Drop Your Perspective



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By Dave Williams

What is a lower perspective for? It’s for awesome, that’s what! 

Getting a different perspective in your photography is crucial for making your photos stand out. Watch the non-photographers out there take a photo and you’ll notice a trend – they will stand fixed to the spot and raise the camera to eye level. What do their photos look like? They all look the same.

On the other hand if you watch a pro take a shot you’ll notice they are pretty much constantly on the move. Watch a wedding photographer and you’ll see this in double time! You’ll see stretching, leaning, crouching, shuffling, and a whole range of different shots of the same thing will result. 

If we concentrate on the one thing here, a lower perspective, we can describe the look it gives. I’ve said time and time again in teaching photography that shooting low creates an epic look; take a look at shots of your favorite superheroes and you’ll notice that in almost every shot of them looking powerful and portraying courage, they’re shot from low angles with their head held high. This low angle look has been tuned into our brain as an image which conveys the feeling of grandeur and strength, and it translates away from superheroes into almost every type of photography. 

When shooting a building interior, low angles carries this message of strength but on top of that helps us put more into the scene. It’s quite often the case when shooting fantastic architecture interiors that by far the most attractive element is the view up, rather than the view down of the floor. By shooting from pretty much floor level we can squeeze the floor element of the shot into a thin strip across the bottom of the image, still maintaining its presence within the scene but allowing more ‘headroom’ for the undoubtedly amazing ceiling because the camera is already, from a perspective point of view, in position at the same level as the far end of the rooms floor and pitched upward to squeeze more of those beautiful ceilings into the frame. 



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It’s not only to our advantage indoors that this perspective shift can squeeze the ground into a slimmer portion of the image and thus create a better image. When we shoot landscapes it’s important to incorporate a foreground, and this foreground element being so close to the viewer in the way Platypod sits on the ground can help to emphasize our foreground whilst still having a background comprised of epic elements.



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Shooting low is something that comes naturally to Platypod, and it’s an effective solution to achieving an incredible look. Consider getting lower next time you’re shooting and take a look at the results.



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