Photography and Perspective

The fact that a camera can accurately reproduce a three-dimensional image might seem to render perspective learning materials unnecessary to photography.

Yet, there is a vital factor for the photographer that previous books on perspective have failed to consider: focusing less on memorizing drawing methods and more on understanding what it means to see things from different perspectives. Oddly, this is something that perspective books rarely touch upon.

Since perspective was first developed for drawing and painting, centuries before anyone ever heard of anything as routine today as a photograph, it should be of no surprise that nobody had developed this deeply established subject to include the many new art forms which have arisen over the past century. As with many other modern artistic fields, photography has few perspective materials written for it, despite its heavy dependence on its understanding.

We define perspective as, "Creating viewpoints that best communicate a subject to an audience." This is about establishing "an eye" through which your audience sees. So even though perspective has been thought of as the most difficult subject in all of art, its concept is really very simple.

So if understanding how your audience sees your subject is important to you, then you must grasp how perspective works. This is something that all professionals in the visual arts must deal with, from film directors to bridge builders or anyone else who presents imagery to audiences, customers or clients.

Perspective, therefore, is still a critically important subject in need of study, even where its imagery can now be captured by a lens instead of a pencil.

The following articles introduce the photographer to what this entails.

Check back regularly for additional articles that are currently in production.

Stand-Alone Perspective Tutorials

These perspective tutorials can be viewed in any sequence.

What Perspective Really Means In Art
The Ingredients of Perspective
Foreshortening

Perspective Tutorial Series

These perspective tutorials must be read in sequence. Grasping later tutorials depends upon understanding terminology and principles covered in earlier ones. Any individual group topic, though, may be read without having to read the others.

The True Basics of Depth and "3D"

3D and Depth Perception
3D Drawing, 3D Graphics or Photos
Photographing Or Drawing 3D
Light and Dark and "Artistic Depth Cues"

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