Misaligned/Leaning Images of People (Photo Fundamentals)

JCSullivan · 10-04-2007, 10:11 AM

Quote:

I'm probably just an un-hip, behind the times, old fart

You're probably all of what you said, but I'm not far behind. I do like the effect especially in the images shown by Quan in his friends' anniversary shoot.

I saw this trend start a few years back on places like MuchMusic and other music stations in Europe. It has now moved into still photography.

If da client wants it you better be ready to provide it. Lets ask Mikey.

stewart_photo · 10-04-2007, 01:03 PM

Originally posted by ChrisA

It has indeed. I believe they call it "fashion".

Hopefully they're wrong, and it's just a fad - I don't like it at all, especially for portraiture. It's been done a lot for action shots over the years to (allegedly) convey more of a sense of action, and I don't much like that either.

I'm probably just an un-hip, behind the times, old fart, but I find it generally very gimmicky and usually without actual compositional merit.

I hope it's a passing fad. After about fifteen minutes in an image sharing website last night, I walked away trying to twist and work my neck and head back into place. One could get whiplash from viewing too many of these images. If this keeps up, they'll need to add another medical condition to the list, 'photo neck' in addition to 'tennis elbow' and so on.

stewart

stewart_photo · 10-04-2007, 01:27 PM

Originally posted by ChrisA

It's not clear to me, though, what extra "punch" it has, just because it's at an angle. When I watch a dramatic action scene at a car race, I don't tilt my head to one side. (snip)

I end up wondering if it's just an attempt, intentional or not, to mask the fact that actually the photo doesn't have capture the drama as intended in the first place.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, Chris. It's unnatural. It's not how we normally view the world. So, while the image does attract attention, it does so exactly because it's strange. However, I think that distracts significantly from the subject, which perhaps isn't bad if that's your intent.

In the images linked to, the young lady is obviously more than attractive enough to not need anything extra. Any photographs of her, even at odd angles, would be appealing. So, while viewers are able overlook the odd angles by focusing on the young lady, the odd angles add nothing (especially to her). The same would be true with any other good subject, or any subject shot well by the photographer.

stewart

stewart_photo · 10-04-2007, 01:37 PM

Originally posted by qdoan

I'm glad you bring up this point stewart, as obviously, haha I do use tilt when doing portraits.

I do hope you're not offended, by either my comments or link. By the way, have you had an opportunity to photograph the young lady seen in your images on her own? She's very attractive and it's always a real pleasure to see a girl-next-door type young woman wearing a dress these days. A series featuring her alone, in similar attire, would be very appealing.

stewart

qdoan · 10-04-2007, 01:47 PM

Stewart, I'm not offended by any means. (Heck, you linking me probably got me more views haha.. thanks!) I have not had a chance to shoot her alone. Although I most likely will at some point or another, most likely when I get my backdrops in...

If you click on the gallery link I posted in my photo thread, there are quite a few shots of her alone. The lighting was somewhat difficult to work with that day as codiac mentioned, we shot from at 2pm to 6pm and it got easier to deal with as the sun went down, my partner and I also used a reflector a lot of the time to deal with some lighting issues.

Something like these:

Peter Zack · 10-04-2007, 02:15 PM

Originally posted by JCSullivan

If da client wants it you better be ready to provide it. Lets ask Mikey.

Well add me to the Old farts list I guess. I hope I'm not hijacking the thread. I'm not changing my earlier comments but on the list of aggravations I see creeping into the forum is the use of "My Bad" Are you 4 years old?

Back on topic the shots here by gdoan are all very good. I did like the first shot in his earlier series for the framing/ composition. The shot had difficulties in other areas (exposure). But I hope these leaning shots wane somewhat and become a smaller percentage of what we see. Once in awhile is ok.

JCSullivan · 10-04-2007, 04:03 PM

Oooops. Are you refering to "da client"? Apologies for that - my attempt at being youngish I suppose.

Back to the thread. The last shot is excellent Quan.

qdoan · 10-04-2007, 04:08 PM

Thanks JC, I like the composition of the last one, but I feel that maybe I underexposed it.. but actually to get back on topic, we should be talking about camera tilt and misaligned shots rather than my work lol. Haha I guess my fault for digressing and posting more shots in this thread lol

rdc · 10-04-2007, 08:09 PM

I rarely tilt my camera slightly off horizontal however rather often I will align the horizon with the diagnal of the frame....however in those cases I don't think any head tilting should be required....rotation in PP solves that problem.

