Headroom

What is headroom? Why is it important to the videos you are making?

    Headroom is the space between the top of the subject's head and the top of the frame. Headroom is variable depending on the style and type of shot. Headroom is important to the videos I'm making as it creates visual balance. If there's not enough headroom, the shot starts to crop the subject's head and makes it feel claustrophobic. If there's too much, the shot feels bottom heavy and unbalanced. In most circumstances, you can use the rule of thirds and place the eyes on the top horizontal line to have a balanced headroom. Although it helps, when it comes to wider shots than medium shots or tighter shots like extreme close ups, putting the eyes on the third line isn't going to balance the headroom. Instead, with wider shots that show a subject's entire body, you should focus on symmetry and have an equal amount of space under and above the subject. This guideline is also useful for close ups as well.