Leaving too much dead space

One of the first decisions to make when framing up a shot is whether the subject or scene suits a horizontal or a vertical format. Generally, taller subjects suit the latter format, although including some of the environment in a wider shot may add more interest. You can crop a vertical image out of a landscape-format shot when you edit the original shot, but you’ll also reduce the image size. If you’ve got the time and space on a memory card, it’s worth ‘bracketing’ your composition, in the same way that you would bracket the exposure.

Here, the strong leading lines and symmetrical subject lend themselves to a tighter, vertical crop