Rolly · 10-04-2007, 08:30 PM

In the (long gone) days when I was taking a lot of theatre and other performance based images I would often use this technique to produce prints with the frame aligned on the diagonal. It also worked well for posters and magazine articles.
With the the computer "frame" being fixed in 'landscape' (unless one has a rotating screen) the effect is generally redundant in full frame images except in particular cases where some 'impressionism' is called for.

stewart_photo · 10-05-2007, 10:50 PM

Originally posted by Peter Zack

Well add me to the Old farts list I guess. I hope I'm not hijacking the thread. I'm not changing my earlier comments but on the list of aggravations I see creeping into the forum is the use of "My Bad" Are you 4 years old?

Well, the individuals in this forum are far better than most, Peter. At least one sees an attempt at proper grammar, sentence composition, and spelling in most messages here. In other forums, one can spend half the time trying to figure out what is being said; trying to translate the slang, internet acronyms, misspellings, all lower case sentences with missing punctuation, and so on. And lets not forget questions so vague one cannot even begin to answer. And, if all this is difficult for us, imagine how it must be for those with English as a second language. Perhaps that explains why this forum has a slightly more international flavor.

stewart

GaryML · 10-06-2007, 08:31 AM

Originally posted by stewart_photo

Images with scenes containing people tilted left or right (camera misaligned with subject, background, and surroundings) has clearly become a popular trend over the last few years (especially on the internet). One can easily find such images (portraits, weddings, etc) right here in the "post your photos" section of this website.

There have been lots of fads in photography that have come and gone. A few memorable examples are the "zoom effect" popular in the '70s (where you zoom in or out during the exposure) and the multiple exposures in a single frame also popular in '70s. Ansel Adams and others started "Group f/64" to promote natural, realistic photography technique in response to the popular to the blurry, soft-focus photography that was popular at the time (the 1930s, I believe).

I'm sure that the tilted camera effect will meet with a similar fate over time.

**LeoTaylor** · 10-06-2007, 12:06 PM

I'm one of the old crowd who try and keep the camera level ans steady. If haste makes me shoot a shot crooked, I use PSP Pro to straighten it. A similar technique by the young movie makers is video cameras that bounce around like, "The Blair Witch Project." For those who like tilted photos they are welcome to use it.

mph · 10-06-2007, 03:08 PM

Stewart, I couldn't agree with you more. A couple of years ago, my wife and I were planning our wedding, and we looked at webpage after webpage of wedding photographers. It was one tilted image after the next. It looked so faddish, which meant to us that wedding pictures in that style would soon look dated.

Eventually we found a photographer whose photos were beautiful and timeless (and shot on B&W film), and we ended up being extremely happy with her work.

alinla · 10-08-2007, 12:40 PM

My understanding of the tilt or Dutch angle is that it was increasingly used by wedding photographers when they ran out of width in their photos and couldn't fit everything they wanted into their frame. Case in point is my photo below. I was using a 24mm prime and was out of room to back up. I wanted the bride/groom & bouquet in the shot plus I wanted to give them run to walk into.

Obviously I would have preferred to have a wider lens on but you can't always have the right lens on at a wedding. Disclaimer: I'm not a wedding photog, just a guest in this case. But I know several wedding photogs and have heard this from different sources.

Getting back to the topic, I believe several people starting liking this "new" techique and started incorporating it into their style regardless of whether it was needed for space concerns. Next thing you know everyone with a camera starts doing it across all areas of photography.

As for myself I throw it in every now and then to break up the monotony of vertical portraits. I see it as another tool in my bag, similar to mixing up the DOF or using a lensbaby.

10-04-2007, 01:47 PM	#20
qdoan Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Peoria, AZ Posts: 207	Stewart, I'm not offended by any means. (Heck, you linking me probably got me more views haha.. thanks!) I have not had a chance to shoot her alone. Although I most likely will at some point or another, most likely when I get my backdrops in... If you click on the gallery link I posted in my photo thread, there are quite a few shots of her alone. The lighting was somewhat difficult to work with that day as codiac mentioned, we shot from at 2pm to 6pm and it got easier to deal with as the sun went down, my partner and I also used a reflector a lot of the time to deal with some lighting issues. Something like these: Last edited by qdoan; 10-04-2007 at 02:01 PM.

