In photography,
Placing your camera low and filling most of the frame with a particular subject usually helps to make the subject appear to be a hero of some sort. Look at iconic images of presidents of the United States or Che Guevara to see what I mean.
Shooting from a high angle and including many elements in the frame could dull the significance of your subject and draw more attention to the other elements. Consider the famous photograph of
the man standing in front of the tanks in the protest on Tiananmen Square. In that image, the tanks are as important as the man is to telling the story.
The choices you make with regard to perspective play a major role in defining your photographic style. When a photographer develops a style, anyone familiar with that signature look can recognize the photographer's images. Style develops over time and always has room to evolve. Although you may choose to do things a certain way to maintain your look, you need to understand all your options for manipulating perspective so you're prepared for any situation you may come across.
As a photographer, you have a job to do whether you're shooting for fun, being paid to cover an event, creating an editorial fashion story, or making a fine-art masterpiece. Your job is to take photos you're pleased with. Training yourself to automatically recognize the subjects and elements in a scene, to understand their relationship to you and to each other, and to know how your decisions affect those relationships frees your mind to concentrate on other techniques like focusing and adjusting your exposure.
Understanding how perspective Impacts your message
A photograph tells you something about its subject. This message can be subtle or literal or somewhere in between, but the message is going to be there. The main subject in an image has relationships with whatever other elements exist in the frame, and your job is to present a clear message based on those relationships.
Take a look at Figure 8–1 and notice the differences between the two depictions of tuna tartar. In both photographs, the tuna tartar stands out as the subject because of its focus and position in the frame; however, the message is different in each case.
Figure 8–1: Changing the angle of view and distance from your subject can have a major effect on how people read an image.
The left-hand image in Figure 8–1 tells the story of the entire setting. It's clear that the tuna dish is served in a restaurant environment and is good with red wine. The relationships it has with the other elements in the photo tell you these things. For instance, the red wine is in the background on the same table as the dish. The photo shows a setting for only one person, so the wine has to be for the person who's having the tuna. The folded white napkin and white tablecloth tell you that the dish is in a restaurant.
The image on the right tells a much different story even though I took it with the same setting just moments after the shot on the left. Because you see the dish from a lower angle and because the camera is closer to the subject, the tuna tartar looks more like a product than part of a meal. The forks, napkin, and chair are no longer in the image; all were eliminated by the change of angle. You still see the wine glass and carafe, but they're blurry because I changed the distance between the subject and camera. Because they're so far out of focus, they don't convey a strong message. Instead they provide an interestingly shaped frame around the subject along with the garnish on the plate. (The section 'Moving the subject or yourself' tells you more about manipulating depth of field using distance.)
By changing the height and angle of the camera, I changed the message of the image without changing any other aspects of the photography. You can easily control your message when you understand the relationships among the objects in front of you and have the know-how to manipulate them.
Making choices about perspective
Even though it may not always feel like it, you have an infinite number of choices regarding perspective when taking pictures. Consider the following:
You're free to move around. The slightest movement in any direction affects your angle relative to the subject and the other elements in a scene. Even when your ability to move is restricted, you have some options for getting the best angle possible.
Your focal point and depth of field play a major role in conveying your message, and a slight change can have a huge impact. Tell your viewers what your subject is by making it the focal point, and determine how much of the scene should be in focus to support it. (See Chapter 7 for more on focal points.)
You choose the correct focal length to include an appropriate amount of surrounding elements. A 28mm-135mm lens provides a flexible range; it allows you to capture wide scenes, situations that require zooming in for more detail, and everything in between.
The later section 'Considering Techniques to Get the Shot' tells you more about moving around, finding your focal point and depth of field, and choosing the correct focal length.
Making decisions based on perspective eventually becomes second nature. You begin to notice every detail in your frame as you develop an eye for composition and use perspective to incorporate or eliminate elements in order to create
If you see something in the background that you feel has some relevance to your message about the subject, you may want to find a perspective that allows you to include that element successfully. Search for the appropriate distance and angle to approach the subject so that no other element blocks what you've found. To see more of your background, usually you raise the height of your camera so you see the details of objects directly behind your subject or foreground. This also is a way to add depth to your photography.
In landscape photography, photographers often shoot from a high angle in order to include as much detail as possible and to show how expansive a scene is. The high angle also is common in portraiture, which focuses on someone's face. Conversely, fashion photography uses a low angle to
highlight the wardrobe as the subject. Of course, these are all just common practices and are encouraged to be tweaked and personalized by each individual photographer.
I make decisions on the fly based on the situation at hand. Sometimes my portraits look like fashion images and vice versa. In the left photo of Figure 8–2, I had to have a high-enough angle to show the muddy foreground and the water on the horizon through the tall grass. In the right photo those details were lost; the low angle shows less of the environment and instead shows a subject with a background. It's all about the girl or the coat she's wearing.
35mm,
Figure 8–2: Choose a perspective that gets your message across.
50mm,
Selecting perspective according to light
Photography in its most basic form is a record of light, so it's no surprise that light is the most important element in any photographic scenario. Light causes you to see what you see. The ability to manipulate light in a
