Using the index finger and thumb of both of your hands to make a rectangle and looking through it. Most likely used by photographers, movie producers, or artists.
Often used as a Modeling Pose when the models are selling cameras and other related products.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Eshi in D.Gray-Man has doing this constantly as one of his character quirks.
- In the Finder Series, Akihito does it in the island since he did not have his camera.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable has the Big Bad Yoshikage Kira in disguise as Kosaku Kawajiri do this to line up an attack on Josuke, while mentally comparing it to Joe Montana going for a field goal kick.
- In Moriarty the Patriot, Sherlock frames the sky and the world in New York City when talking to William (although the panel is drawn looking down on his own face framed by his hands) with his fingers while describing the empty canvas and blank slate William has been given to start anew and "paint however [William] likes."
- May from Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire when she pretends to be on some kind of documented adventure.
- In RahXephon, Ayato often does it towards subjects he plans to paint.
- Done in Zan Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei by Chiri when adjusting a painting.
- Rayscent Crazyrabbit from Servamp has an ability he calls "Illumination" where he puts his fingers in a frame and anyone who he views through the frame becomes frozen in place like a picture for a few seconds. This gives his partner Gilberto Weasel an opening to strike with his Making a Splash powers.
- Mio does in the prequel manga Strike Witches: 1937 Fuso Sea Incident to help learn how to focus her eye's magic sight.
- Makima does this in the opening for the first season of the Chainsaw Man anime, as a nod to the show's cinematic style and mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto's love for movies.
- Ai does this in the first episode of Oshi no Ko when she's talking about why she likes performing on camera.
Films — Animation
- Aladdin:
- Genie does this in the first movie. "You've just won the heart of the Princess! What are you gonna do next?" (This is a reference to the I'm Going to Disney World! ads.)
- Then does it again in Aladdin and the King of Thieves. "Oh, it's a Kodak moment!"
- In Frozen II, Anna does this briefly when she first meets Mattias, recognizing him from a portrait.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Magical Movie Night: In "Movie Magic", when Rainbow Dash suggests that they could get minor roles in the Daring Do movie, Canter Zoom looks at them through the frame of his fingers while thinking it out.
- Variant in Rango: Rango exhales on glass before drawing a screen with his finger. The Spirit of the West does the same thing while he's giving Rango the will to continue.
Films — Live-Action
- Deadpool (2016): After knocking Ajax off his motorcycle and preparing himself to kick him in the head, Deadpool takes aim by looking through a frame formed by his fingers.
- Tom Green does a variation of this on the cover of Freddy Got Fingered.
- Done by Max in his first appearance in Strange Days.
Literature
- Silverfish does this to Victor in the Discworld novel Moving Pictures, when deciding he'd make a great moving picture star. Since Silverfish has only just invented the clicks, Victor has no idea what he's doing or talking about.
Live-Action TV
- The Brady Bunch was cast as the "Average American Family" in a commercial for Best detergent. The hippie director who directed the commercial did this.
- One of the candidates on the 2009 UK season of The Apprentice infamously did this constantly on the advertising task. it made him look like a pretentious idiot, as this often does.
- A character in one Cracker story did this a lot; he was somewhat autistic and fixated on movies. Someone else commented on it at a funeral that included the quote "We see the world through a glass, darkly": "You don't see the the world through a glass, darkly. You see it through your fingers."
- Midsomer Murders: One of the characters says "I've been framed" while making a similar gesture in "The Killing at Badger's Drift".
- In one of his shows, Derren Brown does this trick to take "mental snapshots" of coffee beans that have been scattered on a surface before asking a celebrity to pick a specific bean, mark it, and place it marked side down at a chosen place. Given who he is, Derren is able to find the marked bean.
- In the Gilmore Girls series revival, A Year in the Life, Logan does this to mentally frame his last mental picture of Rory.
- Monk has a unique take on the gesture, where he uses his whole hands instead of just two fingers apiece. This is one of his character tics, and seems to help him focus on a crime scene.
