This article belongs to a series of photography composition techniques. To start from the beginning, please refer to The Big Picture – Photography Composition Techniques.
Typically we view the world head-on, in a straight forward direction. After all, our eyes are in the front of our face, unlike a chameleon whose eyes can go every which way. So it isn’t surprising that this is how a majority of us take photos. It’s time to think outside the box and explore different angles.
What sort of perspective would you like your image to portray? Establishing this can often assist in which angles should/could be used. Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment and try all sorts of angles – it can simply aid you in where to begin.
Let’s start off by pretending we’re taking a picture of Uncle Bob. Your old way of doing things would be to stand in front of him, take the picture and you’re done. Now throw that photo in with the bazillion others you’ve taken in the past that are exactly the same.
If you were to get down onto the ground and angle your camera up and towards Uncle Bob, the result of that photo would portray superiority (you’re looking up to him). The same can be done for anything that you’d like to emphasis the size of. Great building structures, elephants (watch your toes!), monster trucks, etc.
Now, let’s place Uncle Bob at the bottom of a flight of stairs. If you climb four or five stairs to position your camera to angle down and towards him (hey, I’m only 5’4” – it’s the only way I can make this work!), the end result will be that Uncle Bob is looking up to you. As previously mentioned, this doesn’t just work with Uncle Bob. If I were to take a picture of my son while we were hiking and my goal was to portray the steepness of the trail, I would walk ahead of him slightly so I’d be looking down on him as well as the trail.
These are only two suggestions of the use of angles. There are unlimited possibilities. Experiment, practise, take loads of pictures, but most importantly – think outside the box.
I’ll leave you with some images which used creative angles to give a whole new perspective of their photograph. Click on images to enlarge.
Photo by andronicusmax
Photo by Sandra Nahdi
Photos by daveisnotmyname
