Hold Your Camera on an Angle
This post belongs to our series of posts on breaking rules of photography to get great images.
One of the ‘rules’ of photography that I talked about very early in the development of Digital Photography School was to do everything you can to keep your images ‘straight’ (and your horizons horizontal).
There are a lot of instances when you’d want to follow this rule pretty carefully (like in most landscapes where a horizon should probably be straight) – but breaking it can lead to images with drama, a feeling of energy and action and fun.
The key with breaking this rule is to not to ‘slightly break it’ (or you’ll have people wondering if you meant it or not) but to give your wrist a real twist and to break it obviously.
22 Responses to “Hold Your Camera on an Angle” - Add Yours
August 7th, 2007 at 1:29 am
I think it is interesting to see in the example photo that other rules have been followed. The model is vertical and the vanishing point is located near a vertical third division also.
Great post, and I love to see examples of ‘acceptable’ rule breaking. Looking forward to the following posts.
August 7th, 2007 at 3:06 am
In the last wedding I was in the photographer did this on every picture. I remember getting frustrated over him constantly taking pictures with a twist. I’m sure he meant to, obviously, but being an amateur this seemed silly. I have seen his pictures, and while I still think he overdid it, many of them look great.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:20 am
I love doing that with a wide lens, like Sigma 10-20mm, with architecture shots choosing different lines of alignment.. break it all!
August 7th, 2007 at 7:42 am
XmasB – yes it can definitely be overdone but makes a nice occasional twist.
August 8th, 2007 at 12:42 am
I do this with almost every shoot. I get great feedback from my subjects, and I don’t even think they realize that it’s the angle that makes the biggest difference.
August 8th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Once when I was a bridesmaid, the photographer took a close up shot of the bride and I, and tilted the camera slightly to minimize the height difference. Since our faces filled most of the frame, and the background was blurry, you didn’t notice it was slightly off.
August 8th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Here’s the picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9244400@N03/1048585291/
Actually, the background isn’t blurry, and if you look it’s very obvious it’s tilted. Yet, this is one of my favorite pictures (obviously because of the people). What do you think?
August 10th, 2007 at 12:57 am
I love doing this when something intense happens during evacuation training…
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1318/1061355109_c6f178c4b3.jpg
April 26th, 2008 at 3:29 am
In this pic and a few others I have seen it works but more often than not to me it looks terrible. Gives the feeling of falling over. Especially in full body standing portraits.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
It adds mood to wacky pictures. For me it can be used to add height to your pictures…
November 20th, 2008 at 3:53 am
A recent trip to New York City; my first time there and it was an “overwelmingly-bigger-than-life-awesome” experience. I wanted to “portray” this feeling to friends and family back home in northern Alberta, Canada so I used this “tilt” method to capture the moments in a unique imagery. It worked!
December 9th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Hey folks, have just subscribed after buying my first DSLR and love the tips and comments. Keep up the great posts and ideas, I have found a new ‘favourite’ place.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Hi everyone,
On a recent trip to South Africa, I took this picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrenborland/3160016202/in/set-72157612059234400/
Its one I framed as part of a safari collage and really looks the part.
PS – This website is fantastic – thank you.
February 24th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Hello every one,
below are some of the pictures which i had taken long back, using this rule..:)
Black forest : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ankipraveen/1349870903/
London : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ankipraveen/1385908353/
comments welcome.
February 27th, 2009 at 3:36 am
This is a great picture and a great method that I use on quite a regular basis. I use it mainly on studio portraiture, buildings and my favourite – when I am photographing MotoX racing. In the MotoX racing it can give some really dramatic pictures and give a sense that the rider has jumped a lot higher then he/she actually has.
February 27th, 2009 at 5:11 am
My daughter did this while taking pictures of some guest at our house, and I was really amazed at the results, and a little envious that someone that did not pick up the camera as much as I have had the eye to see the possiblities of shotting this way. I like, I like.
March 27th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Was the picture somehow post-processed? I mean, how is it possible that the girl’s arm is almost longer than her feet?
August 6th, 2010 at 5:58 am
This is one rule I love breaking, and a lot of friends when seeing the end result loved the pictures that it produces. I posted one picture on a website I use to show my work, and someone ‘told me off’ for angling my camera. I was like it was the entire point to create the finish that I got for the picture.
I’ve used it a lot in gig pictures and they have always worked well, and I fell have given more depth the the picture. Also I did a set of London Underground pictures and they came out superb so keep on rule breaking!
Anyway, yes it is a fave rule of mine to break and I will keep breaking it as long as the images keep coming back super.
August 14th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Hej, When I angle the camera is there anything I should think of? I have taken some photos with 45 degee angle and i try to follow thi lines up wards!
Thank yor replyes!
August 14th, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Hi, When I angle the camera is there anything i need to consider?
I have tryed to do it 45 degree?
It looks so cool!
Thank you for your replys!
September 30th, 2011 at 2:01 am
I occasionally compose using an angle, as I’ve also found that it brings much more dynamism to the shot. This is one of my images where it worked well.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmckeen/5625865536/in/set-72157626189588051
March 31st, 2012 at 5:30 am
calinite17 Says:
Actually, the background isn’t blurry, and if you look it’s very obvious it’s tilted. Yet, this is one of my favorite pictures (obviously because of the people). What do you think?
I like this pic… I think because it almost appears to be an optical illusion. the right side of the picture (as a whole) looks smaller and the left it appears to get larger.
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