By Luke Walker
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.
How To Define Perspective
In photography, perspective is defined as the sense of space between objects and their dimensions in relation to the camera's position, producing a sense of depth. Here are our ten most useful tips on working with perspective.
1. Blocking Parts Of Subjects
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 depth. This is what we call overlap perspective.
2. Relative size
As an object becomes smaller, our brains process the information to tell us that the object is a distance away from the spot where the photo was taken. We already know rough sizes of natural objects, such as cars, trees, humans and houses, so upon seeing a person who is five times taller than a house, our brain lets us know that the person is much closer to us than the other object is. Our brain works this out based on known objects in relationship with other objects in the photo to imagine the distance and depths of relative objects. This is what we refer to as 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 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 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. You see this all the time in photography. A typical example is 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 to be straight, and all other horizontal lines above and below this level appear as curved lines. In reality, we perceive all lines as being straight, whether they are on, above or below the lens axis level. Rectilinear lenses also reproduce lines as being straight.
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 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 photos where objects at certain distances appear to have less definition and contrast. We do this by controlling the depth of field. One of the main ways that they do this is by focusing the camera lens slightly shorter than infinity to make the objects furthest away look out of focus. This gives the viewer a sense of the depth and distances of various objects in the picture.
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.
Before you take a photo, you should decide whether you are trying to emphasize the depth of the scene or not.
7. Depth of field And Focus
The F-stop, focus distance and focal length can be used to control the depth of field. The depth of field (DoF) defines 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. A common mistake of beginner photographers is to try to get everything in the picture to appear 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. One example is to use a wide lens, which will divide the scene into different layers. Occasionally you have an unpleasant background. To resolve this issue, we can sometimes select a tiny depth of field so that everything behind the main object is less in 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.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to make use of some of the points written here next time you are shooting.
How To Define Perspective
In photography, perspective is defined as the sense of space between objects and their dimensions in relation to the camera's position, producing a sense of depth. Here are our ten most useful tips on working with perspective.
1. Blocking Parts Of Subjects
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 depth. This is what we call overlap perspective.
2. Relative size
As an object becomes smaller, our brains process the information to tell us that the object is a distance away from the spot where the photo was taken. We already know rough sizes of natural objects, such as cars, trees, humans and houses, so upon seeing a person who is five times taller than a house, our brain lets us know that the person is much closer to us than the other object is. Our brain works this out based on known objects in relationship with other objects in the photo to imagine the distance and depths of relative objects. This is what we refer to as 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 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 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. You see this all the time in photography. A typical example is 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 to be straight, and all other horizontal lines above and below this level appear as curved lines. In reality, we perceive all lines as being straight, whether they are on, above or below the lens axis level. Rectilinear lenses also reproduce lines as being straight.
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 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 photos where objects at certain distances appear to have less definition and contrast. We do this by controlling the depth of field. One of the main ways that they do this is by focusing the camera lens slightly shorter than infinity to make the objects furthest away look out of focus. This gives the viewer a sense of the depth and distances of various objects in the picture.
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.
Before you take a photo, you should decide whether you are trying to emphasize the depth of the scene or not.
7. Depth of field And Focus
The F-stop, focus distance and focal length can be used to control the depth of field. The depth of field (DoF) defines 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. A common mistake of beginner photographers is to try to get everything in the picture to appear 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. One example is to use a wide lens, which will divide the scene into different layers. Occasionally you have an unpleasant background. To resolve this issue, we can sometimes select a tiny depth of field so that everything behind the main object is less in 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.
Thanks 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 tutorial has helped you to get more of a perspective on how to improve your skills. If you would like to get even more great ideas and take your skills to the next level, please take a look at one of my blogs today and get even more great ideas.