Don't just accept just any old shot.
Rather than plonk the camera down and start shooting, think about
depth, colour, and - most important - what you want the picture
to say.
Do you want a high angle or a low
angle instead of a shot from eye level? The low one will tend
to make the chap look important, the high one makes him seem
less so. The two together (sorry my pictures aren't good enough
to demonstrate this!) can work well if you're shooting a drama
and want one person to look important and the other submissive.
Though usually there'll be something else in the action to
motivate the high/low camera angles - perhaps the dominant character
will
be standing and the other one sitting. There are sometimes
other good reasons, though, for shooting high or low.
Look at these two pictures. The one
on the right is so much more pleasing (at least I hope you'll
agree). Apart from the change of camera angle to include the
building, the main improvement is the shift of the horizon from
halfway up the frame to one third of the way up.
THE GOLDEN MEAN
The ancient Greeks discovered and
rationalised a thing called the golden mean; if you divide an
area with a line into three-eights (near enough a third) and
five eighths it looks most pleasing. It comes into play in all
sorts of ways - the most obvious one is when you're shooting
a person; the eyes (the centre of interest) will nearly always
be one third of the way down the frame. There are always exceptions;
an obvious one is (thinking about landscapes again) a picture
including a lake or other large area of water. The artist might
well put the horizon halfway up the picture to include the reflection
of the tree or whatever. But look at where the tree is - probably
one third of the way across the frame.
Here's another example of the 'horizon'
being shifted. It's the join between the backdrop and the floor
in this case, but the thinking is the same.
THE RIGHT CHOICE OF LENS ANGLE
A modern zoom lens has quite a variety
of angles to choose from. It's tempting to leave the camera in
place and zoom around to select the picture. Be careful, though,
of shooting Close Ups on a wide angle. The distortion can look
horrid. Though there are always exceptions - are you doing a
horror story?
Here are two close-ups of a chap -
the left one was shot on a fairly narrow angle lens; the other
with the camera much nearer and using a wide angle lens. It exaggerates
perspective and makes his nose look enormous. So be very careful
with your choice of camera position versus lens angle - imagine
Miss World given the same treatment as this chap!
But a wide angle lens can be a very
good friend in the right circumstances. The man on the left has
been shot on a wide angle lens from a slightly low camera position;
it gives him a 'superior' feel - good for a drama about the arrogant
boss of a company. And on the right is the same chap playing
a different sort of role! Mass murderer instead of megalomaniac.
There's an awful lot to learn about
lenses, depth of field, etc. Press on to the next section if
you want to know more.
