Do you want to add new skills to your professional photography niche? Then come on and learn perspective photography in our article. We will discuss more in-depth tips together with the benefits.
When it comes to photography, the term perspective sounds confusing. But we dare you; if you want to learn and upgrade your photography profession by adding new unique skills into your repertoire, you are at the right place. Knowing what perspective photography is will be of great value to your niche.
Perspective is displaying a 3-D using a 2-d plane in your photography world. However, everything depends on how you place the subject and camera. Therefore in our article today, we will try to cover perspective photography considering all dimensions. Anyone can shoot a photo, but the difference comes in with uniqueness and composition, which needs extra technique.
One of the best ways to utilize uniqueness and bring our reality is perspective. It not only scales the image but also enables you to catch the attention of your viewers. Let us now take a look at the perspective photography and details.
What is Perspective in Photography?
To define perspective in photography, you must consider two areas. The definition considers spatial relations between the subject in your field. It ranges from the leading lines and balanced weight up to the shallow depth of your field. Thus, perspective creates an illusion of 2-D photos looking like 3-D scenes. Most of the compositional tricks are effective.
Furthermore, it also considers your point of view. This takes into account where you place the sensor concerning the main subject. Therefore, considering the basic note, perspective photography provides depth. And there are multiple manipulations you can make while making a schene appear realistic.
But keep in mind that the photo is not a 3-d; it is only manipulated representation in the perspective world. For instance, you can represent the impression of movement using motion blur; thus, perspective also gives us a depth impression. This is the reason why we should look at perspective photography.
Let us now get to know different types of perspective photography in the next section.
Types of Perspective in Photography
Forced Perspective Photography
Forced perspective photography is a photography trick that utilizes a space between two subjects by creating a unique relationship. The technique manipulates the viewer's perception of distance or space between the two subjects to present a kind of optical illusion.
This technique is applied in most cases of photography and videography while making subjects appear smaller or large than it looks in real life. Thi]oput there are many photo editing tools that one can use; in most cases, the forced perspective photo is taken using your camera.
There are many instances, and in some cases, the angle of the shot matters in creating an optical illusion, such as a person holding a giant building. The trick is used to convince a viewer while perceiving an imaginary situation that does not exist. There are also other examples found in movies etc. For more details, consider reading our article on forced perspective photography.
Linear Perspective Photography
The second type of perspective photography is linear. Thus, linear perspective simply implies that photos are placed in line while capturing vanishing points as you try to develop a depth within the photo. You can create a vanishing point using implied or real lines that seem to converge at a certain distance.
In reality, the lines are not vanishing but rather a kind of optical illusion. Thus the resulting photo gives the viewer a unique perspective and a more dramatic picture when capturing such an incident.
This trick is effective in developing depth. The converging lines can be horizontal or vertical, leaving the viewers to imagine a vanishing point. Thus, it becomes easy to create a sense of depth through a telephoto lens.
However, based on the number of vanishing points on a photo, we can categorize the linear perspectives into the below sub-types.
One Point Perspective Photography
There are various definitions for One Point Perspective. Some look complicated, while the point being driven home is very simple. In summary, One Point Perspective is a method of drawing that displays an image of how things look smaller as they get far away from your sight and then converge at one point, mostly on the horizon line; that is vanishing. It is like drawing an object on a flat surface like a piece of paper so that you can manipulate it in the 3 dimensions.
This technique is effective when the person studying views the subject from front-on or looking at a long subject such as a road. The skills are applied in areas like illustrators or architects drawing the interior of a room.
Thus a photo or drawing is said to have One Point Perspective when it only contains one vanishing point at the horizon line. So an object that contains direct perpendicular or parallel lines compared to the viewer's sightline is well represented using One Point Perspective.
Thus parallel line ends up converging at the horizon line, which is the vanishing point. But when you draw something that is not facing you, it becomes a different type which is a Two-point perspective.
Two Point Perspective Photography
From the previous definition and as the name suggest, you can guess what Two Point Perspective is. This is simply linear perspective photography, but it has two vanishing points at the horizon line. These two vanishing points are directed into two different places.
You can spot a good example where the road breaks through buildings in a city. Thus, the technique of Two Point Perspective is relevant in developing the sense of depth and length. Thus it is possible to make the subject or the scene look far away by simply manipulating the horizontal focus through settings but in two directions.
Three-Point Perspective Photography
Though following our previous definition, you might get it confusing. However, get this right. The three-point perspective is where you have two vanishing points on a photo, especially disappearing at the horizon line, while a third point is located below or above the horizon.
This third point is meant to manipulate that increases the distance as well as the depth in the final photo. A good example is looking at a skyscraper while standing on a ground-level vantage point. That is the view of Three-point perspective photography.
Overlap Perspective Photography
Another type of linear perspective is overlap. This results in adding or overlapping layers to your photo while trying to create a sense of depth. You only need to control your photo's background, foreground, or middle. Therefore, the resulting image will show the foreground subjects, creating distance from the background.
A good example in real life is the nature that overlaps the valley and rivers. Thus, one must have a closer and deeper look at the image to understand the multilayering contrast in the photo.
Atmospheric Perspective Photography
the next type of perspective photography is atmospheric perspective. This is a different technique where natural phenomena play a vital part. The light waves seem to move across the atmosphere, changing how the viewers perceive them.
Sometimes it is called aerial perspective and is more common during the foggy morning hours. Thus, the subject far away from the viewers appears lighter than it is in real life, consisting of colours that are muted more.
