Tips to Use Perspective in Photography with Jess Hess
It’s no secret that the key to good photography is balancing the seemingly endless array of options, styles, techniques, settings and so on. First you have your subject, which comes with its own set of planning. Hair, makeup, color schemes, design, etc. Then you add light into the mix, bringing in choices that need to be made on the placement of the lights, the power of the lights, the modifiers and so on. Next, you’ll mess with your ISO, aperture and shutter speed in conjunction with those lights to get your proper exposure. Let’s not forget the choice of other gear you’re using, like lenses or gels, that add yet another layer of planning and balance to get your exposure. But then you’re done, yeah? Just take the photo?
Well, not quite. When you pick up your camera and aim at your subject, you are composing your shot. Composition in and of itself has its own set of variations and choices that you’ll need to factor into the overall shot. Composition is an integral part of photography and can truly make or break a photo. In composition, you are setting your focal point and telling the audience what to look at. You are using leading lines to guide viewers’ eyes to that focal point and filling the frame with the important details you want to show. Your composition, in a sense, is the image. It is everything the viewer sees and perceives. One major component of composition lies within your perspective, and that is the key element and idea we’ll be playing with today.
Perspective in Photography is how your viewer sees an image. Changing your perspective can lend to the overall feel or tone of an image, or even help with something as simple as obscuring background noise. Utilizing perspective, you can make a subject appear menacing or absurd, or even soft and weak. You can help tell a story within a photograph solely by the perspective in which that image is shot. Allowing yourself to think outside the box and be mindful of your perspective will help you to tell those stories and convey the messages you want to convey in your work.