Music
- This is where the band L7 got their name; make an 'L' with your left thumb and forefinger, and a '7' with your right thumb and forefinger, bring them together and you have a square. Also a Stealth Insult to those who have to ask what the band's name means; if you have to ask, then you're a square.
- The term "L7", meaning "square" or "uncool", has been around since the 1950's. Paul McCartney has said that was the inspiration behind his song, "C Moon", when he wondered what the opposite of a "square" would be. He decided on a circle.
- Also referenced by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in their song "Woolly Bully" "Let's not be L-7/Come and learn the dance!"
Pro Wrestling
- Kevin Nash became fond of this for a while, though using the variant with his thumbs and index fingers sticking straight out. He'd do this after whipping an opponent into the turnbuckle and just before following it up with an elbow.
- MNM, Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury, liked to do this before their finishing move, "the snap shot". They even taunted Trish Stratus this way when Melina challenged for her title but were ejected by the referee before they could actually give her the move.
Theme Parks
- "The Director" from Universal's Halloween Horror Nights frequently does this while filming the suffering of his victims.
Video Games
- The world of Amazing Island is set inside a giant storybook, so doing this actually allows you to take photographs. Well, they're called Fotos, but they're still pictures captured on your heart by the special bond between you and your monster.
- In Pokémon Sun and Moon, Trial Captain Mina frames the player character between her fingers when first met. She's a wandering artist, and is trying to see what sort of composition you'd make for a painting.
- This is an idle animation in The Sims 2 and 3, for Sims who are involved in the Arts & Crafts hobby or have the Artistic trait, respectively.
- It is usable as a taunt in Team Fortress 2 called "The Director's Vision".
- Yusuke Kitagawa, an eccentric artist, from Persona 5 is often seen doing this. The pose is so associated with him that nearly all of his dances in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight manage to incorporate it somehow.
- Master Hand and Crazy Hand in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate do this sometimes in the center of the screen. It closes in the blast-lines of the stage so for a couple minutes, they don't need to knock you as far to KO you.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Consul O does this gesture while attempting to take control of Cammuravi's perceptions.
Web Animation
- In the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games short "Photo Finished", this is a common gesture for human Photo Finish, along with her catchphrase "Hold that pose!", usually preceding another frantic shooting session.
Web Comics
- Homestuck: When Jade Harley is enlarging the Fenestrated Wall to enable her and John to ride a battleship through it, she does a slowly enlarging finger-frame matching its borders. She does it again later during the final fight, where owing to Breaking the Fourth Wall, the animation panel has been skewed and she sets it back to normal.
- Erfworld: This seems to be a standard gesture for casting a remote
-image communication.
Western Animation
- Goofy does it in How to Hook Up Your Home Theater while figuring out where to put his new TV set.
- Used in the American Dad! episode "Stan's Night Out" in the B story, in which Roger tries to be a beauty queen. He discovers that his date is taking him to a Pig Party. He then does this to the other girls at the party...and then looks at mirror, framing himself in it, and discovers that he is the Tomato in the Mirror (ugly, not evil).
- A zombie director in the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Everyone Wants To Direct" does it. Then his hand falls off.
- Pinkie Pie does this (with hooves, somehow) while setting up a prank in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Griffon the Brush-Off".
- In one episode of Captain N: The Game Master, the N Team visits a studio world and a director, who happens to be an octopus creature, does this while watching the N Team and debating if they were camera worthy, though as an octopus he uses tentacles instead of fingers.
- Eddie Storkowitz of Birdz does this a lot.
- In the Woody Woodpecker short "Arts and Flowers", Woody and an artist are in a contest for best painting of a desert flower. Both of them do this when they find the same flower to paint.
Real Life
- There's a wearable-computing technology called SixthSense being developed at MIT that's controlled by hand gestures — one of which is the finger-frame gesture, which means "Take a photo of whatever's in front of me".
- The gravestone◊ of Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski is decorated with a sculpture of two hands making this gesture.
