Skip to main content

The discipline of composing full frame

Full frame landscape composition. This rocky arch can be found in Perranporth in Cornwall.

There's an aesthetic discipline in photography which has all but dropped off the radar these days. It's to make your composition in camera using the full available frame and keep that through to the final print without any cropping.

Photographers advocating this discipline often proudly printed their shots in the darkroom with a thin black border, or even the film rebate visible in the print to show that their composition utilised the full frame and negative without any cropping. These days with the digital darkroom to hand most photographers crop their images. It's so easy to do.

One of the reasons for using the full frame is to preserve quality. The more you enlarge a negative in the darkroom the more the quality suffers. The rule also applies to digital photography. Your camera may have 10mp but if you crop a small part out of it you could be left with a 1, 2 or maybe 3 mp image, which will not hold up quality wise when enlarged.

Besides the quality issues surrounding severe cropping there is also the discipline of composing the shot there and then without having to crop later. It does give one a tremendous feeling of satisfaction to get it all right in the camera first time, well at least for me it does. I think it is an excellent way to train your eye. And you get the benefit of using every pixel your camera is capable of delivering.

I'm not against cropping. I do it all the time but I do try to always make the best use possible of the full frame. When it comes to professional work it's a different ball game altogether. You often have to compose very precisely to fit within a certain format, for example a magazine cover, spread, or the proportions of an advert (with the added complication of leaving uncluttered, evenly coloured areas for the text the designers will want to add.) But that's a different blog.

If I do crop then it will be the longest side of the frame. Cropping both the longest and shortest sides of the frame is in my book almost sacrilege and to be avoided at all costs. However you want to approach it; from the point of view of exercising a discipline on your photographic eye, or to ensure maximum quality - getting it right in the viewfinder does give a great sense of satisfaction.

There are many examples of master photographers who composed and printed full frame. Probably the most famous is Henri Cartier Bresson, but a little research on your part will reveal many more full frame master photographers than you perhaps thought.

Cheers,
Paul
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
Hi Paul, glad to see this piece. More and more I try to compose in camera so cropping won't be necessary. Still people look at me like I am coming from another planet when I tell them. I'm very happy I manage to see the image on paper which I envisioned in my mind when pushing the button. Besides, it saves work !

Marleen
14:45
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Approach to taking a portrait

Portrait of Amitabh Bachchan. Click on the image to see larger version. Every portrait is different but there are also elements which are the same, whether you’re shooting the famous or the locally famous. Fame is of course all relative. It depends on profession, accomplishments or media celebrity status. Whoever the ‘famous’ individual is there are millions of people in the world who will never have heard them. For example I photographed the legendary Indian Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, who amongst his many accolades was awarded the Legion d'Honneur, the highest civilian award of France. But I’m positive that many people in North America will not have heard of him – although he has more fans than Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro put together. I find that however well known a person is cracking through egos and insecurities is really important when it comes to getting authentic strong portraits. However I hasten to add that when it came to photographing Amitabh th
1 comment
Read more

The portrait photographer's motivation

Easy access to the Internet and digital photography has resulted in an ever growing number of photographers uploading their images for comments and ratings from peers. Online communities evolve and these mini-societies each have their pecking order, internal groups and communal preferences. Photographers learn from each other. On sites that have a rating system there is often pressure to conform to certain styles, techniques and even subject matter. Although I participate in numerous sites (it's great fun), I recognise the danger of becoming a herd animal and losing the edge of individual creativity. There will always be the creatives that lead the way and the imitators that can only try to follow in their footsteps. This lead me to think about classifying photographers according their inner motivation. So as a bit of fun here are a few different types: The innovator Driven to always find something new, different and creative. Wants to be leading edge. Motivated by creative satisfa
6 comments
Read more

Is professional photography still a viable career?

I am not against amateurs and semi-professionals selling their photography. It's a great way to earn some extra cash. However I am concerned about the level of high quality published work and the standards that clients and the public accept these days. It seems that just about everyone is a photographer. The line between amateur enthusiast and professional is fuzzy to say the least. Photography enthusiasts are selling their images through stock libraries and microstock websites, directly to magazines or through their own and third party sites. They're accepting commissions to shoot weddings, being hired to shoot for magazines and selling fine art prints from their websites. They're teaching photography on the weekend and guiding photographic holidays and safaris. Photography became accessible to the masses with the first non-expert cameras and the famous Kodak slogan"You press the button, we do the rest." The digital camera age has taken the whole thing to a ne
14 comments
Read more