The action library

Dance actions need the whole body in frame, feet included, with a little floor underneath. A chest-up crop leaves the model nothing to move. Loose clothing animates more convincingly than a tight silhouette, and a plain floor beats a crowded one, because backgrounds tend to smear once a body starts turning.

Frame head to feet and leave space in the direction the movement will travel. Arms held slightly away from the body give the model clean edges to work from; arms folded or hands in pockets are the usual reason a limb comes out wrong.

The instrument matters more than the pose. Get the hands in frame and unobstructed, keep them away from the torso so their outline is readable, and light the face enough that the expression survives. Fingers are the hardest thing in the picture and the first thing to look odd.

A face fills this kind of clip, so shoot it that way: head and shoulders, roughly front on, eyes open and unobscured. Even, soft light on the face is worth more than resolution. Sunglasses, heavy shadow across one eye and a face turned past three quarters all make the animation drift.

Full body, standing, with clear space around the limbs. Gym mirrors, equipment crossing the body and busy floor markings all confuse the outline the model has to move. Fitted athletic clothing actually helps here, because the body edge is obvious.

Decide first whether the moment is about the face or about the whole scene, then crop for that. Waist up carries an expression; head to feet carries a gesture. Whatever the props are, keep them in frame and not cut by the edge, because a half visible object animates badly.

Outdoor light is doing most of the work here. Keep the subject clearly separated from the background, avoid heavy backlight that turns them into a silhouette, and leave headroom, since the camera in these clips tends to drift.

Waist up is usually right for domestic actions, close enough to read the hands and the face together. Whatever is being held should be fully in frame and not merged into a background of the same colour. Ordinary indoor light is fine; direct overhead light that hides the eyes is not.

Full length, front on, and a background that does not compete. These actions are about the silhouette, so a plain wall or a clean backdrop is worth more than an interesting location. Shoes in frame: a crop through the ankle is the fastest way to a strange result.

Bring in the room. These clips read as social, so a photo with some background depth beats a tight portrait against a wall. Keep faces lit rather than lost in the dark, which is the usual problem with a real party photograph.

The background is replaced, so the person is what matters. Use a phone selfie or a head and shoulders portrait, front on, taken at roughly arm length, with even light on the face. A photo already taken outdoors sits into the new scene more naturally than one shot under indoor lighting.

These build a scene around you, so give them room to build it. A selfie style shot with the subject on one side, or with some empty background behind, leaves space for whatever is about to appear. A face that fills the entire frame leaves none.

These are reveals and turns toward the lens, so the face has to survive the movement: front on or close to it, evenly lit, nothing across the features. Waist up carries most of them, though full length gives the turn somewhere to happen. Leave some background either side rather than filling every corner, because the scene around you gets rebuilt.

The camera moves and you largely do not, so the photograph has to offer a subject worth holding still and a background worth travelling through. Stand clear of the wall behind you rather than flat against it, and leave space at the sides. Even light on the face matters here, because a push into a close up shows every shadow you started with.

Costume first, darkness second. Full length shows an outfit properly, and the face under it is what everything else is built around, so masks and heavy paint remove the features. Low light is part of the mood, but the photograph still needs a lit subject: dark clothing in a dark room against a dark background leaves nothing to work from.

You are rebuilt as an object here, so all of you has to be in the picture: head to feet, standing, against a background that does not compete. A clean outline is what becomes a moulded shape, which is why a plain wall beats a crowded room. Distinctive clothing and colour survive the translation better than plain black, since they are what keeps the figure recognisably you.

These imitate a snapshot, so start from one. Head and shoulders or waist up, front on, close to the camera, is the shape a hard flash and a booth strip were built around. A clean modern photograph gives the grain and the blown highlights something to sit on, while one that is already soft, dark or heavily filtered ends up muddled once another look goes over it.

Film stock is mostly about tone, so give it tone to work with. A portrait with real light and shade across the face, head and shoulders or waist up, holds up better than a flat evenly lit snapshot where grain and halation have nowhere to land. Keep the eyes sharp and clear: these looks soften everything slightly, and a face that started soft finishes indistinct.

Type is set around you, so leave it somewhere to go. A portrait with space above the head and down one side gives the layout room, while a face filling the frame edge to edge forces the words on top of it. Front on, waist up or full length, and sharply focused, because a cover reads as printed and print does not forgive a soft subject.

Paint follows shape, so a photograph with clear shapes translates best: a readable subject, a background that is not busy, and light that separates the two. Strong simple lighting helps more than fine detail, because loose media throws detail away first. Anything you want kept, a face, a hand, a particular garment, needs to be large and unobscured in the original rather than small in a corner.

The clothes are replaced, so what the photograph really supplies is a body and a face. Full length or three quarter length, front on, arms clear of the torso, against a plain background. A relaxed upright pose restyles more cleanly than one already twisted or seated, and keeping the shoes in frame stops the outfit ending at the ankle.

Hard shadow is added here rather than removed, so start from a face you can actually see. Head and shoulders or waist up, front on, evenly lit, gives the blinds and the neon a clean surface to fall across. A photograph already sitting in deep shadow leaves nothing left to darken, and the result reads as a murky picture rather than a moody one.

One animal, filling a good part of the frame, with the whole face visible and some light in the eyes. The two moving actions here were written for a dog specifically, and want the body in frame from nose to tail with floor underneath. Fur is the edge the model works from, so a pet photographed against a similar colour, a black dog on a dark rug, is the usual reason an outline goes soft.