Angling your camera

How do you know when and how much angle you should put on your camera (vice to normal landscape view or portrait style). Is there some sort of mythical guide line to this technique or just roll with the punches and find out what works good?

I think it depends entirely upon the scene you're shooting. The majority of angled shots I've seen don't appeal to me. They look like someone took an angled shot because they wanted to take an angled shot.

The angled shots that I've seen that I've liked - while comparatively rare - aren't at any particular fixed or preferred angles. The angle they were taken at actually complemented the subject.

Heck, that's the fun of photography! It's YOUR vision, you do it how YOU want to do it.


If there were rules for each kind of shot, we'd all take the same pictures.

Chairman7w wrote in post #9607541
Heck, that's the fun of photography! It's YOUR vision, you do it how YOU want to do it.


If there were rules for each kind of shot, we'd all take the same pictures.

I'd agree with the Chairman here. If you want to do angled shots, think about how you want it to look and go for it. Put some thought into why its angled and why. How does that angle complement what's in the photo or better get across the message you're trying for.

Most of the angled photos I don't like seem to be photos where it appears the camera was angled just for the sake of creating an angled photo.

Most of the angled shots I have seen were, in my opinion, very poorly composed. The images commonly have elements in them that scream at you about what true plumb or level actually is (utility poles in the background, as an example). Most angled shots I have seen have no improvement to the composition over having the camera in a conventional (portrait or landscape) position.

The few angled shots that I have liked generally had no reference to real-world position and the composition was obviously improved by the camera position. I'd say that the angled shots I have liked are maybe 1% of the angled shots I have seen.

Thanks for all the advice. I will just stick with the fundamentals cause you can't go wrong with that.

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I have to agree, the only angled shots that I can think of that works for me are angled shots of rock bands.

I have a friend who recently got married... probably a good 60% of the shots from the photog were angled... and not a single one of them "worked"... she was one pissed off bride.