Fill the Frame
All to often I see photographs of a single child taken horizontally and capturing the child completely head to toe. Then the person taking that photo goes to a kiosk and crops the photo vertically. Lets start by turning the camera. A basic rule of thumb in photography is "Fill the Frame". The best way to explain this is for you to think about your favorite movie. I like to use "A Few Good Men" as an example. The last courtroom scene with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson has them both being cropped to a point where you do not even see their hairline. Why would you crop off the top of someones head? To see their eyes. We have all heard that the eyes are the window to the soul. This is especially true in photography. When the eyes are not only in sharp focus but also the focal point of the photo, the person viewing the photo gets a sense of knowing the person in the image. It makes for a more intimate portrait. In the sample above you can see that the focus is on the eyes of the model and the wall behind her, her hand and arm are both gently out of focus which puts more emphasis on the face and eyes. On this shoot a full length shot was also taken of that pose because we wanted to showcase the dress and shoes also, but we always get several shots like this one because they always add impact to the shoot.
Getting back to filling the frame. Using that rule we get much better results in our photography. It's so much easier to accomplish this by turning the camera vertically. Also unless you designed the shoes and pants your subject is wearing you should make the photo about the person being photographed. So get more of their upper torso, skew the photo a little off center, use a shallow depth of field and you have a professional looking portrait. I use this everyday in my portrait work. There are times that a full length shot is warranted. A bride requires several full length shots to capture the beauty of her dress, and very often fashion shoots require shooting that way also.
So remember "Less is More". By focusing on the eyes you will always come away with a wonderful shot and one that will bring your subject into sharp focus.
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