Dec 29
Photo tips #4: Angle
When you start photographing, your normal approach is to stand up and take the picture. It doesn’t matter what the subject is - you always stand up. If the subject is very low (say, a frog), you kneel down close enough to focus on the frog but you still take the picture from above. Unfortunately, this angle is the one that rarely works. You shouldn’t photograph children from the above, but you should kneel down to their level. You shouldn’t photograph dogs from above, but you should kneel down to their level. You shouldn’t photograph small flowers from above (well, it depends…), but you should lie down to their level.
This was another hard lesson for me. I used to do a lot of photographing in zoos, but have you notice how very often you are looking down on the animals in zoos? If you have to look down, then you also have to photograph down. Sadly, this just doesn’t work. If you want to take a picture of that cute little prairie dog but do it from above, all you’ve achieved is to portray your superiority to the animal by showing that you are higher than it. It may sound a bit odd, but think about it. Any psychologist will tell you why your boss wants to sit in a higher chair than you - it’s a power trip. Same principle applies in photography, even it is not your intention to show it in your picture.
Just compare these two images - they are taken in the same zoo, in front of the same enclosure. One of them is looking down, and the other one is looking up. There’s a big difference!
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