Sometimes a picture will almost work out but it will feel a little messy because of something near the edge of the frame. A leg of a chair comes in from one side. The top of a person’s head is cut off a bit too close. An interesting and distracting object appears in a corner. The horizon line leans a bit. You can overlook these issues when you start because the new and most inexperienced photographers usually only look at the center subject.
So take one extra second to let your eyes move around the frame as you are looking through your viewfinder before pressing the shutter. Do not start by looking at the subject. Start at the top edge and move down the side, along the bottom, and then back up the other side. Looking at the perimeter of a photo this way will help you see if there are things that are cut off and awkward background elements or distractions, and these are things that autofocus cannot fix. Your camera can sharpen or brighten your image but your camera can’t tell if there should be a half-visible lamp or an oblique doorway in the picture.
Try this on a simple subject near window light such as a cup, a book, a plant or a camera lens cap on a table. Put that subject in the center of the frame, shoot one picture without changing a thing and then look only at the edges. For a moment forget about whether the subject is appealing. Check to see if anything hits the edge of the frame in a bad way, does the background look like it is drawing the eye away or does the frame look unbalanced? Then take one picture of that same subject after moving the subject back a bit, moving your camera position or moving an item in the background.
Some of the most frequent mistakes that happen with framing and composition are when you stand too close to a subject or choose the first spot that you think looks convenient. When the subject is almost at the edge it seems like you are trying to crowd the subject in a frame. If there is too much empty background space in one direction the subject will almost look as if you did not really mean to put it there. Just moving back, dropping the camera down and then turning it slightly may help your composition so you don’t need any postprocessing. You can still crop later but it is better to see the problem and correct it if you can while you have the scene in front of you.
Check especially to see if any important lines in the frame are tilted or going through the middle. Horizon lines, edges of tables, window frames, and corners of walls can tilt or be cut through. In portraits be sure that background lines don’t go through a head or shoulders. In still life shots make sure that the table edge is not slicing into an object. In street photography see that no poles, signs and highlights near the edges of the frame are pulling your focus away from the subject.
It’s useful to check out three shots of the same subject in slightly different compositions. In the first shot keep the original framing, in the second leave more space, and in the third shoot closer without having the subject get cut off. Once you’ve got the three frames check them out and ask yourself if one item changed in each shot and if that change made one image more or less appealing than another. Maybe you like how it looks when you move back more because it feels calmer, or perhaps moving the subject closer with more space is better because the background simplifies. It is better to go through the pictures and find out the changes when you review them as opposed to just hitting delete on the bad pictures right away because your eye will learn to spot it.
What is a sign of progress is that when the first image you look through comes off looking a little cluttered rather than blaming your camera right away, you notice the little distractions in the frame and then in future pictures you may notice and correct them before you even press the button. The next time your picture seems cluttered, check around, check the corners and check the background because sometimes the frame will be telling you what to move.