Perspective is powerful. It determines how we see and view the world, but also how we create images and scenes using different dimensions and depth. As our creative visions evolve, we all learn to create in a new way. Learning how to use perspective in photography, especially when it comes to composition, can help your visuals grow.
As we learn, grow, and create, learn how to use perspective in your photographs, which can expand your creativity and allow for you to create no matter what, even if creating might look different than it normally does.
What is perspective in photography?
Perspective in photography is defined as the sense of depth or spatial relationship between objects within an image. Effective perspective photography can take a two-dimensional perspective picture and make it feel like a three-dimensional scene and add greater depth to your images.
Why is perspective important in photography?
Perspective creates farther greater depth and dimension to your images, so perspective photography is far more immersive to the viewer. By utilizing angles or even specific lenses and camera settings, you can develop powerful compositions.
What are the five types of perspective in photography?
There are multiple types (or styles) of perspective you can use in photography: linear, overlap, diminishing scale, forced, and atmospheric or aerial perspective.
Linear perspective
Linear perspective is the most common type of perspective photography, using converging lines to show the depth in a frame. It requires two elements: parallel lines and a vanishing point. A vanishing point is typically on the horizon but can be placed anywhere in an image.
The three common perspectives in linear perspective are one-point, two-point, and three-point perspective.
One-point perspective
A one-point perspective uses two parallel lines that converge to one vanishing point. This creates depth in the image (think of road, bridge, or train tracks).
Two-point perspective
Two-point perspective uses two vanishing points that meet and our positioned on the horizon, like the corner of a building.
Three-point perspective
Three-point perspectives provide the greatest depth and require two vanishing points on the horizon, with the third vanishing point typically being vertically centered, below or above the horizon, creating a top-down or bottom-up perspective.
Overlap perspective
Overlap perspective uses overlapping natural layers in your frame to increase the depth and dimension. The greater the layers, the greater the dimension.
Diminishing scale perspective
Diminishing scale perspective utilizes how we naturally view things with our eyes. Closer options appear larger and farther options appear smaller. Combining both close and far subjects, like a cityscape with closer and farther buildings, creates a sense of greater depth.
Another way to help capture this type of perspective is by using a wide-angle lens. Wide-angle lenses make closer subjects appear much larger in the frame, which greatly increases the scale between close and far subjects.
Forced perspective
Forced perspective is a powerful type of perspective photography that requires placing your subject in a specific area of your foreground and using a telephoto lens to compress your image, making the distance and relationship between background and foreground appear closer, creating a depth illusion in your frame.
It’s important to stop down and shoot at a larger aperture, to provide greater depth of field and sharper details in both the foreground and background, without any significant blurring that can throw off perspective.
Atmospheric or Aerial perspective
Atmospheric or Aerial perspective refers to utilizing the way light and color naturally reflect in nature to create depth in your images.
When lightwaves move across our atmosphere, particles, and molecules in the air scatter them, affecting how we see light in two ways:
- First, closer subjects appear darker, and farther subjects appear lighter (like mountain layers, with the farthest layers being lighter)
- Second, all color waves will fade as they expand farther out in an image, except for white.
Understanding how light and color work in our atmosphere allows you to work with natural layers and elements like fog or clouds, that provide a sense of depth, as the contrast and highlights fade from the foreground to the background.
6 Ways to Create Powerful Perspective in Your Photos
1. Look up, or down
A really unique way to create perspective is by simply focusing your camera up or down. Our natural instinct as humans and photographers is to look forward and in front of our camera, but taking images from above or below can really add a powerful perspective that people are drawn to.
Whether it’s shooting up at a cityscape or landscape, or down on a city grid, river, or canyon, give this type of perspective a try. Doing so can create abstract, beautiful images that help diversify your portfolio.
2. Use leading lines
Leading lines — one of the key photo composition techniques — are great, and if used correctly, can be one of the most commanding perspectives in photography. The proper way to approach this type of photography and create this perspective is by crouching lower — sometimes near ground level — and allowing the leading lines you are focusing on to guide the viewer to your subject in the foreground.
So for example, a great leading line would be something like a road, wooden dock, trail, or bridge, which draws people in and quite literally leads them to the subject of the image.
Leading lines are incredibly beautiful when utilized and photographed correctly. They provide a perspective that is engaging and should be consistently utilized when shooting photography.
3. Look through your subject
Another powerful perspective to learn is using an object to look through your subject. Like leading lines, this type of perspective is engaging because you’re creating a natural frame for your subject, which draws the attention of the viewer even further.
You can use a window, tree branches, or even your own camera or phone screen, to draw people to your image subject. Just be sure the frame itself doesn’t distract or take too much away from the subject, thus diminishing the effect of this perspective.
4. Get close
It’s common for macro photography to be the first type of photography we learn when we are younger. We get our camera close to a caterpillar crawling in the yard or a bouquet of flowers in our house and try to capture the unique perspective of those subjects up close. But once we expand on our photography, we tend to move away from macro photography.
However, macro photography, which allows you to get close and fill your frame with the smallest details, offers a perspective of photography that is truly beautiful and should never be abandoned.
Whether you are capturing the details of a plant or flower, or the rich colors of a human iris, macro photography can open a photographer’s world up to dimensions we wish our human eyes could explore on their own. It’s a fantastic perspective to try shooting again, and can further expand your photography skill set.
5. Capture scale
Being able to capture scale in photography is incredibly important, and one of the most powerful types of perspectives you can create. It utilizes the power of dimension, and if done correctly, can show the size or expansiveness of your subject.
One of the best ways to capture scale is through compression and using a longer lens, like a 70-200mm or 100-300mm. Lens compression occurs when you combine standing far away from your subject and using a telephoto lens, which makes objects in the background appear closer or larger than they look when using a wider lens. It also increases the depth of field, which allows for your background to be as focused as your foreground and subject.
One of the most powerful ways to create scale is by capturing humans in a massive, beautiful landscape. It can show the actual size difference between a human versus a mountain, waterfall, or canyon.
Scale, when captured well, can be one of the most inspiring types of perspectives in photography. It’s a little more technical to learn, but once practiced, can be one of the most rewarding ways to photograph.
6. Utilize Reflections
Last, but certainly not least, is perspective found in reflections, and creating a mirror image of your subject.
You can do this in two ways: by using a mirror to capture and reflect your subject behind you, or by capturing the mirrored image of your subject by using still water — whether it’s a puddle, pond, river, or lake — glass, or a mirror.
Reflections, no matter how they are captured, can create a beautiful perspective and add dimension to your subject, whether it’s a person, building, or piece of a landscape.
