Digital Media
Point of View
In relation to photography, ‘point of view’ refers to the position the camera is in when viewing a scene. Are you laying on the ground, looking up at your subject? Are you flying in a helicopter, looking down at the landscape below? Or are you simply standing and looking straight-on at your subject? Whether you’re looking up, down, or straight-on changes the scene dramatically, and changes the way that the viewer interprets the final photograph. Subjects can be dramatically distorted simply by where you place your camera. A blade of grass can look like a skyscraper, and a skyscraper can look like a tiny little house. It all depends on your point of view!
Bird’s-eye View
When photographing a subject from above, it is known as a “bird’s-eye view”. This could be taken from up in the sky, such as when flying in a plane, or could simply be taken by standing on a ladder, slightly above your subject. Photographing from this point of view can make viewers feel as though they are superior to the subject – such as a stern father looking down on his misbehaving child – or protective over the subject. If the subject is an inanimate object, it can sometimes make the viewer feel as though there is a separation between them and the subject.
Photographing from a bird’s-eye view can be especially effective if shooting landscapes from a helicopter (if you get so lucky). What seem as normal landscapes from the ground turn into beautiful, abstract works of art when seen from above.
Worm’s-eye View
Photographing from below is sometimes referred to as “worm’s-eye view”, as if you were a worm looking up at the world around you. As you can imagine, this makes all subjects look very large, even if they are very small in reality. As opposed to images shot from above, subjects presented in this way look as though they hold power over the viewer, and can seem very intimidating. By photographing a subject from a worm’s eye view, you automatically make the viewer feel vulnerable, even if the subject itself isn’t frightening.
Close Up View
This point of view tends to be the most effective, especially when photographing human subjects. To use this technique, photograph your subject from the point of view of the person interacting with the subject. For instance, if you were to take a shot of someone making dinner, take a photograph of the food as if you were the chef – perhaps even including hands in the foreground for reference. These sort of images make the viewer feel as though they are experiencing the scene themselves, and makes it easy to put themselves in the photographer’s place. An image from this point of view can be captivating, heartwarming, or even slightly disturbing depending on the subjects you decide to photograph.
Unusual View
An unusual perspective includes tilting the camera. Shooting through one object to focus on another. (Framing). Positioning yourself in a unique angle that is not at eye level.
Excerpts of this article have been taken from the New York Film Academy