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Visual Art & Digital Photography,
Part 5: Flexible Perspectives
Learning from painting about a variety of perspectives

Photography is a 2-dimensional art form. Whether it is on paper on or a computer screen, it is a flat 2-dimensions. At the same time it can create the illusion of 3-dimensions. And most often a viewer will come to a photograph expecting to see that illusion of 3-dimensions, a sense of perspective, depth and distance.

Yet, as the abstract painters have pointed out, the surface of a 2-dimensional art form  creates a 2-dimensional pattern of its own. This flat graphic aspect of 2-dimensions in combination with or in contrast to the illusion of depth of 3-dimensions can create quite interesting compositions.

Some of the greatest photographers have used this tension between 2- and 3- dimensions to create exciting and dynamic work. They often have a geometry that they work with which takes years to learn and to develop. A picture can be flat and graphic, for example, or with a 3-dimensional background or a slightly foreshortened or severely foreshortened 3-dimensional background or a cubist kind of design where lines cross and several perspectives are offered at once.

One definition of composition might be: a pleasing mixture of a 2-dimensional arrangement with a 3-dimensional illusion.

To see your work as 2-dimensional it often helps to put your work at a distance and upside down. This allows you to look at how the picture is constructed and to distance you a bit from your familiarity with the image.

A key lesson for any photographer -- in fact an artist, writer, musician --- is to look at your photo as though seeing it for the first time and then judging it and making decisions based on that. This is not easy, since you already know your own work. You might have to put it away for a week before trying to look at it anew.

There are many ways that the 2- & 3-dimensionality can work together and interact:
== The background can be pushed up and flattened for example.
== The lines in the background can mimic or continue lines in the foreground
== Figure and ground can blend and merge
== Certain colors and shades (especially black) can make an overall design of their own which gives the work a geometry that may be subliminal such as the work of Cartier-Bresson

I might add that there is a bit of a perceptual trick that I use also. Once the eye has identified the subject, it tends to tune out the background behind it and around it. This allows you, the photographic artist, to play with that background in subtle ways.

There are also many traditional photographic techniques that affect perspective.

For example, a wide angle lens produces a rapidly receding background and perspective while a telephoto lens enlarges and pushes the background up against the subject. When these two basic effects are combined with depth of field they exert considerable control over the sense of perspective. A relatively long telephoto lens combined with a low aperture will press a background up against a subject and throw it out of focus, for example, while a high f/number and a wide angle lens can record a scene that is in focus from close-up to far away. In addition to this the angle of the camera is critical. A high angle will exaggerate the perspective, for example.

With experimental digital photography, the effects are even greater. The background can be made to almost merge with the subject, for example, so that the two bleed into each other. This is because camera movement will blur the background (very different from being out of focus), at times extending the background into the subject.

The best way to learn about perspective is to study the work of masters, both photographers and painters, looking at them for their use of perspective and design. The following paintings illustrate many of my points.

This is part of a series of articles about visual art and digital photography.
#1. Visual Art & Digital Photography: Realism & Personal Expression
== How digital photography can be both realistic and expressive at the same time
#2. Visual Art & Digital Photography: Part 2: Space, Time And Memory
== How Experimental Digital Photography can evoke a sense of remembrance
#3. Visual Art & Digital Photography, Part 3: Art, Memory & Subjective Truth
== Is figurative art/photography limited while abstract art/photography is not?
#4. Visual Art & Digital Photography, Part 4: A Picture Energy Field
== Composing photographic elements in a dynamic manner

NOTE:See a list of my other articles here at PIXIQ. www.pixiq.com/contributors/rick-doble

For more about my approach to photography see my book: Experimental Digital Photography.

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