They say a photographer's most underutilized piece of equipment is his legs. Fact is, even with all the options available for shooting at different angles and heights and perspectives, people still take the vast majority of pictures from where they are standing, right at eye level.
A famous photog once told his students to change the elevation of their cameras often because he'd "already seen what five-foot-eight looks like".
Walk all the way around your subject. See what it looks like from every position you can. Climb up. Crouch down. Climb into your subject's "world". Don't photograph children from your height. Get down on the floor with them, you'll be amazed at how the perspective changes. Shooting low tends to make your subject more prominent, while shooting from above tends to minimize it.
Look at how I photographed Wendy when I wanted to make her look big*, and when I wanted to make her look small. Notice the difference in my shooting angle?
I also like to tilt the camera to show disarray and confusion as in this shot. The tilted framing serves to remind the viewer of being off-balance. It's unsettling.
Use a wide angle lens close up to give your subject a distorted, bloated look. A telephoto lens on the other hand, is flattering and compresses and blurs the background.
So try it yourself. You will be astounded at how much more you can communicate with your pictures. It literally opens up a whole new dimension.
* Wendy really WAS huge, but I wanted to further accentuate that property. It helped me to achieve my "vision" for the shot.
4 comments:
booney hat, tie dye shirt, hawaiian shorts, sandles. what kind of lens can fix that?
I was in Hawaii, so it's acceptable. I'd stand out if I DIDN'T wear that stuff.
Is there a fee for this lesson?
Only fee is send me some good shots!
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