 BetterPhoto Member |
Perspective in Photography How do you enhance the perspective of a subject?
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John P. Sandstedt |
Perspective is an optical property - whether it's in your head as what your eyes see or whether you see it as a function of the lens you're using. That's right, perspective appears different, whether you use a wide-angle or a telephoto lens. If you want to enhance perspective, try changing your lens and also the point from which you're shooting. If you shot a house, with the film plane parallel to the front of the house, you'll get a flat subject. Moving to one side of the house and stepping back a bit, you'll introduce perspective into the image, since roof lines, etc., will fall toward that imaginary focal point - similar to how railroad tracks close to that same point, the Vanishing Point.
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Alan N. Marcus |
Hi Lori, As we look about, objects appear different depending on whereabouts they are – near or far. Near objects appear large; the same object seen from a distance appears small. The relative size of objects is determined by the position of the eye. A camera equipped with a “normal” lens duplicates the human experience. We call this “normal” prospective. The focal length required is nearly the same as the diagonal measure of the film or chip. For the 35mm film camera, that’s 50mm. For digital, we use a conversion factor because most digitals sport a chip that is 66% smaller than the 35mm frame. Thus: 50÷1.5 =33mm Now the camera lens projects an image of the outside world onto our film or chip. Lenses of different focal lengths project different size images. A short lens renders objects as tiny producing a panorama like view we call this “wide angle” - 28mm or shorter for the 35mm film camera - 18mm or shorter for the digital. Now in artists circles, wide views are associated with strong prospective. The long lens or telephoto 135mm or longer for 35mm film camera - 83mm or longer for digital - is often labeled as a weaken perspective. These opinions are based in part on the fact that the camera-to-subject distance required to obtain desired composition is usually near for wide angle and far for telephoto. This belief is psychological in nature. The size of the finished work and the viewing distance are also major influences. In most cases, it will be necessary to change both camera-to-subject distance and focal length to achieve the desired angle of view with the desired object/image size. As an example in portraiture, too short a lens renders the nose too big and the ears too small. This is “strong” prospective with distortion. The countermeasure is to use a longer than normal lens. A long lens forces the photographer to step back. This act causes the nose to ear separation to become insignificant thus facial distortion is rendered as nil “weak” prospective”. The focal length usually recommended is 85mm to 105mm for the 35mm film camera which works out to 55mm to 70mm for digital. In closing, these are not laws. These are opinions formed by knowledgeable people. Art is not a science; you are free to follow your heart. It’s called “poetic license”. Alan Marcus
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