Composition is one of the most important tools to learn when it comes to photography and film. It’s essential for good storytelling, and in this article we’ll explore some of the basic rules, as well as a few more complicated techniques. What we cover here will be relevant for both stills photography or video, and where we can we’ll give you some examples.
10 Rules for Better Shot Composition Framing in Photography and Film: Fundamental Rules
These are the well-known and most used rules of composition that you’ll have touched on at some stage. The important thing to remember is that the rules apply across different mediums, so photography composition and film composition, work on the same principles.
1. Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is probably something you learned or heard about pretty early on when starting to photograph or film. It’s a really simple principle where you divide your frame up into a grid of 9 sections, and then the things of interest in your shot are at roughly the places where those lines intersect or along the lines themselves.
In the image above you can see a rule of thirds grid and where the subject is placed aligns with the rule. These grids are often available to have overlaid on your camera, and in editing software, which can help you think about how you’re composing your images either as you’re photographing or filming them, or while editing.
2. Leading Lines
This is just how it sounds, ‘lines’ (either natural or people-made) guide our eyes through a photograph to a particular point or points. You can combine this with the rule of thirds, so a line leads our eyes to a point that then is aligned with the grid. Lines don’t have to go in a particular direction, or even be straight, they can curve, converge, be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. You might have heard the term Vanishing Point? This is where leading parallel lines converse on the horizon, giving a sense of depth. We’ll look at this specific example a little later.
Here, you can see the tracks through the grass lead us up to the farmhouse and tree on the hill, which is sat just above an intersection on what would be a rule of thirds grid, on the left hand line. The direction of the lines can have impact other than just leading, for example horizontal lines going out of the frame can drag attention away from the photo, ‘off the page’ and vertical lines can convey a sense of power and strength.
3. Headroom
This applies most practically to portraits, but it’s appropriate for any object in the frame: give it headroom. That means leaving some space between the top of the person or object and the edge of the frame. This principle comes from way before photography, from classic portrait painting techniques, and once again it ties in with the rule of thirds, as it was generally accepted that a model’s eyes should be the ‘point of interest’.
Remember, if you’re considering this composition in film, you need to take into account that because of the movement, the headroom won’t always be the same. You might wonder if this also applies during close-ups, and it does. The head of the subject might be out of the frame but if you keep in mind the eyes as the focal point, then there should be sufficient ‘headroom’ between those and the top of the frame.
4. Leading Room
Leading room is similar to the premise of headroom, but involves giving more space in the direction the object or person is facing. If you had a person facing towards camera, looking to our right (their left), you’d want to have them positioned to (our) left so that there was more space to (our) right.
5. Balance and Symmetry
Patterns, either man-made or in nature can be really aesthetically pleasing. Typically, we find satisfaction in odd numbers of things, which is why you quite often see photographs that focus on 3 objects – it just works! Symmetry – where visual weight is equally distributed on either side of a central point – is pleasing too, and so it can be used very effectively in compositions.
One great way to get symmetry is in reflections, like the photo above. Symmetry can be in many different directions (including out from a central point – radial symmetry) and it doesn’t need to be perfect in order for it to work in a composition.
10 Rules for Better Shot Composition Framing in Photography and Film: More Advanced Composition Rules
6. Frame Within Frame
Another rule of composition that is pretty descriptive of what it is… a frame in a frame! This could be a door, a window, an archway or natural elements that act as a frame. Think of this as any surrounding that directs focus to the subject of your shot.
Although the photo above is a great example, it doesn’t have to be as literal as this, you could for example have someone’s face framed by the hood of their jacket.
Having movement within the frame (in a frame!) can be a great way to do this in video.
7. Depth and Layers
If you’re thinking about a photograph or a film still as a sort of 2D image then you might struggle with how you’d layer it or create depth. First, it’s useful to split your image into background, mid-ground, and foreground. What is placed in each section of that will contribute to the sense of depth created. While shadows and highlights will help with this too, it’s useful to think about what will feature in each of these ‘layers’ and add to the image.
