Every time you look at a photo whether it be in print or on a screen, it goes without saying that what you are looking at is a 2D representation of a 3D scene. The two dimensional picture is an illusion and your mind deciphers the information to get a sense of the 'depth'. Photographers use the concept of perspective to resemble a sense of depth and scale in photos.
Defining Perspective
In photography, perspective is defined as the sense of spatial relationships between objects and their sizes in relation to the camera's position, which gives us a sense of depth. Here are my ten most useful tips on working with perspective.
1. Blocking Subjects Partially
It is an obvious statement, but when one object is partially obstructing your view of another object, your brain deciphers this to tell you that the object being obstructed is behind the object obstructing it.
By comparing their relative sizes we are able to get a sense of the distance between these two objects. This is what we call overlap perspective.
2. Relative size
As an object gets smaller, our minds decipher this to let us know that the object is a distance away from the spot where the photo was taken. Our brain already knows rough sizes of familiar objects, such as people, vehicles, buildings and trees, so when we see a person who is three times taller than a car, our brain tells us that the person is much closer to us than the other object is. Our brain works this out based on familiar objects compared with other objects in the picture to get an idea of the distance and depths of relative objects. This is what we call scaling.
We can use some effective photography techniques by positioning several objects at different distances from the camera and create an illusion that they are on the same plane. You can get some peculiar images.
Including a single familiar object in a picture enables us to work out the sizes of everything else in the frame in relation to that one familiar object. Just think back to all those pictures you have seen of people holding a fish they caught smiling at the camera. They do this so that you are able to see how large the fish is compared to them. Think about a picture of a person standing among some gigantic leaves in the jungle, which are taller than him. This will shock your mind because we we are used to seeing leaves that are smaller than our hands.
3. The Vanishing Point
Our eyes judge distance by looking at how lines and planes converge at a point inside or outside of the picture. This is what we call linear perspective.
Fish eye lenses create photos of objects that look a lot smaller at the edges of the picture than they would appear in reality. On the other hand, the objects in the middle of these shots look significantly bigger than they would in real life.
Parallel lines seen at a large distance appear to be meeting each other at a distance far away, which is what we call vanishing point. You see this all the time in photography. Think of a photo of railway tracks converging at some point far away close to the horizon.
4. The Lens Axis Level
All horizontal lines at the lens axis level appear as straight lines, while any other horizontal lines above and below the lens axis level appear as curved lines. With rectilinear perspective, the straight lines in the frame are reproduced as straight lines in the picture, in the same way that we perceive objects in reality. Regular lenses are rectilinear lenses.
5. Perspective Projection Distortion
All pictures may be subject to perspective projection distortion. This is when we use panoramic and fish eye lenses to deliberately produce warped perspectives to create interesting effects.
6. Reduced Sharpness, Definition and Quality of Colour
Due to reduced contrast, scattering of light and other factors, our eyes cannot define objects in the distance as easily.Objects further away are harder to define because of light scattering and reduced contrast as well as other factors. Knowing this allows our brains to make more sense of distance. In photography, we can take this knowledge and use it to our advantage to create pictures where objects far away appear to have less definition and contrast. We do this by controlling the depth of field. An easy way to do this is by focusing the camera lens a little less than infinity to make the objects furthest away look out of focus. This is what gives the viewer a sense of distance and depth.
Objects with reduced brightness and contrast make our brains perceive that we are looking at something further away than the brighter, more vivid objects closer to the foreground.
Prior to taking a shot, you should decide whether you are trying to emphasize the depth of the scene or not.
7. Focus And Depth Of Field
By adjusting the F-stop value of the aperture, the focus distance and the focal length, we are able to control the depth of field. The depth of field (DoF) is used to define an area where objects are sharp in the picture. Anything closer to the viewpoint than this area, or further away than it will be blurred. Many beginners try to make everything in the picture look sharp. They often try to maximize the DoF with smaller apertures. Sometimes this assumption can work well, but it is generally not seen as something more seasoned photographers like to do.
8. Object Isolation
If you separate an object from its environment using various techniques you can create some interesting effects. You could do this with a wide lens, which will divide the scene into different layers. Sometimes you will find that the background is unappealing. You can often resolve this by using a very small depth of field so that all objects behind the main object are out of focus. These objects now seem less important in the photo.
9. Compression
Wide angles lenses are overused in photography, which makes pretty bland-looking perspectives lacking in definition. The scene is compressed by the depth achieved with a wide angle lens. It is far better to use a medium tele lens, which will emphasize any depth there is in the shot.
10. Layers
If you are interested in landscape photography and enjoy shooting scenes of mountains, a great approach is to use the notion of layers. These mountains are usually the dominating feature of a photo. By including more layers in the foreground and the middle area of depth you can bring your photos to life.
If you're taking a photo of a scene which doesn't have trees, cars or other familiar objects, such as a desert, you have nothing to show the size of objects in the shot. In this instance, you might wait until someone comes walking past to get a shot, or ask your buddy to stand in the frame.
