Photo 52.2: Creative Complexity: Filling the Frame {Week 41}

This is week 41 of Photo 52.2. While the setting is often important in a photograph, sometimes our artistic intention is to draw full attention to our subject. Filling the frame edge to edge by moving closer, zooming in, or cropping the image in post-processing eliminates background distractions and forces the viewer to examine the subject in close detail. The technique can be used to great effect with a single subject occupying the entire frame, but we might also fill the composition with multiple elements, ensuring that there is a minimum of unused space within the borders. In a portrait, filling the frame with the subject—particularly close-ups of the face—can capture personality or mood that would get lost at more of a distance. Non-human subjects also benefit from this close inspection of all or part of the object, and filling the frame is often used in macro photography to isolate important details. While filling the frame is a compositional technique in itself, combining it with other techniques, such as repetition or rule of thirds, can lend even more impact to the image. Click HERE to see all the images together.