This cityscape is a good demonstration of layering, even though the composition could be better. The foreground is the horizontal buildings left to right, the mid-ground is the road leading to the bridge, and the background is the tall tower blocks and sunset sky.
Not every layer needs to be in focus though, think about images are shot through out-of-focus grass for example. One type of layered photograph that always works well is that of mountains from a high vantage point, where you can get layer after layer, disappearing into the horizon.
I mentioned vanishing point a little earlier, and this is a technique that can help with layering too. Vanishing points are two parallel lines that seem to converge when they reach as far as we can see. It’s easier to spot vanishing points in things like cityscapes because there are plenty of leading lines to find in those scenarios, in particular, roads, railway tracks – that sort of thing!
8. Negative Space
Negative space is a great way to give your subject extra drama, but it’s more about the space around it than the subject itself – it should be some form of emptiness, and that could be the sky, the sea, a plain studio background, you get the idea.
Conversely, positive space is whatever your subject is – the thing ‘filling’ an otherwise minimalist area.
9. Size and Scale
Size is the physical dimensions of things within your frame and scale is their size relative to one another. You can manipulate size and scale to emphasise certain things in your compositions, for example making one thing larger than its surroundings can draw our attention and indicate significance.
Size and scale link into depth and perspective too, you create a sense of distance and spatial relationships – larger things closer to the camera can seem more prominent and smaller elements receding into the background can help with the ‘layers’ technique we mentioned earlier.
10. Golden Ratio and Golden Spiral,
The golden ratio comes from the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is the sum of the two that came before it (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on). This sequence is considered visually appealing and you’ve probably seen it used often in wider art and design, including architecture and graphic design. In terms of photography composition and film composition, it can manifest a few ways:
Golden Spiral
This is known as the Fibonacci Spiral too and its curve outwards increases by the ratio we talked about above, with each new part being the sum of the two before it.
Golden Rectangle
This looks similar to the rule of thirds grid, but instead of the sections being equally split, they’re based on the proportions of the Golden Ratio. The principle is the same though, with important parts of the photos being placed either on the lines or where they intersect.
Rules of Composition are Made to be Broken
We learn the photography composition rules, and those of composition in film so that we know how to use them, but also how to break them effectively. Unconventional framing or composition can be a great creative choice if it’s done in the right way. Here are some ideas if you feel like rebelling from the traditional rules of composition. You’ll likely find that in breaking one rule, you’re accidentally following another one, though!
Rule of Thirds
Bucking the rule of thirds technique can leave images a bit flat and uncomfortable, or it can work incredibly well, like in this photo above. You’ve probably guessed where I’m going next… this uses negative space really nicely, so although it’s subverting where the subject is placed, it still looks visually great, and the limited blue colour pallet is nice too.
Broken Patterns
Remember when we talked about leading lines and symmetry? Well, deliberately trying to subvert those can work really well too. This broken pattern should feel really uncomfortable but it adds extra interest to the photograph that an unbroken one might not have done quite so nicely.
Odd Numbers and Central Placement
We know odd numbers tend to work better, and aligning things with one of the many grids we have to choose from, so why does this centred image of four people work? The light is nice, they’re positioned well with their arms around each other which adds interest, but mostly I think it’s that nice layering we talked about – the people in the foreground are in focus and then we get an interesting drop off in the mid ground and more again in the background until it’s just a hazy silhouette.
Shot Composition Rules: Conclusion
Learning the fundamentals of any practice is a wise starting point for creating compelling and impactful images or footage. It’s a great place to start if you’re a newbie, but also it gives you the tools to be able to break those rules and get some great, and unique results too. As with most things, the key is balance: knowing when to stick to those fundamentals, and when to break away, but there’s no right or wrong answer, so don’t be afraid to try out some new things and see what works for you.
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About This Page
This page was written by Marie Gardiner. Marie is a writer, author, and photographer. It was edited by Gonzalo Angulo. Gonzalo is an editor, writer and illustrator.