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Picture a simple scene with a person standing before a landscape. If you photograph them from your eye level, the photograph looks exactly like what a passerby would see with their own eyes as they walk past you, the photographer, capturing an image of your friend. Now, this photograph can be fine—depending on the execution—but think about how you can change the composition by altering your viewpoint.
You can change your elevation. Kneel down and take a photo. Or, hold the camera above your head and shoot down on your subject. Move right. Move left. Go aside your subject or behind them. Get closer. Get further away. Roll diagonally right or left. Notice how the background shifts. Notice how things are added to or eliminated from the foreground. Most importantly, notice how the photograph you capture is no longer something that a casual passerby would see.
Subtle changes in viewpoint can add a deeper meaning or feeling to an image. When is the last time you saw a photograph of the President of the United States seated behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, taken from above his or her head? By shooting lower, the photographer emphasizes an iconic vantage point, signifying the power of the office. You will be hard pressed to find a photograph of the Oval Office where the camera is positioned higher than the President. On the contrary, if you were to photograph a young student being scolded at his desk, you would likely shoot the image from a higher viewpoint—from the vantage point of the dean or principal about to assign punishment—or you would chose the lower perspective from the student’s point of view with the towering power figure looming overhead.
Changing your viewpoint is a photographer’s great advantage. We see the world from eye level—be it walking around the city, driving down a country road while seated in a car, or bicycling through a village—and that level is relatively the same for all adults. The photographer, however, can give us a child’s eye view of a scene, a bird’s eye view, or even a viewpoint that is literally unique to the camera, as the human eye cannot physically reach the position. Use this freedom to your aesthetic advantage and make images from creative viewpoints.
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