Aesthetics: Head room and nose room

PRINCPLES OF PICTURE COMPOSITION apply to video pictures just as they do to paintings, print materials, or still photographs. Two related rules that novice video directors and camera operators often forget in the heat of shooting have to do with vertical and horizontal position of subjects in the frame: head room and nose room.

Introduction

Viewers tend to interpret pictures in the context of the picture frame. In the case of video, the frame is the screen--always rectangular in shape with a width to height aspect ratio of either 4:3 (NTSC and PAL) or 16:9 (HDTV).

Video scenes often feature people, and the position of the subject within the frame strongly influences the feelings viewers have about those people. Of particular importance are the vertical and horizontal position of the subject with respect to the frame.

Head room

From earliest childhood we learn to associate height with strength. All the powerful people--the adults--are "up high," while all the weaker people--the children--are "down low."

	Poor head room (left) gives viewers the impression of relative weakness, compared with the strength of less head room (right).

This association of height with strength carries over to our perception of people in pictures. In real life, we tend to judge height in relationship to ourselves. People are taller or shorter than we are.

When we view pictures, however, we tend to use the frame as just that--the frame of reference.We tend to attribute greater strength to people who are high in comparison to the frame, and less to those who are low.

Head room refers to the space between the top of the subject's head and the top of the frame.

While most directors leave a little head room, in general, the rule is: the less head room, the greater the strength.

Nose room

Similarly, viewers experience a variety of feelings on the basis of subjects' horizontal position in the frame. This is complicated because the subjects are often looking, gesturing, or moving in a particular direction, generating viewers' need for more space in which that action may take place.

The subject on the left "feels" cramped because he is too close to the right side of the frame--there is no room for his gaze. The subject on the right has plenty of "nose" room for his gaze or gesture.

The director and camera operator must take that look, gesture, or movement into account and leave enough room for it.

If the subject is looking towards the right frame, leave more room at the right. If the subject is gesturing towards the left frame, leave more room at the left. If the subject is moving towards the right frame, leave them more room at the right to move into.

The greater the profile, the larger the gesture, the faster the movement, the more nose room you should leave on that side.

Try it yourself

Here are five scenes with poor head and nose room. Use your mouse to click and drag the subject around in the frame until you think you have the head and nose room fixed. When you release the mouse, the "director" will give you feedback by telling you which way to pan or tilt the camera. "Tilt down," for example, means drag the subject higher in the picture. "Pan left" means drag the subject ro the right. "Woof" means, "Hold it!"

When you've successfully framed a shot, click on another number at the top to try a different shot.

Viewing tips

Watch television with the sound off and pay attention to how the director and the camera operators are treating head room. You'll see differences in how much headroom and nose room different people use, but you'll also see how the general principles always hold true.

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Bob Hoffman, PhD

Hoffman, B. (2001). Aesthetics: Head room and nose room. In  B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved from