Composition review

The Composition panel helps you explore framing from your intention for the photograph. Choose what matters, inspect a measured observation and compare a suggested crop. You can keep the current framing, accept the comparison or adjust it further.

On a Mac, click the Frames mark or the left-sidebar button at the bottom right to open Composition Review in its dedicated left column. In Browse or Choose, the mark opens Develop on the selected photograph. A second press in Develop hides the sidebar. Composition Review is currently available on macOS only; support for iPhone and iPad is deferred while the feature is improved. Apple TV has no Composition Review. Analysis runs on the Mac; photographs are not uploaded for review.

Measurements update after the current version finishes rendering, including when an original finishes downloading while you are viewing the photograph. Keeping the panel open measures each photograph you visit. While a measurement is pending, the panel says Measuring and a light line sweeps the photograph. A stored measurement can appear immediately.

Your intention. The first step is yours. Choose what the photograph should do from the menu: the subject dominating, the surroundings mattering as much, two things reading as related, the subject standing clear of its background, repetition carrying the picture, or I am not sure yet. The choice decides which observation leads and which question accompanies the comparison. You can change it later or use the menu’s Clear to remove the choice. Type a note in A sentence for yourself, kept with the photograph. It saves when you leave the field or submit the text. The note is shown back verbatim and never interpreted. Your intention and note survive every version. They sync to your other devices when decision sync is on, along with chosen regions, protections and finding marks. Measurements stay on each device and are refreshed for the rendered version. Your choices remain editable during a comparison. A stored ORIGINAL is the one version under which the intention cannot be authored.

For emphasis, surroundings, a relationship or separation, first choose what matters in the frame. What supports it lists available measured regions: the subject or attention region, faces, repeated shapes, colour regions or an inner frame. Choose one to add it beneath your intention and continue to the observation. Each chosen region has a remove control. These four intentions offer no comparison until you choose a region. Repetition and I am not sure yet can proceed without a chosen region.

Choose on photo marks an area yourself. The measured regions outline on the photograph. Click one to confirm it, or drag a rectangle to add a Marked area chip. Drag in whichever direction suits you. A very small rectangle is ignored. The outline appears once the drag has reached a size that will be kept. Press Done choosing or leave the panel to put the mode away. Use it when detection missed what you meant, or when two things matter and the list offers one. A chosen region stays with the photograph through later crops and straightening, and its outline follows the picture as you crop, straighten and zoom.

Protect. Under the intention sits what automatic crops must keep: one of nine arrangements such as keeping the subject centred, filling the frame, keeping space around the subject, or keeping a reflection, a colour relationship, repeated shapes, an inner frame or a visual path whole. The panel proposes one from your intention and the evidence; Confirm accepts it, Protect something else chooses another, Change replaces one you confirmed, and Clear returns to the general review. A proposal alone changes nothing. Keeping the subject centred withholds crops that move it farther from the centre. Keeping space withholds brightness-based trims. Reflection retains the full width and a conservative paired area around the measured boundary; without a located pair, automatic crops are withheld. The crop tool remains available for your own comparisons. When a protection withholds every automatic crop the comparison step says so. If later edits remove the measured evidence, the panel says so and keeps your choice.

What supports it. One measured observation, chosen for the intention. Under emphasis an edge contact leads; under context, the space around the subject; under a relationship, an overlap; under separation, where the subject meets its background; under repetition, what cuts the pattern. A chosen region moves an observation inside it ahead of one outside. Show on Photo draws its mark and Hide on photo puts it away. When nothing measured bears on the intention, the panel says what to look at yourself. An observation you marked intentional can still lead, and is phrased as a relationship to check.

One comparison. One reversible change, what it removes, and the question to judge it by, phrased from your intention. Compare opens the crop tool with the candidate placed and the row changes to Before and After, which show the treatment immediately before the comparison and the proposed framing. Both views show the framed photograph without crop handles. The unedited original stays behind /. That key has no effect while Before or After is showing. Pressing the side you are showing brings the crop handles back, as does Adjust Further. Keep Current puts the crop tool away and restores the framing. Use Comparison accepts it. Keeping the current treatment is a complete outcome. Nothing is learned from which you choose.

Comparisons are unavailable under ORIGINAL, while measuring, and while the treatment differs from the measurement. Under ORIGINAL and after the treatment has moved, a line beneath Compare says so. Suggestions retain the detected subject and faces, preserve room ahead of faces and keep at least 60% of the measured photograph. They also check for new edge tangencies and cuts to strong lines. Every suggestion preserves the current aspect ratio, including an existing crop. Extra trims needed to retain the ratio appear in the removal description. A suggestion is withheld if those trims fail the retention checks. Suggestions work with an existing rotation. Press ⌘Z to undo an accepted crop.

When shooting. One prompt for the camera, shown when the leading observation is something a crop cannot fix: a viewpoint, room ahead of a face, a bright patch at the edge. A prompt that conflicts with your intention is withheld: a photograph meant to fill the frame is never told to leave more room, and two things meant to read as related are never told to move apart.

More observations. Beneath the four steps, click this heading for a summary sentence and every finding, ranked by priority and labelled Working well, Worth exploring or Noted. Working well is reserved for an arrangement your protection names; thirds and centring are Noted on their own. The first eight appear initially; Show All (n More) reveals the rest and Show Fewer Observations returns to eight. Click a finding or its pin to select it and display its mark alone. Hover over a row to highlight its mark. Some findings carry a crop of their own; hover to preview it and Try opens the crop tool with it. Level also adjusts the angle. Click Done to accept or press esc to cancel. With a finding selected, ⏎ tries its crop. After a crop is accepted, its row shows Applied.

Measurements cover subject placement, face direction, rotation, brightness distribution, edge contacts, bright patches, overlaps, subject margins, strong lines and mirror symmetry. The horizon finding states the measured tilt in degrees and offers Level; the detector estimates the angle from the whole picture, so check it against a known horizontal or vertical when the scene has no true horizon. The horizon mark shows the measured tilt through the photograph’s centre. Brightness observations name only directions with a clear measured shift. Edge observations distinguish a subject close to the border from one whose detected outline reaches the border over a substantial span. Marks hides all pins, marks and crop previews.

Dismiss and This is intentional. Use a finding’s ⋯ menu to dismiss it or mark it intentional. ⌫ dismisses a selected finding when no selected repair consumes the key. Dismissed findings disappear; the footer’s Show button restores them. Intentional findings remain greyed out, labelled Intentional, and offer no crop. Show Again restores an intentional finding’s normal appearance. These choices persist for the photograph across versions and are saved before the panel shows them; a refused save says so under the intention. The arrow keys navigate between photographs; keys used in the reference popover stay with the popover, and keys pressed in the reference window stay with the window.

Techniques in this photograph. Click this heading for every technique the measurements support. Frames can suggest the 34 techniques below, and each carries one of three levels. A measured technique shows its name alone: the evidence is a fact about the picture or its capture, such as a square frame or a monochrome treatment. Likely marks a rule that was checked against real photographs and found mostly right. Possible marks a clue that has not been checked that way; it explains what to look for, since a face may belong to a statue and a margin around a subject may be busy. A technique’s level depends on how well its rule has been tested and stays the same from photograph to photograph. None of these say anything about your intent. Placement, contrast, silhouettes and selective focus use the segmented subject when Frames finds one; focal length needs a camera body the lens database lists.

Technique	Category	Confidence	Suggested when
Rule of thirds	Placement	Measured	The subject sits near a thirds intersection
Centred composition	Placement	Measured	The subject sits near the centre
Golden ratio	Placement	Possible	The subject sits near a golden-ratio intersection
Symmetry	Placement	Possible	The picture nearly matches its mirror image across an axis
Visual balance	Placement	Possible	Brightness gathers on one side of the frame
Rule of space	Placement	Measured	A face looking sideways has room ahead of it
Deliberate edges	Placement	Possible	The border cuts a detected outline
Frame shape	Placement	Measured	The frame is square, a wide panorama, or tall and narrow
Horizon placement	Placement	Possible	A horizon is detected
Horizontals and verticals	Placement	Measured	The detected horizon is level within 0.5°
Dynamic tension	Placement	Possible	The horizon tilts by 5° or more, or the subject sits close to an edge
Frame within a frame	Depth	Possible	A closed tonal shape surrounds an opening that holds the subject
Linear perspective	Depth	Possible	Two narrow tonal paths converge inside the picture
Focal length and distance	Depth	Measured	The focal length in 35 mm terms is 24 mm or shorter, or 100 mm or longer
Selective focus	Depth	Likely	The background keeps its broad shapes and loses fine detail while the subject keeps it
Leading lines	Attention	Possible	Narrow tonal paths converge toward a point inside the picture
S-curves	Attention	Possible	A narrow tonal path bends in opposing directions
Patterns and textures	Attention	Possible	Similar tonal shapes repeat with similar sizes and spacing
Visual rhythm	Attention	Possible	Similar tonal shapes repeat at measured intervals
Break the pattern	Attention	Possible	One shape is missing from an evenly spaced row
Fill the frame	Attention	Measured	The subject covers 60% or more of the picture
Negative space	Attention	Possible	Open area surrounds a small subject
Black and white	Attention	Measured	The treatment is monochrome
Colour relationships	Attention	Possible	A small region of one hue sits beside a large region of a distant hue
Figure–ground separation	Attention	Possible	Colours inside and outside match along part of the subject’s outline
Contrast	Attention	Likely	The subject is much lighter or darker than its surroundings
Silhouettes	Attention	Likely	A dark subject sits against a bright surround
High key and low key	Attention	Likely	The frame is held mostly in light or mostly in dark tones
Eye lines	Attention	Possible	A face turns toward another face
Implied shapes	Attention	Possible	Three faces form a triangle
Rule of odds	Attention	Possible	Three, five or seven people are detected, or as many objects when there are no people
Human interest	Story	Possible	A face is detected
Scale cues	Story	Possible	A small person stands apart from a large subject or alone in a wide scene
Motion and blur	Story	Possible	The exposure lasted 1/15 s or longer

The other 17 techniques stay in the reference: diagonals and triangles, golden triangles, foreground and depth, low viewpoint, high viewpoint, layers, atmospheric perspective, simplicity and minimalism, subject isolation, visual hierarchy, reading direction, juxtaposition, background context, exploring the frame, decisive moment, ambiguity and delay, and reflections. Diagonals wait on line detection, which Frames lacks; haze looks like sky to the measurements; and viewpoint, hierarchy, story and timing are for you to judge.

