Cheap Trick - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

I think this qualifies as my first concert photo opportunity. Back in 2006 at Orlando Harley-Davidson, Cheap Trick was playing for Bike Week crowds.  Yes, I am a biker and I love free concerts.  My boss at the time was not a biker, but he loves concerts.  I didn’t realize it, but he ended up in one of my shots over the crowd – talking on his Blackberry.  That just isn’t right. You can’t go to a concert and talk on a cell phone.  If there’s a law against writing on the sidewalk in chalk, there should be a law against using cell phones at concerts.

There was no photo pit or special access.  I was just a guy in the crowd with a Nikon D70 and a cheap Nikon 70-300mm lens that I bought for $150 years ago, trying to shoot over the crowd.  No glamourous stage lights or explosions, but a bit of nice light coming from the sunset. Most of my shots didn’t come out because I honestly didn’t know a thing about concert photography.

Music Photography

If you ever wanted to get photos of your favorite musicians, it may have seemed impossible. The good news is that it’s not impossible.  People are doing it all the time.  You just need to know what they know.  That’s where you’re in luck.  Alan Hess just published his book  on concert photography – All Access: Your Backstage Pass to Concert Photography (Amazon URL). If you’re curious what you get, check out my review of his book. I wish I’d known then what I know now – particularly at an open even like that one!  The good news is that I can try again.  Only a little over a month until Bike Week comes back.

The Pirate's Den - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Before I start discussing Aperture vs. Lightroom again, I just wanted to share the photo of the Pirate’s Den today. If you wander back into Adventureland in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, you may not notice this little area as you pass it.  That is, unless you happen to find Captain Jack Sparrow out front.  He tends to stop in here when it’s time to recruit new pirates for his ship.  Odd, though.  No one ever asks what happened to the pirates he needs to replace.

Lightroom 4 (beta) Announced and Released

You may have heard that Adobe released an open beta of its next iteration of Lightroom at midnight on January 11th. I happened to be up at the time and grabbed the download while it was still fresh and hot out of the oven. Mind you, I’m an Aperture 3 user, but I’m also an Adobe Photoshop user. Either brand is fine with me, so long as the tool does what I need. Both Aperture and Lightroom are very capable products.  Each one has features that the other lacks, and it seems that new releases from either vendor try to close the gap where they lack and expand it so the other guy has to play catch-up.  There’s definitely a lot of that apparent in Lightroom 4 (beta), as there was when Aperture 3 was released.

Ultimately, my primary reason for using this type of tool is to manage my photographs. Why did I choose Aperture? It’s pretty simple.  At the time I chose, Aperture existed and Lightroom wasn’t announced. When Adobe initially announced Lightroom (with a very long beta period), I checked it out.  I’ve also checked out every other release of Lightroom and compared it to Aperture, trying to determine if there is a compelling reason for me to switch products to manage my photos.

Is There a Compelling Reason to Switch from Aperture 3 to Lightroom 4 (beta)?

Let’s start with the short answer.  No.

Is there a long answer?

Yes. Before I get into that, I want to share this video of a Google+ hangout that Matt Kloskowski conducted during the midnight launch.  I was lucky enough to join (like I said, I was still awake) to see some of the new features. Thanks to Keith Barrett for providing a live stream to those who couldn’t get in the hangout, not to mention recording it for folks to watch later.

Let’s take a look at this list of new features in Lightroom 4 (beta).

• Highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.
• Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.
• Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
• White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
• Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.
• Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.
• Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr®.
• Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.
• Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.

From that list of nine new features, seven of them already existed in Aperture 3. The first item, Highlight and Shadow Recovery, really looks great on the demonstration.  It looks like Adobe broke the Recovery slider apart to tackle problems in different areas of an image.  Definitely a very impressive feature that Aperture doesn’t have at the moment. The White Balance Brush is another step beyond fore Lightroom, since it’s a global adjustment in Aperture.

