The majority of photographers I’ve spoken to over the years acknowledge—sometimes with a hint of sheepishness—that they mastered the ability to see a frame’s center long before they mastered its edges. Really, it’s an odd habit. Everything in the picture’s periphery is regarded as background noise, and the center draws you in like gravity. However, an image’s edges—those subdued four lines surrounding it—often determine whether it feels roomy or claustrophobic. More experienced shooters believe that this is where the true craft resides.
Within the first five minutes of any camera club meeting, you will hear someone bring up the rule of thirds. It is the composition’s gateway drug. Click after positioning your subject on a grid intersection. However, nobody ever discusses what’s going on around the perimeter. A fragment of an unfamiliar elbow. the streetlamp’s accidental top. The supposedly open sky was cut by a telephone wire. An otherwise strong frame can be subtly undone by these details, which are simple to overlook during intense shooting.
In a 2021 article for Fstoppers, Abby Ferguson put it quite simply. Tension is created when there is very little space between your subject and the edge, and tension in the wrong place typically detracts from the image. That isn’t exactly a rule. It’s more akin to a cautionary tale transmitted by those who have committed the error themselves. I’ve also made it quite a few times. You believe you’ve hit the mark, but when you get home, you see a tree that appears to grow out of someone’s ear or a foot that has been severed at the knee.
The intriguing thing is how this idea resembles a more technical idea. Edge detection is a field of computer vision that uses mathematical techniques to identify areas in an image where brightness changes dramatically. It’s how machines perceive an object’s boundaries. The parallel has a poetic quality. The algorithm and the photographer are both attempting to distinguish between one thing and another. The algorithm merely measures gradients, whereas the photographer is making aesthetic decisions and determining what belongs and what doesn’t.
It seems easy to examine the edges before taking a picture. Really, it isn’t. The gaze keeps returning to the topic. You have to practically force yourself to focus on the corners, then the top, and finally the sides. Some photographers refer to it as a kind of pre-flight checklist or final checklist. Some regard it as an instinct that has been developed over thousands of frames. In any case, it’s a habit that distinguishes meticulous work from fortunate work.
The question of what to purposefully include is another. A leading line emerges from the lower right corner. a section of space that allows a portrait to feel serene. The edge is a place to compose as well as a place to take things out. When you observe this in the work of photographers like Saul Leiter or Vivian Maier, you begin to notice how frequently the magic occurs along the edges, where the outside world subtly seeps into the frame and lends the image its significance, rather than in the center.
After years of viewing photos, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that those borders frequently determine whether an image is memorable or not. You become intrigued by the middle. Whether you stay or not is determined by the edges.
