Experiment with Different Framings with Portraits
In a similar way to our previous post on breaking the rule of ‘Active Space’ when photographing moving subjects - a similar technique can be used when photographing people.
When taking portraits it is customary to position your subject with more space on the side of their head where they are facing (or give them space to look into).
If your subject is looking off to one side you would generally give them a little extra room to look into. This creates balance and gives viewers of the shot a sense of where your subject is looking.
However, as we’ve found with other broken rules in this series of posts, breaking this rule can produce some eye catching shots also.
So next time you’re doing some portrait work experiment with different poses and framing. Take some shots with your subject looking directly at the camera, some with them looking to one side with more space to look into and some the other way around.
You’ll find that you’ll end up with three quite different moods in the three different framings.
This post belongs to our series on Breaking Rules of Photography.
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I like taking portraits of people that only show part of their face. Not due to restrictions, I just like the focus on one part of someone’s face.
It makes me think of the way I visually remember someones face; I find a distinctive element and build from there.
It’s hard to do, though. I’m far from perfecting the technique :P
I like taking photo when the person is not paying attention to the camera. I generally do it on request though, people snaps are not my forte.
I like taking portraits of people running around, acting like their regular, normal self instead setting staged poses. This is an interesting article to learn more about different angles of taking portraits.
I love this photo…it’s intriguing. Even though there is no “actual” active space in the image to the right of the woman’s face (her left), the position of her right eye, which is in sharp focus, is in the center upper third of the image and looking slightly downward. This is what is gives a perception of active space and brings harmony to the image.
PS, loving the breaking the rules series…keep ‘em coming
This blog is slowly turning into digital photography spam. The amazon links within the main text is ANNOYING.
I have been experimenting and like what i’m getting