I was actually surprised that some of these features didn’t already exist in Lightroom 3, such as e-mail.  That seems like a no-brainer to me.  However, software development often has a longer list of features than time allows.  It could be that e-mail wasn’t high on the list and never got completed before. At any rate, it’ll work in future versions of Lightroom.

Lightroom has some features that I genuinely like, including a great noise reduction tool, gradient tool and lens profiles.  None of those are reasons to switch, though. As I mentioned, I have Photoshop CS5. That comes with Adobe Camera Raw, which includes the same features in the Lightroom 3 Development module.  There is no reason to believe that Adobe won’t update ACR to be comparable with Lightroom 4 at some point.  Aside from that, I think that Aperture 3 has a better RAW conversion engine than Lightroom/ACR.  However, the differences between the two get into the pixel-peeping range and it’s not a substantial advantage.  Nobody is going to look at a finished photo and say, “Oh, dude!  You used Lightroom’s RAW conversion instead of Aperture.  You really blew it there!”  Not gonna happen.

The biggest reason I don’t think it’s worth the switch is because Adobe did nothing to improve the core competency of Lightroom as a Digital Asset Manager.  At least, not yet.  After all, this is just the first introduction of a beta product.  Adobe has included features in shipping products that weren’t in the previous beta releases. Maybe they have something in mind and don’t want to share it yet.

What Would It Take to Switch from Aperture to Lightroom?

Pay attention, my Adobe friends.  Here’s my list of obstacles you need to overcome to sway me from Aperture to your side completely.

• A Migration Tool – I have thousands of photos in my Aperture databases that are filled with metadata.  Keywords, GPS data, etc.  I don’t want to lose any of that information.  You need to provide a migration tool that takes all of my images (not to mention audio, video & PDFs) with its associated metadata, folders, projects, albums, smart albums, etc…and seamlessly translate it into your product.  I don’t expect you to convert the photo edits from Aperture Versions to Lightroom (though that would be nice), but the metadata and structure is essential and non-negotiable. It needs to be dead-stupid simple, too.  Magical.  Press this button and bibbity-bobbity-boo – you’re migrated.
• Provide a Managed Library – Your referenced catalog approach is quaint.  Aperture can also reference images in directory folders, but I prefer the Managed approach. It simplifies many operations.  If I want to backup my photos, I press a button in Aperture to save them in a Vault, right inside of Aperture.  It doesn’t waste time copying each file over and over – it makes incremental updates so backs are quick and convenient.  If I want to move my Aperture Library, I drag it and move it to another directory drive or folder and it’s good to go.  No rebuilding of catalogs or any other myriad of problems involved with separate files & folders held together by the twine of a catalog, XMP sidecars, etc.  If I want to merge a Library into another one, I can either import it in Aperture or just drag one on top of another in the Mac Finder.  Simple. I know some people actually like using a referenced catalog, but I’ve found that’s mostly due to their lack of understanding how a Library system can work.  It’s like they think keeping their photos in a Library are the photographic equivalent of Schrodinger’s Cat.  Everything that someone has thrown at me explaining why their RAW files just have to be in a directory folder was bogus. They worry about database corruption and losing their images, and all sorts of imagined dangers.  Those fears are as likely as a directory corruption, which is why we all keep backups.  The benefits are plentiful & useful, and I’ve never suffered a setback.  Lightroom could benefit from providing a managed option to store data.
• Dump the Modules – What in the world was Adobe thinking when it introduced a modular digital asset manager? Such constraints are a thing of the past. An object-oriented approach in development should flow over into usability. I expect to be able to manipulate the properties and methods of any data object at any time. Again, Aperture does it.  I don’t need to be in a Library, Print or Development module.  At any time, I edit my photos. A slideshow, folder, book or print is just another container. The only variable is the selection of data objects (photos) in that collection.  I should be able to look at a book layout and decide that a photo would be better as a black & white image here, and then make the changes right there.  Hopping about from one module to another is tedious and obsolete. You could fix that issue.  You should fix that issue.
• Price Parity – Lightroom is no longer worth $300.  I think you know that, though.  I think that’s why we’ve seen so many price reductions to $150 over the past few months.  When you woke up one morning and saw that Apple dropped the price of Aperture from $200 to $79, I bet your jaw dropped.  I know mine did, because I paid full price & upgrade pricing over the years.  I missed out on all of that low-priced goodness, but no more.  Aperture 3 is a great tool, as is Lightroom.  So, why should I pay 3.8 times more money to switch to your product, particularly with the issues I listed above?  You have some stuff I like, but it’s not like you’re the only place I can get tools to manage my images.

