It’s All About The Angle – 9/20/18
Thursday, September 20th, 2018
If you want to shoot the perfect image of your business product, let’s talk today of one very important factor in accomplishing that goal. The angle of view.
Early in my photography career my fabulous architectural photography mentor said to never just shoot the first thing I see. He’d say, “With architectural photography the angle you shoot from is crucial.” To illustrate that principle, before capturing his first image during an assignment, my mentor would walk around eyeing the scene from different angles to find the perfect shot. Finding it, he’d set the tripoded camera down and study the view he had chosen. He’d inch a little to the left, a wee bit to the right, and there it was. The spot. The one that “spoke” to him. And then he’d start creating that perfect shot.
This principle applies to all product photography. From cars to crayons. From fashion to furniture. From an industrial facility to a hospital nursing station. Whatever product you’re selling, whatever design you’re illustrating, whatever landscape catches your eye, stop, look, and move. Move to your right, step to your left, inch a bit forward, scooch further back. (Or, if your subject matter is a small product, it’s the product itself you will be moving incrementally.) Experiencing the subject in more ways than one will help you find the spot that just “speaks” to you.
I want to stress here, unless what you’re shooting will be gone in the blink of an eye, don’t go with the first “Oh, that’s so pretty” impression and shoot. Take your time – move around – and more often than not you’ll see an improved image. The right one.
If my assignment is shooting the interior space of a manufacturing plant, the first thing you’ll see me doing is walking with my hands surrounding my eyes like blinders on a race horse, looking for just the right perspective, the right feeling, the right angle, each time in memory of my mentor, hoping to do him proud – and get that perfect shot!
Here’s to you finding the perfect shot! Keep your eyes peeled for the next shooting tip from the We Shoot Newsletter. In the meantime, please respond with your questions, ideas, and topics you’d like us to address. They are all most welcome.
– Dione Benson
4/4/18
