Design Nomenclature / Composition
Framing
Also called frame within a frame, internal framing
- Composition
- Light & Optics
- 2D & 3D
This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.
Elements inside a composition that enclose another and route attention to it — an arch, a doorway, a bank of shadow, a column of text. A frame within the frame. It works by common region and by the contrast of the enclosure against whatever it surrounds.
In practice
'Framing' also names the act of choosing the frame's bounds — what a photographer does before any cropping. Only context tells you which sense is meant.
Not to be confused with
- CropThe decision of what the frame excludes. Cropping changes scale, weight, and reading all at once — a face cut at the crown reads closer than one with air above it — and it operates on the image's content. What is cut is as compositional as what is kept.
- Common regionElements inside a shared bounded area group together even when proximity and similarity argue otherwise. The boundary can be a rule, a tint, or a shadow, and need not be closed. Palmer added it to the classical set in 1992; it reliably beats proximity when the two are set against each other.