So many images fail to impress for many reasons, but, there is one reason that I wish to outline in this short article written in between client appointments.

Understanding how to frame an image can improve the look of your business images immensely.

Drawing people into your world and into an image will help people to understand your brand and story.

A little while ago I was extremely privileged to be asked to photograph the amazing “House of Dreams” of the artist Stephen Wright.

Once I stepped into the garden and house of this amazing installation, I was faced with one major difficulty. Where do I point the camera and how do I frame the image?

Once I had taken a deep breath I reverted to rote.

I framed the images in my mind’s eye as if there was not much so busyness. In short, I used a standard framing, using leading lines, the rule of thirds, and the busyness fitted into the frame for the majority of pictures. To do otherwise will have created images that did not look right.

These first two images concentrate upon the centering of the doorway in the top image and the gate in the image opposite.

I have also used leading lines to draw the viewer into the image. These two photographs are taken from one direction, and then across the garden, behind me. Always take a moment to look behind you to check out the shot. It might be a killer image.

In this image, for me, one of the parts of the image that is attracting my eye is that of the plastic mannequin heads on the right hand side of the picture.

For these I have placed them in a position that meets the rule of thirds to attract the eye further into the image.

This final image that features in this article, is from the main door of The House of Dreams and to the front gate.

For this shot there are several difficulties that need to be overcome.

Firstly it is light. The outside in the garden is brightly lit by the sun, even though there is shade.

The light my side of the doorway is dim and dark. How can I gain an even exposure across the image? The answer is twofold.

Firstly, by using the settings on the camera, I am slightly over-exposing the image, deliberately so. I then adjusted both the outside and interior elements of the image when editing the image in Adobe Lightroom, but, as neither the outside nor the inside looks over-exposed or under-exposed.

The only part of the image that suffers, slightly is the small element of sky at the top of the image. This is slightly greyer than I would have liked.

For this image I have also framed it off centre. On the left is a flat wall with nothing much of interest in the image. On the right hand side is the glorious mannequin of a girl in orange and black dots. if I had centred this image this plastic life size figure will have been cut off.

I have also positioned the top of the gate at around two thirds of the way up the image.

For all of the images I have deliberately edited them to being a zany, bright, sharp set of colours, which matches the story of the artist, Stephen, and the house itself.

When looking at your own images, think about what can be improved? When taking a photograph, frame the image as best you can when you take the shot. Leave an area around your main subject to allow for the cropping of the image.

Share some results with me, The Time-Lord so that I can enjoy your own work.