Hey we're looking at what effect your
shooting angle has on today's episode of
Welcome back everybody,
of course I'm David Bergman,
as always here on Adorama TV,
answering your photography questions.
Today I've got one from Randy F, and he
asks how much does shooting angle play
into your concert shots, we see many
pictures from slightly below the
performer, is there a benefit from
changing up the shooting angle at all.
Hey thanks Randy, that's a great question.
Listen there are lots of things that you
can do when taking pictures that effect
the feeling of your photos, for example
you can change your exposure to make a
picture of lighter or darker, and that
sort of gives it a feel right, if it's
bright and happy, or dark and moody,
you can also change your aperture, which will
change your depth of field, and make your
subject either pop off the background, or
really become more a part of it.
Those are all things you can do to change the
feel, but something you might not think
about too often is actually how the
shooting angle affects your image.
Randy's asking specifically about my
concert photos, but this is true really
with almost all kinds of photography.
Where you decide to shoot from low, high,
or centered - it actually does make a
difference in the feeling, let's talk
about photographing kids, when you're
taking pictures of kids, most people just
stand there and take a picture right,
they you look down on the child and you
take the picture, now adults are usually
taller than kids so because you're
looking down on them this really makes
them look kind of small, and it does
affect the feeling of that picture
because you're looking down on that kid,
and they just it just gives them a sense
of like a puniness right, it makes them
really look small, so, but if you can get
down, so that you're at their eye level,
all of a sudden they become your equal,
and it's subliminal in a way, but now
that person, however tall they are, is now
equal size to you, and they don't look
puny anymore.
So if you even take that further,
and you get even lower than that,
if you lay down on the ground, or really
really get low or put them up on a
platform, then they look massive, right,
looking up at someone puts them in a
position of strength and power, they
actually look larger-than-life, so now
let's take this over to concert
photography.
Why does it seem that most
concert shots are looking up at the musicians?
Well first of course there's the practical
issue - they're on a stage - it's raised up.
The fans who are watching them
especially from the floor seats in the
front are looking up with them, and
usually the photo pit is lower than the stage.
Two - it's sort of in that area
right in front of the front row,
musicians are larger-than-life, when
they're on stage in front of people, and,
and part of it is even just for the
crowd looking at them, they do look
larger-than-life, so be in that photo pit,
they're certainly going to look really,
really big and tall and strong, right,
Musicians on stage at an arena, or
Stadium, you want them to look that way
because there is an epicness to
something like that.
That really is that, that position,
a lot of musicians,
sometimes when you meet them in real
life people I say oh they were shorter
than I thought because you just imagine
that everybody is super tall and bigger
than life, a lot of times because of
where they're photographed from.
Interestingly enough if I'm shooting
something like a production rehearsal
where there there's no stage, and the
band is on the ground, they're at the
same level that I am shooting from, those
images in some way they sort of
humanized the performers since we're all
on the same level, but even in a
production rehearsal, if I still want to
make them look larger than life, I might
even kneel down, and just so that I can
get lower than them, and make them look
much bigger, it's a creative decision
that I'll make, really depending on the
story that I want to tell, now during a
show since I have all access,
I can go around the arena and
make images from all kinds of other
angles, for example I always go up into a
high wide-angle shot that's sort of a
scene setting image, so you can get a
feeling for the size of the crowd, and
just see the the situation, where we're
at, if we're outdoors at a stadium,
and the Sun is setting, or if we're you know
in an arena that's just packed with
people, and I'll do other things like,
I'll put up remote cameras, and shoot
maybe above the musicians, looking
straight down, because, just because it
can be a really cool graphic, and a
different way to look at an event, but
that low angle shot is epic anytime
you're photographing a person, whether
it's a professional athlete, or just a
kid with a nerf basketball, so pay
attention to that, just make that
decision consciously, on where you want
to photograph somebody, because it does
affect people's perception of that person.
So thanks for that Andy, I hope that
answers your question.
Don't forget to go to AskDavidBergman.com,
if you have your own photo questions,
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