Framing in Composition
Unfortunately, we use the term "framing" to refer to two different things. Most commonly, the term is used to mean putting your photograph in a frame to hang on your wall. But another, equally important use of the term refers to an aspect of designing your photograph. Framing refers simply to the arrangement of outside visual elements to add depth or context to your subject. In the photograph to the left, taken at Swallow Falls State Park , the trees frame the composition of the staircase. The main compositional element is the S-curve formed by the staircase, but the trees add framing or context to the composition. In the photograph below, I had to crop the photograph significantly so that the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron would be large enough in the frame to be interesting. But if I cropped too severely, the bird would look unnatural. After all, herons don't fly like that; they only look like that when they are landing, so I decided to fr...