The Photographer's Eye: Graphic Guide

MOVING OUT

As with everything to do with composition, there’s always an opposite to the expected and sensible way of putting an image together. If the natural way suggests a figure moving into the frame, why not have one moving out? Pulling the viewer’s attention away from where it might think it wants to go can be an effective way of keeping the interest alive. Here, we’re in an English seaside resort at the end of the day, and of the 21 frames shot, this is the one I liked best, partly because of the nicely curved stance, and also because the movement of the girl out of the frame made it different from the expected inward-facing, drawing-attention-into-the-frame versions. There’s some logic at work here, because the lit façades of the harbor-front ...