Light Meter: Headroom 101

Happy New Year! Let’s welcome 2008 with open arms and more knowledge about taking better photographs. We begin with fixing one of the most common mistakes people make, too much headroom.

What is headroom? It is the empty space above the subject’s head, not the empty space in the subject’s head.

You want to fill your frame with the subject, that will eliminate excess headroom and make for a much nicer photo.

Today’s model is Linda Eckwerth aka LindaLou. The poor dear had sat down at Pizzafari waiting for all the other AllEars folks to gather for lunch. I walked in and said I needed a victim, ehh, volunteer and dragged her outside. I’m not kidding this time.

Here we see all that empty space above Linda and Terk’s heads. It’s a waste of space and makes them look as though they fell down in the frame. They are looking at me and thinking, What gives?!

Now, all that space is gone and Linda approves. Filling the frame makes for a better picture. Don’t be afraid to zoom in or get closer to your subject.