I
have always considered photography to be a dance.
Seriously! Whenever I pick up the camera and approach
a subject I know there is usually just one viewpoint from
where the subject, the background and other significant
elements in the environment come together to create the perfect
photo. Finding that perspective involves walking around the
subject, moving forward and back, and gauging the strength of
the scene from different angles. When I find that place, making
the photo usually becomes the easy part of the process.
Of course the tempo of the dance is determined by the
subject. If I’m stuck in a studio or wandering a landscape at
noon there’s usually no rush to find the right viewpoint. But if
I’m photographing a wedding or portrait, or even a dynamic
commercial or editorial situation, then things move a bit faster.
Often as I move the subjects and myself around in search of
the best perspective, I joke that we are doing the photographer’s
waltz, but I also know that the right perspective is critical to a
good photograph.
Some of you might be thinking that the search for
perspective is just an occasional trick that professional
photographers use to improve an image, but the fact is,
perspective is everything. Regardless of light and moment,
if you’re in the wrong place for a photo, nothing else matters.
And it’s a process that’s more complex than you might think.
Putting aside light, which most experienced photographers
know can be managed and manipulated in a variety of ways,
finding the right perspective for a photograph can be a complex
and engaging process.
Unlimited options
To appreciate just how many options there are in any shooting
situation, imagine a checker board, the 8 x 8 board you play
checkers or chess on. Imagine that this is a big checker board
with each square being one metre wide. Now, for argument’s
sake, put this checkerboard on a location like Bondi Beach, that
iconic strip of sand on Sydney’s coast. Imagine a portrait subject
is standing in the centre of this board, and as you walk around all
64 squares on the board, the subject keeps turning to face you.
Start by imagining you’re walking around the four most central
squares. As you move from one square to another you are literally
walking 360-degrees around your subject. At just one metre from
the subject you can make the portrait with a wide-angle lens and
at the same time encompass a lot of the background. From one
square you will have the sea in the background, in another you
will be looking along the beach towards other bathers. From the
third square you’re looking up towards the apartments and oneAUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 29
HOW TO Master Perspective
AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY + DIGITAL SEPTEMBER 2015
ABOVE & OPPOSITE
We can get close enough to most subjects, man or mountain, to
manage the perspective in the image. There are some exceptions
though, like a full moon. In this scene the moon was just starting to
rise as I was making a photo of this Alberrie Creek artwork on the
Oodnadatta Track, SA. The first photo (left) was made with a 30mm
equivalent lens, but after I noticed the moon rising I realised there was
a more interesting photo if I moved back about 100m and made the
photo with a telephoto lens. This photo was made with an 80-200mm
lens set to about 150mm. Ideally I would have liked to have used a
longer lens so that I could have made the moon appear even larger in
the image, but there was a problem with this plan. Because I was slow
to realise the moon was rising, and not fast at running 100 or so metres
across stony terrain, the moon was too high in the sky to include
both it and the aircraft. This is where good planning comes into play!
Given another chance I would have the line and the length of the shot
planned out before moonrise so as to be ready for the photograph.Capturing the perfect
photo is all about
homing in on the best
perspective, writes
Anthony McKee.
He explains the finer
points and shows
you how to gauge the
strength of a scene
from different angles.