Dirty Frame

Something near the lens pushes into the edge of the shot, so the camera looks as though it is in the room rather than watching from outside it.

It also puts the audience somewhere specific. A shoulder, a door edge or a plant at the corner of frame implies a position, and the shot starts to feel like a point of view.

Place the intruding element at an edge or a corner, close enough to the lens that it falls well out of focus. A quarter of the frame width is a common size for a shoulder.

Keep it soft. A sharp foreground object becomes a second subject and the shot turns into a two-hander with a plant.

Give it a shape the eye can name even when blurred. A vertical door edge reads as a door edge at any softness, and a formless mass reads as a smudge on the lens.

Use it for surveillance, eavesdropping, and dialogue coverage where somebody is listening. It is also the quickest way to stop a flat interior from looking staged.

Skip it when the frame has to be read fast. An insert or a product shot cannot afford anything in the way.

A clean frame is the opposite and has nothing between camera and subject. If you can see the whole subject with no obstruction, the frame is clean.

Foreground interest is the broader idea, and it can sit anywhere near the lens for depth. A dirty frame specifically intrudes at the edge and reads as something in the way.

The model returns the foreground element sharp and central, which makes it the subject. Say it sits at the edge, out of focus, and takes about a quarter of the frame.

The second failure is a foreground so heavy the subject disappears. State how much of the frame it covers and say the subject stays fully readable.