headroom

HEADROOM
In photography, headroom or head room is a concept of aesthetic composition that addresses the relative vertical position of the subject within the frame of the image. Headroom refers specifically to the distance between the top of the subject's head and the top of the frame, but the term is sometimes used instead of lead room, nose room or 'looking room'to include the sense of space on both sides of the image. The amount of headroom that is considered aesthetically pleasing is a dynamic quantity; it changes relative to how much of the frame is filled by the subject. The rule of thumb taken from classic portrait painting techniques, called the "rule of thirds", is that the subject's eyes, or the center of interest, is ideally positioned one-third of the way down from the top of the frame. Moving images such as film and video cameras have the same headroom issues as still photography, but with the added factors of the movement of the subject, the movement of the camera, and the possibility of zooming in or out.
Perceptual psychological studies have been carried out with experimenters using a white dot placed in various positions within a frame to demonstrate that observers attribute potential motion to a static object within a frame, relative to its position. The unmoving object is described as 'pulling' toward the center or toward an edge or corner. Proper headroom is achieved when the object is no longer seen to be slipping out of the frame—when its potential for motion is seen to be neutral in all directions.
Headroom changes as the camera zooms in or out, and the camera must simultaneously tilt up or down to keep the center of interest approximately one-third of the way down from the top of the frame. The closer the subject, the less headroom needed. In extreme close-ups, the top of the head is out of the frame, but the concept of headroom still applies via the rule of thirds.
In television broadcast camera work, the amount of headroom seen by the production crew is slightly greater than the amount seen by home viewers, whose frames are reduced in area by about 5%. To adjust for this, broadcast camera headroom is slightly expanded so that home viewers will see the correct amount of headroom. Professional video camera viewfinders and professional video monitors often include an overscan setting to compare between full screen resolution and "domestic cut-off" as an aid to achieving good headroom and lead room.
One of the most common mistakes that casual camera users make is to have too much headroom: too much space above the subject's head.

Examples

A portrait of guitarist Adrian Legg demonstrates an excessive amount of headroom, with the subject's nose centered in the frame (a common mistake.)

A subtle lack of headroom with the subject's eyes only 28% of the way down from the top, not 33%

Good composition, with the subject's eyes one-third of the distance down from the top of the frame, following the rule of thirds

For moving images, the action of zooming in to fill the frame with the subject requires the simultaneous tilting up of the camera, shown by the red lines, to maintain the correct amount of headroom. Conversely, zooming out requires tilting down.

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

The photograph to the right demonstrates the application of the rule of thirds. The horizon sits at the horizontal line dividing the lower third of the photo from the upper two-thirds. The tree sits at the intersection of two lines, sometimes called a power point or a crash point. Points of interest in the photo don't have to actually touch one of these lines to take advantage of the rule of thirds. For example, the brightest part of the sky near the horizon where the sun recently set does not fall directly on one of the lines, but does fall near the intersection of two of the lines, close enough to take advantage of the rule.

The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section. The main reason for observing the rule of thirds is to discourage placement of the subject at the center, or prevent a horizon from appearing to divide the picture in half.

When photographing or filming people, it is common to line the body up with a vertical line, and having the person's eyes in line with a horizontal one. If filming a moving subject, the same pattern is often followed, with the majority of the extra room being in front of the person (the way they are moving).