Composition

Shooting Through: How Serge Ramelli's Paris Frame-Within-a-Frame Technique Changed How I Scout Locations
Video Tutorials

Shooting Through: How Serge Ramelli's Paris Frame-Within-a-Frame Technique Changed How I Scout Locations

Last month I was shooting a beauty campaign in downtown Portland, and the client wanted “something architectural but not cold.” I kept setting up against clean brick walls and getting exactly that: clean, cold, technically correct, completely lifeless. I knew the problem. I was thinking in single planes. The shot needed depth, a sense of place that didn’t swallow the subject. I’d been sitting on this Serge Ramelli tutorial for weeks and finally watched it the night before our second shoot day.

How Serge Ramelli's Frame Within a Frame Technique Quietly Transforms a Flat Travel Portrait
Video Tutorials

How Serge Ramelli's Frame Within a Frame Technique Quietly Transforms a Flat Travel Portrait

Last month I was editing a set of outdoor portraits shot near a wrought-iron archway in downtown Portland, and something felt off. The subject was sharp, the light was decent, but the images kept reading as snapshots rather than photographs. I kept adding contrast, pulling shadows, nudging the white balance. Nothing worked. Eventually I realized the problem wasn’t in the tones at all. It was the framing. The archway was there, but I hadn’t actually used it.