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10-04-2007, 10:11 AM	#16
JCSullivan Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Windsor, Canada Posts: 3,056	Quote: I'm probably just an un-hip, behind the times, old fart You're probably all of what you said, but I'm not far behind. I do like the effect especially in the images shown by Quan in his friends' anniversary shoot. I saw this trend start a few years back on places like MuchMusic and other music stations in Europe. It has now moved into still photography. If da client wants it you better be ready to provide it. Lets ask Mikey.

10-04-2007, 01:03 PM	#17
stewart_photo Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Heidelberg, Germany Posts: 1,864 Original Poster	Originally posted by ChrisA It has indeed. I believe they call it "fashion". Hopefully they're wrong, and it's just a fad - I don't like it at all, especially for portraiture. It's been done a lot for action shots over the years to (allegedly) convey more of a sense of action, and I don't much like that either. I'm probably just an un-hip, behind the times, old fart, but I find it generally very gimmicky and usually without actual compositional merit. I hope it's a passing fad. After about fifteen minutes in an image sharing website last night, I walked away trying to twist and work my neck and head back into place. One could get whiplash from viewing too many of these images. If this keeps up, they'll need to add another medical condition to the list, 'photo neck' in addition to 'tennis elbow' and so on. stewart

10-04-2007, 01:27 PM	#18
stewart_photo Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Heidelberg, Germany Posts: 1,864 Original Poster	Originally posted by ChrisA It's not clear to me, though, what extra "punch" it has, just because it's at an angle. When I watch a dramatic action scene at a car race, I don't tilt my head to one side. (snip) I end up wondering if it's just an attempt, intentional or not, to mask the fact that actually the photo doesn't have capture the drama as intended in the first place. I think you've hit the nail on the head, Chris. It's unnatural. It's not how we normally view the world. So, while the image does attract attention, it does so exactly because it's strange. However, I think that distracts significantly from the subject, which perhaps isn't bad if that's your intent. In the images linked to, the young lady is obviously more than attractive enough to not need anything extra. Any photographs of her, even at odd angles, would be appealing. So, while viewers are able overlook the odd angles by focusing on the young lady, the odd angles add nothing (especially to her). The same would be true with any other good subject, or any subject shot well by the photographer. stewart

10-04-2007, 01:37 PM	#19
stewart_photo Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Heidelberg, Germany Posts: 1,864 Original Poster	Originally posted by qdoan I'm glad you bring up this point stewart, as obviously, haha I do use tilt when doing portraits. I do hope you're not offended, by either my comments or link. By the way, have you had an opportunity to photograph the young lady seen in your images on her own? She's very attractive and it's always a real pleasure to see a girl-next-door type young woman wearing a dress these days. A series featuring her alone, in similar attire, would be very appealing. stewart

10-04-2007, 02:15 PM	#21
Peter Zack Pentaxian Moderator Emeritus Join Date: May 2007 Location: Edmonton Alberta, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 10,643	Originally posted by JCSullivan If da client wants it you better be ready to provide it. Lets ask Mikey. Well add me to the Old farts list I guess. I hope I'm not hijacking the thread. I'm not changing my earlier comments but on the list of aggravations I see creeping into the forum is the use of "My Bad" Are you 4 years old? Back on topic the shots here by gdoan are all very good. I did like the first shot in his earlier series for the framing/ composition. The shot had difficulties in other areas (exposure). But I hope these leaning shots wane somewhat and become a smaller percentage of what we see. Once in awhile is ok.

10-04-2007, 04:03 PM	#22
JCSullivan Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Windsor, Canada Posts: 3,056	Oooops. Are you refering to "da client"? Apologies for that - my attempt at being youngish I suppose. Back to the thread. The last shot is excellent Quan.

