Photography Techniques and Angles

Photography

• Photography is an art form, different from painting
• Defined as "something created with imagination and skill, that is beautiful, or expresses important ideas/feelings."
• Photography techniques and styles can be a tool to express creative ideas, showing the real world
• Photographs can hold multiple meanings based on a person's experience and culture
• A photographer can manipulate the subject to express emotion or ideas, rather than just capturing a literal depiction

Types of Photography Angles

• Eye-Level Camera Angle (ELCA): The simplest and most common angle, shooting at eye level for a close-up image of the subject. Ideal for conveying emotion and facial details, making the picture look natural.

• Low Angle Photography (LAP): Looking up at the subject from below their eye level (often achieved by squatting or sitting). Shows the subject as taller, bigger, closer. Creates a sense of depth and power. Often used in film for dominating characters.

• High Angle Shot (HAS): The opposite of a low angle, tilting the camera downwards to take a view from above. Makes subjects appear smaller, creates a greater sense of distance between subject and photographer, amplifying the surroundings, and is ideal for showcasing drama or vastness.

Other Photography Angles

• Bird's-Eye View Angle (BEVA): A more extreme high angle, looking down on the subject. Ideal for capturing detailed shots. Difficult to achieve without a helper or tools.

• Dutch Angle Shot (DAS): A technique of tilting the camera on its axis. Creates a sense of unease, tension, and unusual perspective.

• Close-Up Shot (CUS): Showing a very specific detail or the subject from the forehead to the chin with extreme clarity. Ideal for capturing facial features.

• Long Angle Shot (LAS): Includes a subject in relation to its background, showing a person in front of a landmark or surrounded by other elements. Ideal for showing context and surroundings.

Painting

• Painting utilizes a flat surface (canvas) to showcase the creativity of the artist.
• It can be based on reality or the artist's imagination.
• The interpretation of paintings is subjective, affected by the viewer's experiences and moods.

Elements of Painting

• Line: The simplest and most fundamental element, including horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and curved lines. Convey different feelings & meanings.
• Texture: Surface quality or feel of the object.
• Value: Lightness or darkness of a color. Lightness = Tint, Darkness=Shade.
• Space: The empty or occupied area of a painting, and visual layering
• Color: Hue, intensity, and value, giving life to a visual art piece..

Color Schemes

• Analogous: Using three adjacent colors in the color wheel.

• Complementary: Two colors opposite each other on the color wheel, which create the strongest contrast.

• Split Complementary: A color, its opposite, and the two colors adjacent to the opposite.

• Triadic: Three colors equally spaced on the color wheel.

• Square Tetradic: Four colors spaced equally on the color wheel.

• Rectangular Tetradic: Similar to square, but the four colors form a rectangle.

• Hue: The pure color, the dominant color.

• Value: The lightness or darkness of a color.

• Intensity: The brightness or dullness of a color.

• Monochromatic: Using variations of a single hue.

Other Artistic Principles

• Rhythm: Repetition of lines, shapes, and colors.
• Proportion: Relationship among sizes of different elements in a work.
• Harmony: Similarities in shapes, appearance, and size, typically placed equidistant from the center.
• Emphasis: The point of attraction in a work of art, often achieved through color, size, or placement of the element. This makes other elements appear subordinate.