscraper which is the main subject matter. The top of the skyscraper dissapearing into the mist gives a somewhat mysterious and surreal feeling to this picture.

When using frames, make sure that you are focusing the lens on the main subject and not on the framing element, otherwise you will get a sharp frame but blurry background due to depth of field issues.

It is basically better to use a frame which is darker in color or lighting than the main subject. For exposure, expose for the subject and let the frame fall into darkness. However there are times that you may want to have some details on the frame. In this case you would want to balance exposure to bring just some of the details of the frame into light but not too much.

Generally it is not advisable to use flash when composing with a frame. You would end up with a very bright frame (since it is nearer and would be lighted brightly by your flash) which tends to overpower the main subject.

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Comments (3)

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written by Ayanda , May 12, 2009

Thank you for the direct answers keep it up

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written by Merard , May 19, 2010

Who took these photographs?

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written by Shirley T , May 19, 2010

Hi Merard, These pictures were captured by mywisewife.com's photographer.

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