Using the frame: advice from some course tutors
It is wise to learn the fundamentals of photography, but they are just guides…
Use a lens with a fixed focal length
Why use a fixed lens? As Richard Kalvar points out, a fixed lens enables you to understand where the ‘walls’ are: where the frame begins and ends. It is also useful to get into the habit of physically moving your feet in order to fill the frame. It forces you to get close to your subject and make that ‘connection’ he speaks about.
28mm or 35mm lenses are good starting points, and both are widely used by some of the masters of street photography. Both of these lenses are wide-angled, meaning they exaggerate angles and scale so that objects within the foreground of the frame appear much larger, and vice versa. They are very useful if you want to create images that are layered and dynamic. If you only own a zoom lens, just set it to one focal length and try to resist the urge to zoom.
“I want an intimate connection with the reality that I’m photographing. Intimate connection.” Richard Kalvar Fill the frame, create layers Try to use the space well. Though it can be effective in some cases, placing the subject in the centre of the frame often equates to less interesting photographs. Experiment. Try creating layers in your photograph where the relationship between the elements within the foreground and those in the background contribute to a dynamic overall visual experience. “You have a whole frame to fill and everything has to work, and it’s not just the little thing in the middle.” Richard Kalvar ...Then go beyond ‘just’ arranging things in the frame The most successful images are more than simple arrangements in a frame; rather, they present something meaningful to the viewer. Whether that is a moment of humour, sadness or excitement, it is important to be thinking about the content as well as the form.
“I want the tension within the frame of those different elements to play. So it’s something between the content and the meaning of what I’m trying to draw from that moment. But certainly with a strong sense of form, so the formal elements are operating parallel to the emotional.” Susan Meiselas
Practice, practice, practice
This is the key to improving and is a process that never really ends.
“It’s really a question of determining, really calculating every millisecond, what might be adding to the photograph and what might be taking away, and what elements you want to zoom in on and when you want to zoom out; and that can only be understood and reacted to over time, and it takes years of practice to get there and the process never really ends.”