10-04-2007, 04:08 PM	#23
qdoan Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Peoria, AZ Posts: 207	Thanks JC, I like the composition of the last one, but I feel that maybe I underexposed it.. but actually to get back on topic, we should be talking about camera tilt and misaligned shots rather than my work lol. Haha I guess my fault for digressing and posting more shots in this thread lol

10-04-2007, 08:09 PM	#24
rdc Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 48	I rarely tilt my camera slightly off horizontal however rather often I will align the horizon with the diagnal of the frame....however in those cases I don't think any head tilting should be required....rotation in PP solves that problem.

10-04-2007, 08:30 PM	#25
Rolly Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 295	In the (long gone) days when I was taking a lot of theatre and other performance based images I would often use this technique to produce prints with the frame aligned on the diagonal. It also worked well for posters and magazine articles. With the the computer "frame" being fixed in 'landscape' (unless one has a rotating screen) the effect is generally redundant in full frame images except in particular cases where some 'impressionism' is called for.

10-05-2007, 10:50 PM	#26
stewart_photo Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Heidelberg, Germany Posts: 1,864 Original Poster	Originally posted by Peter Zack Well add me to the Old farts list I guess. I hope I'm not hijacking the thread. I'm not changing my earlier comments but on the list of aggravations I see creeping into the forum is the use of "My Bad" Are you 4 years old? Well, the individuals in this forum are far better than most, Peter. At least one sees an attempt at proper grammar, sentence composition, and spelling in most messages here. In other forums, one can spend half the time trying to figure out what is being said; trying to translate the slang, internet acronyms, misspellings, all lower case sentences with missing punctuation, and so on. And lets not forget questions so vague one cannot even begin to answer. And, if all this is difficult for us, imagine how it must be for those with English as a second language. Perhaps that explains why this forum has a slightly more international flavor. stewart

10-06-2007, 08:31 AM	#27
GaryML Inactive Account Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: San Diego, California Posts: 441	Originally posted by stewart_photo Images with scenes containing people tilted left or right (camera misaligned with subject, background, and surroundings) has clearly become a popular trend over the last few years (especially on the internet). One can easily find such images (portraits, weddings, etc) right here in the "post your photos" section of this website. There have been lots of fads in photography that have come and gone. A few memorable examples are the "zoom effect" popular in the '70s (where you zoom in or out during the exposure) and the multiple exposures in a single frame also popular in '70s. Ansel Adams and others started "Group f/64" to promote natural, realistic photography technique in response to the popular to the blurry, soft-focus photography that was popular at the time (the 1930s, I believe). I'm sure that the tilted camera effect will meet with a similar fate over time.

10-06-2007, 12:06 PM	#28
LeoTaylor Site Supporter Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Connecticut Photos: Gallery Posts: 679	I'm one of the old crowd who try and keep the camera level ans steady. If haste makes me shoot a shot crooked, I use PSP Pro to straighten it. A similar technique by the young movie makers is video cameras that bounce around like, "The Blair Witch Project." For those who like tilted photos they are welcome to use it.

10-06-2007, 03:08 PM	#29
mph Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Johnstown, PA, USA Posts: 44	Stewart, I couldn't agree with you more. A couple of years ago, my wife and I were planning our wedding, and we looked at webpage after webpage of wedding photographers. It was one tilted image after the next. It looked so faddish, which meant to us that wedding pictures in that style would soon look dated. Eventually we found a photographer whose photos were beautiful and timeless (and shot on B&W film), and we ended up being extremely happy with her work.

10-08-2007, 12:40 PM	#30
alinla Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 193	My understanding of the tilt or Dutch angle is that it was increasingly used by wedding photographers when they ran out of width in their photos and couldn't fit everything they wanted into their frame. Case in point is my photo below. I was using a 24mm prime and was out of room to back up. I wanted the bride/groom & bouquet in the shot plus I wanted to give them run to walk into. Obviously I would have preferred to have a wider lens on but you can't always have the right lens on at a wedding. Disclaimer: I'm not a wedding photog, just a guest in this case. But I know several wedding photogs and have heard this from different sources. Getting back to the topic, I believe several people starting liking this "new" techique and started incorporating it into their style regardless of whether it was needed for space concerns. Next thing you know everyone with a camera starts doing it across all areas of photography. As for myself I throw it in every now and then to break up the monotony of vertical portraits. I see it as another tool in my bag, similar to mixing up the DOF or using a lensbaby.