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.
How To Define 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
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 create an 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
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 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 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.
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. 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 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 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
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 create an 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
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 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 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.
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. 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 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 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 one of my blogs today and pick up other tricks.
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