First a little more understanding is needed on what Perspective is and the way i can use it, Perspective is defined as "the appearance of the objects in space and their relationship to each other and to the viewer. In photography it is used to describe the intensity of the impression of depth." There are then a few ways in which you can create perspective and they are as follows-
- Linear Perspective- using parallel lines that are converging and then vanishing for example a road.
- Diagonal Perspective- similar to linear but you have to make the line cut the frame in a diagonal for example the shadow produced by a tree towards sunset/sunrise.
- Focal Length- by using a wide angle lens you can show more of the scene so if you were using either of the methods above the more of the lines you can show the more perspective is created.
- Diminished Perspective- this is when you use say a fence line with posts placed evenly along it, even though you know there all the same size as they move away from the camera they seem to get smaller and smaller.
- Aerial Perspective- this is when atmospheric conditions play a part, if there is fog/haze you know the further something is from you the less of it you can see so you can use this to your advantage to create depth.
- Tonal Perspective- this is very basic in that the darker something is the further away you assume it is while the lighter it is the closer we think it is.
- Colour Perspective- similar to tonal in that the warmer a colour feels the closer you consider it to be.
- Sharpness- you can make a false sense of depth by making something seem sharper compared to a blurred background.
Surprisingly some of these methods I've used before without realising it but when you consider it alot of it is common sense stuff because if you look at landscape paintings or even watching programs on TV these same methods as used to create perspective so we're all pretty well versed in it without knowing.
This first shot i used the most straight forward and probably most commonly used method with the two linear lines produced by the road sides converging towards the middle of the frame producing a very strong idea of depth. What surprised me was how difficult it is to find a nice quiet clear straight piece of road, the obvious thing to have used would have been a motorway but i didn't want the effect distracted by a whole load of cars being in the way.
My second shot is similar but i think it woks more under the diminishing idea because you can see with the added height that the railway line is getting smaller and smaller as it moves away from the camera. Also i suppose the two figures add perspective as well because you understand there size in comparison to the landscape thus making it feel that much larger. Almost forgot to say that i also used a wide angle lens to increase the perspective even more.