How to Compose Different Types of Shots

If this is your first time here, then welcome, I’m so glad you’re here! My name is Adrienne. I’m going to show you how to frame, or compose, different types of shots.

Now let’s be specific - a shot is what you capture from the moment you press record on the camera, to the moment you press it again to stop recording. In this video I’m only going to be talking about static shots, where the camera doesn’t move. 

Let’s start from far away and work our way up close.

A wide shot, or an establishing shot, is a wide view of the landscape and you use it to show the viewer your location. 

A long shot is zoomed in closer than a wide shot and it shows your whole body, from head to toe.

This is a medium shot and you can frame it 1 of 2 ways, either head to knee, or from the waist up.

A ¾ shot is similar to a medium shot - this is framed from your head to mid thigh.

A good rule of thumb for a close up is to frame from the head to the shoulders. Now you’ll also notice here that there’s no headroom, meaning the top of my head is touching the top of the frame. In the medium and long shots, you need to leave enough headroom so you aren’t touching the frame, but not so much that you look like you are kind of floating in the middle of the frame.

Finally an extreme close-up. I chose show you this in an overhead shot, and it will show the viewer part of your body or part of an object.

You can make all of these different types of shots by using different focal lengths or zooming in and out, or moving closer or farther away from your camera, or any combination of those things. There isn’t really a right or wrong answer there.

I usually use the medium shot - is that what you usually use?