Automatic reflection suggestions are withheld because repeated tonal structure can also come from clouds, surf and river bends. You can still choose reflection as your protection. Subject placement uses a segmented subject when available; broad attention regions alone do not establish a subject’s position.

Separation and colour. With a subject mask, the review can highlight an outline region where colours on the inside and outside are similar. Check whether the subject blends into the background or remains readable through texture and other details. A missing observation does not establish good separation. The check uses a small preview and may miss fine outlines.

Colour relationships highlight a small connected colour region and a larger region in a different hue range. Their percentages describe measured colour coverage, not the area of the highlight boxes. Colour names are approximate. The observation does not establish harmony or which region should attract attention. Greyscale and insufficient colour evidence produce no such match.

Repetition, inner frames and paths. The review can highlight separate tonal shapes with similar outlines, sizes and spacing as possible repetition and rhythm. It currently looks for rows or columns, so perspective and interrupted patterns may go unreported. Highlighted shapes need not include every repeat in the scene.

An inner-frame observation requires a closed tonal boundary around an opening containing a located subject. An open arch or a boundary touching the photograph’s border may go unreported. Check that the detected enclosure actually frames what you intended to show.

A winding-path observation traces a narrow connected tonal region that bends in opposing directions. Converging-path evidence requires two separate narrow regions whose measured directions meet inside the picture. Marks follow the measured route; check its destination yourself. Branching, broad or weakly contrasted paths may go unreported. These observations do not establish depth or how a viewer’s eye will move.

Click anywhere on a technique’s header to expand its practical suggestion. Where measured geometry is available, Show on Photo highlights the subject, line, faces or symmetry axis. Thirds and centring also display a guide. Hide on photo restores the finding pins. Selecting a finding replaces the technique highlight with that finding’s mark. Technique highlights clear after an edit, a new measurement or closing the panel. Showing a highlight changes only the overlay.

Reference. On a Mac, the footer’s Reference button opens the reference of 51 techniques, available even before a measurement arrives. It opens as a popover beside the panel, or as a window of its own: Detach in the popover’s header turns it into a floating window that stays above the photograph while you compare, and Attach in the window’s header brings it back to the panel. Frames remembers which you chose. A search or an open entry carries across, since both are one reference. The Window menu lists Composition Reference and brings the window forward from any mode, leaving your search and open entry as they were. About in an expanded technique and the small Why This Matters link below a finding open its reference entry directly, in whichever form you last chose.

Use All, Placement, Depth, Attention or Story to browse the reference. Click an entry’s full header to open its explanation and practical prompt; the entry scrolls into view. Opening another entry closes the previous one. Placement guides include diagrams, and Flip Guide changes the triangle diagram’s orientation. Close the popover with Done or esc to return to the photograph. In the window, esc collapses the open entry and leaves the window open. Close the window with its close control; the next Reference press opens it again with its search, category and open entry preserved for this session. Attach returns to the library window that most recently opened or detached the reference, if its Composition panel is still showing. Otherwise, press Reference when you next open a Composition panel to show the popover.

Help › Composition Reference opens this reference without a selected photograph or an open Composition panel. Category icons identify the techniques. Open a technique and click Add favourite to save it; Favourites shows only saved techniques, combined with the current search and category. Favourites persist across launches. Back and Forward restore the previous expanded technique, search, category and favourite filter. Detaching and attaching keep this history and the current location.

Type in Search to filter technique names, explanations and practical prompts. Searches recognise alternate terms: mirror finds both Symmetry and Reflections, and centered finds Centred composition. Search combines with the selected category; choose All to search every entry. The clear button removes the query, and Clear Search and Filters resets an empty result list. Opening an entry from the drawer resets the search and category.

The reference includes S-curves, figure–ground separation, visual hierarchy, scale cues, visual rhythm and deliberate edges, alongside techniques such as thirds, framing, colour relationships, layers, juxtaposition and decisive moments. It also covers the frame itself (frame shape, horizon placement, horizontals and verticals, dynamic tension), perspective (linear and atmospheric perspective, focal length and distance, selective focus), and contrast, eye lines, implied shapes, silhouettes, high and low key, motion and ambiguity. All explanations and prompts are available offline. A reference entry is an idea to explore, not a claim that the technique was detected.

The reference uses a solid background and larger row targets for readability. Entry expansion, hover and press feedback, category changes and photo highlights animate briefly. Reduce Motion disables these animations and the measurement scan, and shows new findings together.