Choosing your viewpoint

Two ways to make a subject larger in the frame: zoom in, or walk closer. They are not the same thing, and understanding the difference is worth more than any composition rule.

What zooming does

Zooming crops. A longer focal length keeps a narrower slice of the same view from the same place, so everything in it — subject and background alike — is enlarged together.

The relationships stay exactly as they were.

What moving does

Move closer and the subject grows faster than the background does, because you have changed its distance far more than theirs proportionally. The background appears to shrink and spread out.

Move back and zoom in to compensate, and the reverse happens: the background looms, appearing closer and larger behind the subject. This is why long lenses are said to compress distance.

Height

Most photographs are taken from adult standing height, because that is where the photographer’s eyes were.

• Lower makes a subject look larger and more imposing, and puts more sky behind it.
• Higher shows layout and pattern, and separates things that overlap at eye level.
• Level with the subject is almost always right for children and animals, and almost never what people actually do.

A habit worth building

Before taking the obvious frame from where you are standing, take three steps in some direction and look again. Then crouch.

It costs seconds. It is also the single most reliable way to come back with a photograph that does not look like everyone else’s photograph of the same thing.

Key takeaways

• Zooming crops; moving changes the relationships between near and far.
• Only changing position can change what is behind your subject.
• Long lenses appear to compress distance because of where you stand to use them.
• Camera height is a decision, and standing height is rarely the most interesting one.