Thursday, March 28

The types of angles in photography: in-depth guide to know how to position the camera to capture reality


Photography allows you to show the world as you see it. And to show it you have multiple photographic language tools. From the lenses to the editing programs. But one of the most powerful to influence the viewer is the types of angles, where do you place the camera to capture reality. And if you know and use them well, your photographic work will improve.


Photography made it easier for reality to be shown in another way. From the beginning of the story, the viewer had only seen the paintings from the front, as if it were a play, where everything happens in front of his eyes. We were just the fourth wall.

When cinema was born, the camera was placed at the same angle as what it was filming. Everything looked like we were sitting in the theater. And of course it attracted attention. But the same canons were repeated over and over again.

László Moholy-Nagy, from the metallurgy workshop of the Bauhaus school, one of the most important design centers for aesthetics and art of the 20th century, taught his students that reality could be shown from other angles. And the camera was the perfect tool to achieve it. Let’s meet them.

The types of angles in photography

László Moholy-Nagy, following in the footsteps of Alexander Rodchenko and all of Man Ray’s experiments, understood that the camera, a perfect tool, could move beyond the frontal shots we saw time and time again since the first paintings of bison in the caves.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

He was the one who taught his students, and they the world, that the camera could look differently, which was one more element of photographic language. And he captured it in one of the most important books for creators in general: ‘Painting, Photography, Film’ (1925):

The secret of the camera is that it reproduces a purely optical image, while our gaze completes said image by resorting, with associative links, to our intellectual experience. The result is the image of the imagination. For this reason, photographic devices are the safest net that we can place under our body when embarking on the adventure of objective vision. Everyone needs to see an optical truth, that is, something objective, and interpretable arising from himself, before coming to adopt a subjective position.

So he began to experiment with different angles, different points of view, to see things differently. And all the photographers began to realize that they could move the camera to achieve different effects.

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We see straight ahead. But there are times when we look at the sky, or we look into the abyss when we go to a hanging viewpoint. And we can take these experiences to our photographs without any problem. And with mobile phones and articulated screens, it is becoming easier.

So we are going to know all the types of angles that we can use so that our photographs attract attention and do not turn us into mere replicants of reality. However, I am convinced that they should be used sparingly.

Normal, Chopped, Low Angled, Nadir, Overhead, are the five angles that photographers have to choose from when shooting with the camera. This way we will be more flexible and original. And we’ll even have a better time.

Normal

The camera is placed parallel to the ground and the subject. It’s a front shot reminds us that we are spectators of reality. For it to work, we have to always stand at the same height as the object we want to photograph.

It is the angle that we repeat over and over again with the camera because is how we usually look. How we see the television or the computer, how we feel the theater or the cinema as spectators.

photography angles

We just have to take the camera to our eyes and shoot as we walk so that our photographs attract attention. Yes, how is the most common angleit may not draw so much attention and we have to rely on other tools of photographic language.

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Chopped

The camera tilts towards the subject. We are on a higher plane and we take the camera down. Makes the photographed object appear smaller.

Obviously, it requires us to be higher or simply higher than the people or objects we are looking at.

photography angles

Of course, we can’t do a whole session with just this angle. It is strange for the viewer and can become visually tiring. It is best to combine it with the others so that it does not lose that different air that gives the chopped.

low angle shot

It is the angle complementary to the dive. We tilt the camera up. We are on a lower plane with respect to the subject. Everything will come out bigger, psychologically more important.

photography angles

If we want to give grandeur to a landscape, to a person, it is the best choice we can make. Shooting from a lower height than the subject powerfully draws the attention of viewers.

As with the previous one, the viewer will look at these images carefully the first time he sees them, but will soon get tired of this angle if we use it frequently.

zenithal

It is one of the most viewed angles today. It comes from zenith (way above the head). All the planes of the maps, of the drones, are from above. The camera is high up and perpendicular to the ground.

It is difficult to achieve it, because the camera must be at 90º downwards. We can always go up to a viewpoint, a high floor or a bridge and capture everything that happens below us.

photography angles

The zenithal angle turns the photographer into a narrator who seems to be able to contemplate everything he sees. It is important that the image is clean so that the viewer does not take a long time to identify what he is looking at.

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Nadir

It is the opposite of zenith and means ‘opposite’. The camera is on the ground and looks up into the sky, which makes for very striking images.

photography angles

To achieve this you have to be lower than the subject or place the camera directly on the ground. It is really difficult and you have to force the situation. If we are inside a cathedral, the result can be spectacular. And we can always place the camera on the ground and take a photo with all the friends.

And what do we do with all these angles?

We always think that the most complicated is the most spectacular. The more we change the point of view, the more we will attract attention. And we run the risk of abusing the angles in search of originality. And something that should be positive for us becomes gibberish.

photography angles

Every angle has a meaning. A normal angle transmits more tranquility than a zenithal one. For this reason, we must choose the angle based on what we want to convey and the theme we are dealing with. It is more dangerous to go too far than to fall short in the search for originality.

photography angles

Of course you have to take risks and enjoy yourself, which is what it is all about, but if we want our photographs to attract attention we have to use other tools of photographic language to achieve it. The composition, the choice of lens and the various photographic techniques are equally or more important to attract attention.

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In the end the photographer is the one who decides what he wants to show and how. And its function is to know the photographic language without depending on the camera it carries or the fashions of the moment. The angles become another tool to improve the final result of our images.

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