Normally, a photograph is composed of one or more subjects (not necessarily human) in the foreground, and everything else in the background. The subjects and the environment around them are the tools with which the observer will build his assumptions about where the photo was taken, what happened then, and what message it tries to convey, if any. All this is good, but what if another impact on the observer is desired? What if you want to leave little hints, in order to keep him guessing?

From a scenic point of view, taking a photograph of a subject filling a small area in your frame may leave you with many empty spaces that if not effectively used, will render your photo boring. In this case, filling the frame with your subject is simple and effective, as this makes it the only center of interest.

Moving closer to your subjects can make your photo more interesting by removing the surroundings altogether. For example, consider this situation in which you are photographing a wild animal at the zoo. The most common composition is one that consists of an animal, a cage, and maybe spectators. Getting rid of all the element except for the animal itself, may make the photograph look as if it was taken in the wild. Another common use of close-ups is to make the observer use his imagination to come up with different stories from a single photograph . A photo of legs of a man and a woman standing in front of each other can tell many things. The focus here is on the action being performed, rather than who is performing it.

Portraits are usually a strong candidate for closeups. Sure you can take a great portrait with your subject in an interesting environment, but you can also get a very nice one too with just focusing on him. Filling the frame with your subject will produce a very personal look. Getting even closer to just include the face – sometimes with eye contact – can bring a feeling of amicability, as if you were staying face to face with the subject. Including only some body parts in the frame is usually done to produce an abstract feel, or to focus on a certain action.

Close-ups also suit still life photographs very well. This allows you to see usual things in very unusual ways, revealing many details that were not obvious before. This kind of photography is usually used in stock and product photography.

A frame can be filled by walking towards your subject, zooming on it, or by cropping a photograph. Cropping allows you to cut any part you want from any photograph, making it flexible to carefully choose your composition, but you have to know that the image size will be smaller than the original.

The simplest compositions may sometimes be the richest. So, whenever in doubt about your surroundings, try to fill your frame.

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