Composition tip: Decide what you want to show and what you don't

Thursday 24 April 2025, 16:32 by Elja Trum | 2,274 views | 2 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

When composing your image, you're deciding what to place where in the frame. But you also make many choices about what you don't want in the frame. The elements that distract from the image you have in mind.

Kristel - f/2.8, 1/100s, 200 ISO @ 44mm
That wall socket behind your model, for example. Or that ugly radiator. You usually don't want these in the frame, so you choose your framing so that the distracting element falls just outside the frame.

You could, for example, zoom in a little to keep things at the edges just outside the frame. That way, only what you want to show appears in the image.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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2 comments

Mac wrote on Monday 28 April 2025 at 07:58 | reply
I once got taught this lesson by a photographer. all the secondary elements in a photo are more important than the subject. They can make or break your photo.
Translated from Dutch.

Lauran van Schilt wrote on Tuesday 29 April 2025 at 11:06 | reply
Sometimes the secondary details add value to the photo. The trick is to recognize this, and that does mean you should never cram your photo full. Sometimes the art of leaving things out is needed. A trained eye helps a lot with that.
In fact, you force the viewer to look where you want them to as a photographer.
Translated from Dutch.

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