Perspective

The perspective that a shot is taken from is another element that can have a big impact upon an image.

Shooting from up high and looking down on a subject or shooting from below looking up on the same subject drastically impact not only the ‘look’ of the image, emphasizing different points of interest, angles, textures, shapes, etc.

One of the most effective ways to make your digital images more interesting to the eye is to change the angle that you’re shooting from.

Here is an illustration of a couple of pictures of a big pineapple to demonstrate how an ordinary picture (that a random tourist would take) can be altered by taking it at a different angle and giving it a unique view.

The first picture is more interesting than the second. While the second one might be good for putting the big pineapple in context of it’s surroundings and giving an accurate picture of ‘how big’ it is – The first image has more of a ‘wow’ factor.

There are a number of differences between these pictures in terms of composition. For starters the first is closer and fills the frame.

The second shot is taken by standing some distance from the pineapple as it was approached. In the first shot, the photographer got much closer and crouched down low to the ground and looked up to make the pineapple’s bigness stand out. You could go a step further and lay down on the ground to shoot it for even greater impact.

Not only does changing the angle that you shoot from impact the feeling of size of your subject but it can have a real effect upon the light and shade and patterns on it. You can see in the picture on the left that the patterns on the pineapple are more pronounced as a result of the angle it was shot from.

So remember to look at your subjects in many different ways. Your technique should be to take your subject from futher out, from multiple angles (straight on, side views, lower view, upper views). Also get in closer and repeat the same, by taking the image from multiple angles. Since it is all digital you want to take MANY shots! You can always delete later...but also remember! Make those images completely TACK SHARP! Good luck shooting this week and if you need inspiration and examples simply go to Flickr.com and type in PERSPECTIVE in the search bar...you will find many great images using many different perspectives!

Looking for some more information regarding Perspective? Click here for some more ideas regarding taking images from heights and what it can do for you and your images!