- Why am I taking this photograph?
- What do I want the viewer to see?
- What is the subject of the photo?
- Can I get closer or do I need to move farther away?
- Can I do this with a zoom lens?
- If not, what lens do I need to use?
Even on family snapshots these are the kind of questions you need to ask yourself before tripping the shutter. The viewer should never have to guess what is the subject of your photograph. This brings us to another composition element, "fill the frame." In order to leave little doubt about the subject, you should fill the frame with your subject. You can accomplish this by either moving in closer or using a telephoto lens. This is where a zoom lens pays for itself. I use a Nikkor 28-200mm lens in my travel photography. It allows me to take a decent wide angle photo but I can also zoom in and fill the frame with the main subject I am photographing.
The above photo of the Statue of Liberty was taken from a Princess cruise ship departing New York Harbor. In this situation it is impossible to move closer to the subject. This is where a zoom lens comes in handy.
Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty.................frame filled
Here are some more examples of filling the frame:
As the seaplane approached my boat, I waited until it completely filled the frame of my camera and zoomed the lens out to 200mm.
The second photo leaves little doubt what is the subject of the photograph.
When I first saw this moose at the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center near Soldotna, Alaska I grabbed my camera with a 300mm lens and began shooting. I suddenly realized that he was moving toward me and I could get very close to him. I grabbed another camera with a zoom wide angle and moved close to the barrier fence.
Bullwinkle moved so close that I had to zoom in from 50mm to 18mm to fill the frame.
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