If you want to sway me to abandon Aperture to use Lightroom, and to get those features that I truly do respect, then you need to make more of an effort.  Windows users don’t have a choice to use Aperture. Is the Mac market worthy of the effort I mentioned above?  I don’t know your analysis.  What I do know is that a lot of new users will look at the products and see price tags.  A lot of existing Aperture users will find that both price and migration issues stand in their way.  Only Adobe can address those issues.

Some Aperture users may look at other factors and come to different conclusions, and that’s fine.  For example, both Aperture 3 and Lightroom 4 (beta) now have templates for books.  There are 11 templates in Aperture.  There are 180 in Lightroom 4 (beta). Slideshows are another area of comparison with pros and cons on each side.  Aperture has a limited set of templates, but you have better options to time the slide transition to go along with music, or whatever timing you want. Lightroom 3 already had more flexibility for creating custom slideshows than Aperture, and the same is true of Lightroom’s print module.  By no means do I mean to convey that Lightroom is any kind of slouch compared to Aperture.  It’s just not compelling when I look at the core workflow, the burden of effort to migrate, and the price disparity.  I’m happy to peek fondly over the fence to see what Lightroom is doing, but it isn’t making me switch sides yet.

I'm Going Off the Rails on a Crazy Train - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Welcome to 2012, everyone!

Everyone seems to like a New Year.  There’s fresh optimism about what’s to come, despite the news at the end of the previous year. Don’t year-end wrap up reports seem to be rather depressing?  It always amazes me how quickly we forget that stuff to be happy for the New Year.  Perhaps it’s just something we have to do.

The New Year is often a time of change.  For instance, I know that parking at my gym is going to be packed for the next month or two as many people try to get over their holiday indulgences.  In that respect, I’m no different – been packing away the cupcakes and ice cream lately and I’m feeling it.  However, there’s something else that I’ve decided to change this year.

I’m Going Creative Commons

As of January 1, 2012, I’ve decided to adopt a Creative Commons license for the use of my photographs. It’s not something I decided lightly, but I finally got over the last hurdle. You see, I don’t mind non-commercial use of my photos. When someone asks me if they can have a photo for a background or some other use, I’m good with it. However, I’ve never been appreciative of commercial use of my photos. That’s one of the big issues I had with Creative Commons – it doesn’t adequately describe “Commercial Use.” So, I quietly allowed people to use my photos and went after commercial entities who used them without a license.

What I lacked, however, was the benefit of attribution from those who shared my photos. While I still would like Creative Commons licenses to have a bit more definition about the terms of Commercial Use, I find that no longer outweighs the benefits of sharing and attribution.  Over the past couple of years, I’ve observed other photographers on each side of this issue. What is eminently clear to me is that there is greater benefit – to everyone – when your usage intentions are identified in a way that people can understand.  Not surprisingly, sharing with attribution really does provide its own rewards.

I know the old argument – in fact, I’ve made it in the past – that you pay your bills with money, not attention.  That’s true, but the bigger truth is that you aren’t going to get much money if you won’t let anyone pay attention to your work. As I said, I’ve watch photographers on both sides of this issues.  Those who are sharing their work via Creative Commons are coming out ahead of those who are filing DMCA notices left & right.

My photos are still registered with the U.S. Copyright office, so I’m not giving up ownership of my photos or copyrights. Rather, I’m simply providing a usage license. Although I’ve found some unauthorized commercial uses of my images in the past, I don’t see that it is a very common problem worthy of overriding the benefit of sharing with a Creative Commons license.