Thank you for reading and don't forget to make use of some of the points I made next time you are shooting.
Defining Perspective
In photography, perspective is defined as the sense of spatial relationships between objects and their sizes in relation to the camera's position, which gives us a sense of depth. Here are my ten most useful tips on working with perspective.
1. Blocking Subjects Partially
It is an obvious statement, but when one object is partially obstructing your view of another object, your brain deciphers this to tell you that the object being obstructed is behind the object obstructing it.
By comparing their relative sizes we are able to get a sense of the distance between these two objects. This is what we call overlap perspective.
2. Relative size
As an object gets smaller, our minds decipher this to let us know that the object is a distance away from the spot where the photo was taken. Our brain already knows rough sizes of familiar objects, such as people, vehicles, buildings and trees, so when we see a person who is three times taller than a car, our brain tells us that the person is much closer to us than the other object is. Our brain works this out based on familiar objects compared with other objects in the picture to get an idea of the distance and depths of relative objects. This is what we call scaling.
We can use some effective photography techniques by positioning several objects at different distances from the camera and create an illusion that they are on the same plane. You can get some peculiar images.
Including a single familiar object in a picture enables us to work out the sizes of everything else in the frame in relation to that one familiar object. Just think back to all those pictures you have seen of people holding a fish they caught smiling at the camera. They do this so that you are able to see how large the fish is compared to them. Think about a picture of a person standing among some gigantic leaves in the jungle, which are taller than him. This will shock your mind because we we are used to seeing leaves that are smaller than our hands.
3. The Vanishing Point
Our eyes judge distance by looking at how lines and planes converge at a point inside or outside of the picture. This is what we call linear perspective.
Fish eye lenses create photos of objects that look a lot smaller at the edges of the picture than they would appear in reality. On the other hand, the objects in the middle of these shots look significantly bigger than they would in real life.
Parallel lines seen at a large distance appear to be meeting each other at a distance far away, which is what we call vanishing point. You see this all the time in photography. Think of a photo of railway tracks converging at some point far away close to the horizon.
4. The Lens Axis Level
All horizontal lines at the lens axis level appear as straight lines, while any other horizontal lines above and below the lens axis level appear as curved lines. With rectilinear perspective, the straight lines in the frame are reproduced as straight lines in the picture, in the same way that we perceive objects in reality. Regular lenses are rectilinear lenses.
5. Perspective Projection Distortion
All pictures may be subject to perspective projection distortion. This is when we use panoramic and fish eye lenses to deliberately produce warped perspectives to create interesting effects.
6. Reduced Sharpness, Definition and Quality of Colour
Due to reduced contrast, scattering of light and other factors, our eyes cannot define objects in the distance as easily.Objects further away are harder to define because of light scattering and reduced contrast as well as other factors. Knowing this allows our brains to make more sense of distance. In photography, we can take this knowledge and use it to our advantage to create pictures where objects far away appear to have less definition and contrast. We do this by controlling the depth of field. An easy way to do this is by focusing the camera lens a little less than infinity to make the objects furthest away look out of focus. This is what gives the viewer a sense of distance and depth.
Objects with reduced brightness and contrast make our brains perceive that we are looking at something further away than the brighter, more vivid objects closer to the foreground.
Prior to taking a shot, you should decide whether you are trying to emphasize the depth of the scene or not.
7. Focus And Depth Of Field
By adjusting the F-stop value of the aperture, the focus distance and the focal length, we are able to control the depth of field. The depth of field (DoF) is used to define an area where objects are sharp in the picture. Anything closer to the viewpoint than this area, or further away than it will be blurred. Many beginners try to make everything in the picture look sharp. They often try to maximize the DoF with smaller apertures. Sometimes this assumption can work well, but it is generally not seen as something more seasoned photographers like to do.
8. Object Isolation
If you separate an object from its environment using various techniques you can create some interesting effects. You could do this with a wide lens, which will divide the scene into different layers. Sometimes you will find that the background is unappealing. You can often resolve this by using a very small depth of field so that all objects behind the main object are out of focus. These objects now seem less important in the photo.
9. Compression
Wide angles lenses are overused in photography, which makes pretty bland-looking perspectives lacking in definition. The scene is compressed by the depth achieved with a wide angle lens. It is far better to use a medium tele lens, which will emphasize any depth there is in the shot.
10. Layers
If you are interested in landscape photography and enjoy shooting scenes of mountains, a great approach is to use the notion of layers. These mountains are usually the dominating feature of a photo. By including more layers in the foreground and the middle area of depth you can bring your photos to life.
If you're taking a photo of a scene which doesn't have trees, cars or other familiar objects, such as a desert, you have nothing to show the size of objects in the shot. In this instance, you might wait until someone comes walking past to get a shot, or ask your buddy to stand in the frame.
Thank you for reading and don't forget to make use of some of the points I made next time you are shooting.
About the Author:
I hope this article has helped you to gain a perspective on how you can improve your skills. If you want to get even more great ideas and take your skills up a level further, please take a look at another one of my blogs today and get even more great ideas.
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