Don't be Square about Framing (page 3)

Using Backgrounds

You can also use the triangle framing in a subtler way in a simple interview. Try placing something of importance to your interviewee in the background, in such a way that you feel the triangle. Maybe the desk pushes back to an award your guest won, or you place a family picture on an end table at the end of the couch. In all cases, be sure to build the visual triangle by moving your camera to get the angle first, and then place your subjects. It will work much more easily that way.

How many times do you see someone taking a picture of a companion on vacation, and the photographer places the subject right next to or under a street sign, iconic landmark or doorway? These are flat-framed photos. By pulling the companion away from the landmark, even as little as 6 feet, you give the framing more depth and interest.

The Diagonal Dutch

No this is not about people who live in Holland, but, once you have mastered image placement on the lines and points, it's time to start leaning no matter where you are. Leaning, canting or dutching the camera, as it is better known in the professional world, is when you tilt the framing of the horizon diagonally in your viewfinder. This gives the image in your frame an added sense of speed or motion. Try shooting a parked car normally. Then try dutching the shot. Which has more power? Which framing makes you feel the sense of varoom? See, it works! Even a static object can have motion. Now try it with a bicycle zooming through the frame. Now that framing has energy!

Make a Transition

So now that you've got the gist of it, all you have to do is transition the shots. Maybe you start tight on a well-framed shot and then slowly zoom out to reveal an even more beautiful framing. Maybe it will be a macro shot framed on a power point that you rack-focus transition to something on the other power point diagonally across from it. Just keep remembering to start and end with awesome framing, and the transition will take care of itself. And if a producer tells you to center the shot, tell him he's just being square.

Michael Reff is Director of Photography for Turner Broadcasting