 Can you imagine life today without...
No, we’re not going to say “the internet,” “mobile phones,” or “next-day free shipping.” Can you imagine life today without... rectangles? Stay with us on this. There’s a method to this seeming madness. Rectangles. Boy do we ever take them for granted. Sure, they’re the shape of buildings and Amazon boxes, but for the purposes of this discussion, they’re also, almost exclusively, the shape of the boundary in which you present creative materials to your audience. Think about it. Everything you must design for—everything your audience consumes—is bounded by a rectangle:
Need we go on? Fact is, from the days of the first framed canvas, creators have been creating within rectangles. Today, we take that for granted. But we shouldn’t. That’s because there’s an art to composing for rectangles, regardless of the medium. Since we’re so surrounded by rectangles, you’d think that 1) everyone was aware of this fact, and 2) everyone intuitively knows how to compose for them. Both of those assumptions, clearly, are wrong. Thus this article... thus the need for this article. Know the rules before you break them “Composition,” in this context, means “where you put things inside that rectangle.” And three classic rules of composition come to mind, which have evolved over the years: 1. The Rule of Thirds. You’ll see this one in every photography textbook ever printed. It basically divides a rectangle into a tic-tac-toe board, and tells you that you should place your subject at any of those intersections. Why? Well, this rule will tell you that most people’s instinctive response to framing a subject in the viewfinder would be to center them. Put their face right in the middle, equidistant between left and right, and top and bottom. Therefore, putting them where they’re about a third of the way across (and/or down) will look more pleasing to the eye, less “mug shot-ish”/less “deer in the headlights.” 2. Leading space. You’ve got a composition of a person looking off into the distance. How do you frame that? This rule tells you to give them “breathing space.” That is, if they’re looking off to the right, you should park them toward the left of the frame (a third of the way from the left border, if you’re also following the Rule of Thirds). This way, there’s room for your eye to go where their eyes lead you. It’s a nice place to park, say, a headline. Look at any stock-photo website; you’ll see tons of photos framed like this, for that exact reason. Leading space creates comfort. It respects the subject. It provides balance. (If you’ve read any of these articles from Copel Communications before, you so know that all of this is a set-up!) 3. Bounded/unbounded composition. This is one of the basic tenets of photojournalism. It asks you to make a choice. Do you want to show the entire subject within the frame? Or would you prefer to show just a portion of it, letting the rest bleed out of the picture? The former “bounds” the subject, and tells the viewer: “Here’s the entire story.” The latter “unbounds” the subject, and tells the viewer: “This is just a part of the story. It’s bigger than the portion you’re seeing here.” So following this rule will make “bounded” subjects stand alone, whereas, say, an “unbounded” crowd scene (or, say, cemetery) may appear to stretch for miles—when, in fact, it may only extend a few inches beyond where the photographer chose to frame it. Breaking the rules As always, you have to know the rules before you break them. Which is why we took the time to define each of the three rules above. These rules didn’t just appear out of the blue. They evolved. They withstand the test of time. They serve a very good purpose. Most of the time, you’re best off following them. But sometimes you’re not. 1. Breaking the Rule of Thirds. Sometimes, you’ll want your subject to be pegged like a deer-in-headlights. You’ll want them to look uncomfortable. Or you’ll want absolutely perfect, anal rigor for your composition. Those are perfect times to break the Rule of Thirds. 2. Breaking the leading-space rule. This one’s even more fun to break. Picture this: Your subject is peering off, intently, to the right. What happens if you park them at the very far right side of the frame, leaving a ton of empty space to their left? Bingo: You’ve created tension, and suspense. Tension, because the audience can’t see what your subject is looking at, when they're inured to just seeing it. And suspense, because what’s about to come up behind them? This type of composition is routinely used in horror movies. Want to see one of the best-ever usages of “invading what seems to be safe negative space”? Just watch the first appearance of the shark in the movie Jaws. You’ll see. 3. Breaking the bounded/unbounded composition rule. This one is a no-brainer. You can make a crowd look smaller simply by showing its edges. You can make a sole subject seem bigger than life by having it break the bounds of the frame. It’s entirely up to you. The key thing is to always know that this tool is in your kit, and to employ it judiciously. Get help We know about these rules—and how to break them—because we employ them—and break them—all the time on our clients’ behalf. If you need help with that next creative assignment, contact us. We’d be delighted to help.
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