Work Those Angles!

With one of this week's Project 52 themes being "Shoot From Above", I thought this would a be a good time to talk about angles, and how taking photos from different perspectives can give your shots more impact, or help tell the story a little better.

We naturally tend to take photographs from the same angles and from the same viewpoints (Usually with children this is at their eye level) but it can add a lot of visual interest to photograph the scene from a different angle.  For some of you this will come naturally, for others (like myself) we need to remind ourselves to mix it up a bit.

Once you have taken your shot from a standard angle - move.  Keep moving and shooting from different angles - stand above your subject and look down, get underneath and shoot up, shoot from behind, lie on your tummy, or rest the camera on the table for a unique perspective.  These type of shots are used a lot in the lifestyle or photojournalistic style (of which I will go into deeper in an upcoming post) as shots taken from different angles has the potential to tell a different story, and give a different perspective. 

A few examples of shots taken from different angles;

From Above:

Over the Shoulder:

Crouch down to the same level:

Take some from below........

(this is his dancing face!)

and some from behind....

Be prepared for the fact that a lot of these shots won't work - but some will. As you practice, you'll develop a better eye for what angle will help tell the story better, or just give you that unique perspective that lifts the photo from the ordinary into something a bit more special.

A good practice for this is to take an everyday object and see how many ways you can photograph it - this is a common creativity exercise but it can really help you "loosen up" and use different compositions. (Here's a little article I wrote a few months back with a creativity exercise with a bottleif you fancy giving it a go!)

So, next time you are taking photos of your children, stop and think about how you can take the photo from some alternative angles. Remember it costs nothing to take a photograph, and you don't even need a DSLR to do it - I guarantee you will get some really artistic shots with just a basic point and shoot!.