Marc showing the concept of “framing”, originally uploaded by marc silber.

My Uncle “Sambo” was a WW II “Top Gun” pilot, he drove a Corvette and he was a photographer—wow what a mix! He was the one who really helped me move from being a snap shooter to being a photographer when I was about 11.We used to go out and shoot together, I’ll never forget when he told me that I had to “frame” my photographs. He said, “if you just shoot this field with that tree in the middle of it, it has no real impact. But look, move over here with the oak tree at the edge of the frame and now look at it.” He was right, it was like magic, the shot just looked better!

From then on I framed every shot and now I was a photographer! That was the instant turning point for me.

Time passed and framing was something I never had to think about, it was an instinctive action, like taking in a breath. But when I started to give workshops and approached this with students I found I had to relook at it all over again, “how do I get this concept across?”

The definition of “frame” in the Encarta dictionary is

Image border: the border or set of borders of an image. Form surrounding framework for something: to form a surrounding border or framework, especially a decorative or contrasting one, around something.

Do you see what you’re doing when you frame? You form an edge to the scene, or a framework, but this can be a contrast, a line, shape, etc.

Henri Cartier-Bresson said,

“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.”

When you have a great shot, it tells the significance of the event—what the story is— as well as its proper form, which framing helps to give it.

Ansel Adams taught his students to see shots by handing out a “framing card” which was file card with a rectangle cut out of its center. Students were told to go frame shots using the card—no camera! You would hold the card to your eye, and move in or out, to the sides, up and down to frame your shots. What a great exercise this was!

Here’s how you can improve your eye and ability to frame (yes, it takes practice just like tennis, cooking or surfing (my fav):

1. Watch this short video where I talk about framing and using the framing card.

2. Open up this framing card and print it on a 3×5 card (don’t worry abut the “Zone System” on it  for now.) Cut out the black rectangle so you have a hole about the shape of the images you’re shooting

3. Do the drill above: hold the card to your eye, and move in or out, to the sides, up and down to frame your shots, until you just start seeing the shots.

4. Now get out your camera and shoot. First with no regard for—in fact don’t frame the shot. Then same shot, frame it.
5. Compare the two until it clicks.
6. Send me your best shot, but only one, and I’ll give you honest feedback. I’ve set up a Flickr group for this. Also stay tuned on my FaceBook.
7. Keep doing 1-4 over and over for weeks.

BTW, Years later Uncle Sambo gave me his Roliflex, what an amazing camera. I loved the big square negatives and took it all over including my series My Mexico.

Good Shooting!