Framing is the way the edges of the picture cut into and bound the image — what is included, what is excluded, and how close the contents press against the borders.
A framing decision can be tight, with figures cropped at the edges and little air around them, or loose, with the subject sitting well inside a generous margin. Tight framing tends to produce intimacy or pressure; loose framing tends to produce stillness or grandeur. The framing also determines what is implied beyond the edge — a hand entering from the left implies a body offstage; a horizon cut high implies sky continuing above. The term is borrowed in part from photography and cinema, where the viewfinder makes the act of cropping explicit, but it applies equally to painting, drawing, and collage.
See also
- composition — what the framing then arranges
- picture-plane — the surface the framing edges define
- scale — what the framing makes things look big or small against