But if you were to spend some time looking through artistic photography works, you would find that the subject might not be always in the normal horizontal or vertical position. In fact, there are top-level view, slant view, bird eye view and many others. Some of special views are achieved using special lens to capture the subject while others are achieved by varying the angles that the subject is taken.



As most compact digital cameras do not allow the usage of external lens, you can only try to shoot the subject at different angles to achieve special views or effects.

The best way to appreciate the art of shooting at different angles is by conducting an experiment. Get a piece of black cloth and put it on a table. Find a crystal, stone or anything that is small enough to put on the top of the black cloth. The important thing is that the thing you selected is not black in color. The purpose of using a black cloth is to provide a non-distracting background for the subject. Now that the subject is small, you can basically play around and shoot the subject from all possible angles. One thing to note is that you will most probably need to use a close-up mode to shoot the subject. You can shoot from the side, the back, the top or any weird position. You can shoot the subject as near as you want or as far as you want.

After shooting at various possible angles, you should go through the photos to see the difference between them. For example, a top view of the subject will be different from a side view of the subject. A left side view will be different from a right side view. A near view of the subject will be different from a far view of the subject. At certain angles, the photos will appear to be brilliant. At certain angles, the photos will appear to be dull.

Why? This is because the composition of the photo changes as you vary the angles to shoot at the subject. This experiment also tells us another thing. A subject may look normal at certain angles and appear brilliant at other angles. In other words, there is more than one way of taking a good photo for any particular subject. Do not be restricted by your conditioning.

In short, the simple idea that I will like to share with you is:

Be creative and playful by shooting at different angles.