Thus, when you want to take such a photo, utilize the haze of the fog, which can help you enhance the depth of your final photo. Then cap[ute the subject to illustrate the contrast between the foggy background and clear foreground.
Diminishing Scale Perspective Photography
Before ending the list of perspective photography, we would also wish to mention Diminishing Scale Perspective. The brain can perceive an image that is smaller to be far from intimate images. Thus, one can add depth to a photo by only varying the element's size in the composition.
For instance, the budling in a photo looks larger in the foreground but smaller in the background. So, when a building becomes smaller in a photo, it implies that they are moving far away from the viewers. Maintain images at the same distance from the viewer and ensure that they are 2-D.
Thus, when you shift the size of the foreground subjects to the background, it helps you make the composition of the image look like it is 3-D. When using the camera, ensure you have a wide-angle lens while you want to emphasize depth through scale. A wide-angle distorts your image and makes foreground subjects larger than the background images.
Distorted Perspective Photography
The last type of perspective photography is Distorted perspective. This type, in most cases, is well known as the Curvilinear perspective. It primarily utilizes wide-angle lenses to create a straight line that looks curvier.
There are also other multiple methods to help you achieve this technique. However, the obvious example is laying on the ground and then shooting up the skyscraper from your perspective, where the focal point is the building.
Therefore, tall buildings appear to be far away at the same time and tend to curve within you using a viewpoint with a wide-angle. Therefore, the type of lenses is very important for achieving this trick in perspective photography.
Tips to Use Perspective in Photography
This section will now guide you with the tips to help you create different but perfect forced perspective photos. here are some of the tips to help you whether you are using a camera or iPhone:-
1. Manipulate the post perspective
Many editing third-party tools can help you fix the perspective challenges. This editing can be simple or complex such as resizing a certain element. Thus, make sure you use relevant tools to alter the perspective of the fact. And in most cases, we use third-party tools to amend errors and more arts.
However, it is also good to fix such errors during the shooting session. When your idea was not translated effectively, try again to rework it through practice and manipulation using the warp tool.
2. Get the right lenses
What affects the appearance of your subject in perspective photography is the length of your lens. Therefore, when you use telephoto lenses, be sure that they will end up compressing perspective to bring things to appear closer to each other. While getting wide-angle lenses works the opposite, it tends to spread the subject and let them stand apart in a frame.
Thus, it is always advisable to play how and where you want to place your focal point before shooting. Remember that long telephoto lenses are perfect for creating interesting effects. Chose wisely.
3. Shoot from different elevation
while most people stand while shooting, others shoot at eye level. This only captures images placed up to 6 ft from the ground. It is easy to deviate from this basic elevation and then shoot a subject from a unique perspective. Thus, anytime you want to decide on the image composition, consider dramatic elevation changes.
You can decide to shoot from the hip, looking up or down. You can also try to utilize a selfie stick while capturing subjects from above your head. Thus, try to experiment few elevations and become a pro before the actual shooting.
4. Change the angle of your camera to create a new composition
other than changing the elevations, one can also change the shooting angle. This is important, especially in finding the perfect composition on the ground or sky. try things like getting down to the ground and shooting the subject, pointing your camera at the sun.
Also, stand on stairs while shooting the subject standing below. You might realize you have to achieve a different composition once you are done experimenting with elevation and camera angles.
5. Shoot through object
you can also consider a unique framing by shooting your perspective photo through the object, such as a clear aquarium. You can ultimately shift your viewer's perspective because these elements add enough uniqueness to look like they exist. The popular object here is the clear glass ball.
This is because they are in terms of optical have high quality to make it refract the subject to crate kind of fish-eye view of a world within the glass marble. Then use the marble in a scene to be part of the composition of your pers[ective photo.
6. Use person to display a sense of scale
it is important to add human beings into your landscape image, which makes the photo more relatable hence giving a sense of scale na manipulating the scene drama. A good example is taking an iconic landscape photograph when including an individual.
Other than looking like a natural scene, the beautiful photo becomes visual and tells a story. Besides, the image of a human in a picture not only improves the creative composition and brings in the completeness and balancing feeling. The person in your photo acts as a reference and captivates the viewers.
7. Add depth by using leading lines
Leading lines in a perspective photo help you direct the eyes of the viewer to the focal point in your photo. These lines can either be curved, straight or even implied. The main point here is the endpoint on your line, which indicates a subject that needs emphasis and attention. In this case, you will find a linear perspective where the liens help achieve 3-D illusions.
8. Never leave the foreground empty
the greatest way of exploiting perspective photography is using a visual element in the foreground. The element can be anything, but such foreground elements look larger if you compare the composition. Thus, someone will interpret the size as depth.
Also, foreground elements are important in enhancing the depth using overlap where the foreground object overlaps the background subject. Thus, it becomes easy to understand the relative distance between the scene and the subject.
Also, to help create more depth, you need to compose the shot with a strong focal point in the foreground. Remember that taking a shot without element in the foreground makes your photo looks flat and 2-D. The foregrou8nd element gives your overall photo the dimension.
Conclusion
As a professional photographer, always take perspective photography techniques into your mind the next time you plan for a shooting session. It will enhance the angle and illusion of the subject and is also important in getting a perfect position. Start today to add variations to your photography niche.
There are many ways to get a wide range of photos and select the best. Experimenting with these techniques is fun and one way to increase your creativity and photo composition. Therefore, always seek the technique you wish to use before taking a camera to snap a photo and make it unique.
