A Matter of Perspective

My perspective at five foot seven inches tall is different from my husband’s perspective at six foot two inches tall. Both are very different from our daughter’s perspective at just over four feet tall.

So what does this have to do with photography? Imagine that we are all holding a camera at eye level and standing the same distance away from a stop sign. While the nature of our photographs may be the same, each one of us would have captured a different view of the same subject. In photography, understanding and utilizing perspective techniques can make a huge difference in the photos that you take and stories they tell.

What exactly is perspective? There are two meanings that pertain to photography, and both are equally important to the outcome of your image.

Using Your Personal Perspective
The first definition involves the mental viewpoint or perception of the photographer. This refers to how the photographer wants the subject to be perceived, or what the photographer wants to tell the viewer about the subject through the physical viewpoint.

Imagine a baby sleeping in the middle of the living room floor. If you were to focus on the baby, the viewer might get the sense of peacefulness and quietness. Now if you were to capture the whole scene in the photo, what you might find is a pile of laundry on the couch waiting to be folded and two other children fighting over a toy just a few feet away from the sleeping baby. Same subject, same location, but the perspective produces two different results. Which “story” are you trying to tell?

For example, the first picture shown here clearly shows a man using a snow blower after a snow storm. However, by kneeling down and including more of the surroundings to take the second photo, the photographer was able to capture the enormity of the snowstorm by showing the walls of snow from a ground-level viewpoint. The photo becomes less about the man snow-blowing and more about the story of a massive snowstorm.

Changing Your Physical Perspective
The second definition of perspective is the physical depth, distance and angle from the photographer to the subject of an image. By adjusting your own positioning in respect to the subject by kneeling, standing on a chair, or creating distance, you can have a big impact on the story that the image will tell.

This series of photos shows three different perspectives created by having the photographer move around the subject. While the subject himself never moved, each photo portrays a different mood and story.

Physical perspective can also be used to show distance and depth in an environment. Once you have determined what the focal point of your photo is, including some of the foreground and/or background in the image will anchor the subject to show distance and depth. In the example below, the photographer used the lines in the brick wall to show depth in both the foreground and background.

Creating depth by changing your positioning or angle also achieves a more three-dimensional image with natural highlights and shadows. Photos taken straight-on can lack that contrast and depth, making them appear dull or lifeless—creating a flat image.

Now that you have a better understanding of perspective, it is time to put the technique to use. Remember that everything that you include in your camera’s view finder will end up on the final image and will tell the viewer something about the subject. It is up to you and your perspective to determine how much information you want to give to the viewer.

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