Whenever you look at a photo either in print or on a screen, it is easy to forget that what you are seeing is a 2D representation of a three dimensional scene. This two dimensional image is an illusion and your mind deciphers the information to determine the 'depth'. Photographers make use of perspective to resemble a sense of depth and scale in photographs.
Defining Perspective
In photography, perspective is defined as the sense of spatial relationships between things and their dimensions in relation to the position of the viewer, producing a sense of depth. Here are our top ten tips on how to use perspective.
1. Blocking Subjects Partially
I may sound like I am stating the obvious here, but when you see one object partially blocking your view of something else, your mind processes this information to tell you that the obstructed object 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 effective photography techniques by positioning several objects at different distances from the camera and give the illusion that they are the same distance from the camera as each other. You can get some peculiar pictures by doing this.
Including a single familiar object in a picture enables us to work out the sizes of other things in the shot in comparison to that one familiar object. Think about how many pictures you have seen of people holding a fish they caught smiling proudly for the camera. They do this so that you can see how big the fish is in comparison the people. Think about a picture of a person standing among some gigantic leaves in the rainforest, which are bigger than he is. Seeing this stimulates your mind because we are familiar with much smaller leaves
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 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 in a picture which move away from the viewpoint appear to be converging or meeting with each other at a certain point, known as the vanishing point. This is very common in photography. Think of a photo of railway tracks converging in the distance.
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 can 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. Deteriorating 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.
Our brains make us believe that when see these blurred, less colourful objects we are looking at something further away than the brighter, vibrant 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. Depth of field And Focus
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. Isolating an object
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, creating monotonous perspectives which lack definition. The depth from a wide angle lens compresses the scene. It is far better to use a medium tele lens, which will emphasize any depth there is in the shot.
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. 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 written here next time you are shooting.
Defining Perspective
In photography, perspective is defined as the sense of spatial relationships between things and their dimensions in relation to the position of the viewer, producing a sense of depth. Here are our top ten tips on how to use perspective.
1. Blocking Subjects Partially
I may sound like I am stating the obvious here, but when you see one object partially blocking your view of something else, your mind processes this information to tell you that the obstructed object 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 effective photography techniques by positioning several objects at different distances from the camera and give the illusion that they are the same distance from the camera as each other. You can get some peculiar pictures by doing this.
Including a single familiar object in a picture enables us to work out the sizes of other things in the shot in comparison to that one familiar object. Think about how many pictures you have seen of people holding a fish they caught smiling proudly for the camera. They do this so that you can see how big the fish is in comparison the people. Think about a picture of a person standing among some gigantic leaves in the rainforest, which are bigger than he is. Seeing this stimulates your mind because we are familiar with much smaller leaves
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 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 in a picture which move away from the viewpoint appear to be converging or meeting with each other at a certain point, known as the vanishing point. This is very common in photography. Think of a photo of railway tracks converging in the distance.
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 can 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. Deteriorating 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.
Our brains make us believe that when see these blurred, less colourful objects we are looking at something further away than the brighter, vibrant 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. Depth of field And Focus
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. Isolating an object
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, creating monotonous perspectives which lack definition. The depth from a wide angle lens compresses the scene. It is far better to use a medium tele lens, which will emphasize any depth there is in the shot.
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. 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 written here next time you are shooting.
About the Author:
I hope this article has enabled you to gain a perspective on how you can be a better photographer. If you would like to pick up other tricks and take your skills up a level further, please take a look at another one of my blogs today and pick up other tricks.
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