If you look at a photo whether it be in print or on a screen, it goes without saying that what you are seeing is a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional scene. The two dimensional picture is an illusion and our brains decipher the information to work out the 'depth'. As photographers we can manipulate 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 tell us that the object is further away from the viewpoint where the photo was taken. We already know rough sizes of familiar objects, such as cars, trees, humans and houses, so upon seeing a person who is five times taller than a house, our mind lets us know that the person is much closer to us than the other object is. Our brain processes the information based on familiar objects compared with other objects in the photo to imagine the distance and depths of relative objects. This is called scaling.
We can use some interesting photography techniques by placing several objects at various distances from the viewpoint and give the illusion that they are on the same plane. You can get some peculiar images.
Having a single familiar object in a picture enables us to work out the sizes of other things in the frame in relation to that one familiar object. Think about how many pictures you have seen of people holding a fish they caught smiling at the camera. They do this so that you can see how large the fish is in comparison the people. Think about a photo of a man standing among some huge leaves in the jungle, which are bigger than he is. This will shock your mind because we we are used to seeing leaves that are smaller than our hands.
3. The Vanishing Point
The human eye judges depth by the way lines and planes converge at a point inside or outside of the picture. This is known as linear perspective.
Fish eye lenses create photos of objects which appear to be smaller along the edges of the photo than they would appear in reality. In a similar way, the objects in the middle of these shots look a lot larger than they would in reality when comparing to the size of the objects at the edges of the image.
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
Horizontal lines moving across the lens axis level appear as straight lines, while all other horizontal lines above and below this level look slightly curved. 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 could 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 Colour Quality, Definition And Sharpness
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
One way to get nice effects in photography is to isolate an object from its environment. 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. To resolve this issue, we can sometimes select a tiny DoF so that all objects behind the main object are less in focus. These objects are now less significant in the picture.
9. Compression
One of the most overused types of lenses in photography is the wide angle lens, which makes pretty bland-looking perspectives lacking in definition. The depth from a wide angle lens compresses the scene. It is far better to use a medium tele lens, because it is capable of emphasizing depth.
10. Layers
If you like taking shots of mountains and other landscapes, a great approach is to use the notion of layers. These mountains are usually the dominating feature of a photo. You can make your pictures much more interesting by using addition layers in the foreground and the centre.
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. One thing you can do is wait until someone enters the frame, or ask your friend to pretend to walk by.
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 tell us that the object is further away from the viewpoint where the photo was taken. We already know rough sizes of familiar objects, such as cars, trees, humans and houses, so upon seeing a person who is five times taller than a house, our mind lets us know that the person is much closer to us than the other object is. Our brain processes the information based on familiar objects compared with other objects in the photo to imagine the distance and depths of relative objects. This is called scaling.
We can use some interesting photography techniques by placing several objects at various distances from the viewpoint and give the illusion that they are on the same plane. You can get some peculiar images.
Having a single familiar object in a picture enables us to work out the sizes of other things in the frame in relation to that one familiar object. Think about how many pictures you have seen of people holding a fish they caught smiling at the camera. They do this so that you can see how large the fish is in comparison the people. Think about a photo of a man standing among some huge leaves in the jungle, which are bigger than he is. This will shock your mind because we we are used to seeing leaves that are smaller than our hands.
3. The Vanishing Point
The human eye judges depth by the way lines and planes converge at a point inside or outside of the picture. This is known as linear perspective.
Fish eye lenses create photos of objects which appear to be smaller along the edges of the photo than they would appear in reality. In a similar way, the objects in the middle of these shots look a lot larger than they would in reality when comparing to the size of the objects at the edges of the image.
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
Horizontal lines moving across the lens axis level appear as straight lines, while all other horizontal lines above and below this level look slightly curved. 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 could 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 Colour Quality, Definition And Sharpness
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
One way to get nice effects in photography is to isolate an object from its environment. 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. To resolve this issue, we can sometimes select a tiny DoF so that all objects behind the main object are less in focus. These objects are now less significant in the picture.
9. Compression
One of the most overused types of lenses in photography is the wide angle lens, which makes pretty bland-looking perspectives lacking in definition. The depth from a wide angle lens compresses the scene. It is far better to use a medium tele lens, because it is capable of emphasizing depth.
10. Layers
If you like taking shots of mountains and other landscapes, a great approach is to use the notion of layers. These mountains are usually the dominating feature of a photo. You can make your pictures much more interesting by using addition layers in the foreground and the centre.
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. One thing you can do is wait until someone enters the frame, or ask your friend to pretend to walk by.
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 tutorial has enabled you to gain a perspective on how to improve your skills. If you would like to pick up other tricks and take your skills to the next level, please take a look at one of my blogs today and pick up other tricks.