With that in mind, I’m adopting the following license:

Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

How Does it Work?

It’s very simple.  You’re free to use my images on your blog, for personal use – basically anything that isn’t a commercial business use – as long as you do the following:

1. Link back to http://williambeem.com
2. Give credit to William Beem

If you want to use one of my images for a commercial use or for a print, please contact me to discuss a licensing agreement. Larger versions of most images are available on my Flickr account, and I’ll work to upload larger versions of images that aren’t full size.

Please see my Licensing page for more details.

Come on, it's lovely weather

It’s less than a week until Christmas rolls around, so it seems like a good time to roll out the Red Sleigh. While others are clogging the roads in frantic, last-ditch efforts to buy presents for their loved ones, I’ve stayed huddled inside my cozy home typing away and working on a couple of ebooks coming out soon. Who knew that being laid-off would be so time consuming?

To be honest, I’m somewhat jealous of this sleigh in front of the house. Going off-road and avoiding traffic seems like a good idea these days. If only you could use it when it wasn’t cold outside.

Sam - © Copyright 2011 by William Beem

Sunday was a busy day for me.  I had a photoshoot in a friend’s studio with Sam in the morning, and the ended up the day with a late afternoon/evening photo walk of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and resorts. Both were enjoyable, though each in their own way. It’s always nice when you can combine something you enjoy (in this case, photography) with people you like.

I’ll have more shots of each session to share later, but thought I’d share this one in honor of NAPP’s Retouching Week. Monday’s show was off to a great start. Click the image below to see the schedule for the rest of the shows this week – each starting at 6:00pm EST.

Shrek the Halls - © Copyright 2011 by William Beem

I went to the Gaylord Palms resort near Disney yesterday to check out ICE!  It’s an annual event with some amazing ice carving scenes. This year (and perhaps last year, too), they went with a Shrek theme. The place is pretty dark, and also cold.  They keep the temperature at 9 degrees.  It seems an odd change when you consider it was almost 90 degrees outside today.  I dressed warmly for ICE! and I was actually quite comfortable with the temp inside. That’s good, because this was another one of those places filled with visitors milling about and it required a lot of patience on my part to get a shot without a bunch of people in parkas taking snapshots in front of the various scenes.

They did a pretty good job on the Shrek scenes, but I kind of miss some of the previous show carving scenes – they were a bit more original. Gaylord Palms brings master artisans from Harbin, China to create these scenes each year. Their creativity and attention to detail is outstanding.

La Fontaine des Mers - © Copyright 2011 by William Beem

Since I seem to be in a Las Vegas state of mind this week, I thought I’d continue the streak with something that I dearly miss. This replica of the La Fontaine des Mers used to adorn the sidewalk in front of Paris Las Vegas, but it’s there no more.  Instead, it was replaced with a mundane building that sells sparkly t-shirts and awful cupcakes. They look good, but don’t buy them – very dry.  Cupcakes should be moist.

Do you have any subjects that you re-visit over and over again? This was one of mine and I looked forward to trying new shots of it whenever I visited Las Vegas. It wasn’t always easy, as this fountain was popular with tourists to pose for photos in front of it.  It had a different character in the daylight than at night. Sometimes the water was flowing; sometimes not. It was just a little landmark that I always visited when I got to town. Things change.

Anyone know where to get a good cupcake in Las Vegas?

The Light at the End of the Tunnel - © Copyright 2011 by William Beem

The past couple of weeks have been a bit rough on me, so I thought this image above was an appropriate way to express thing things that have been going on for me lately. This is a shot from the launch part of Space Mountain at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. You start going up through this tunnel and the next thing you know, you’re plunging into darkness.  Can’t see a thing, tossed about and hoping you don’t lose anything you need.

On Halloween, I was notified by my employer that I would be laid-off on November 11th – Veteran’s Day. I presume whoever chose these dates had a penchant for holidays. I’ve avoided talking specifically about my employer  in the past because it wasn’t really relevant to the subject of photography.  My work there was technical; most recently working with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). I’ve spent the better part of my life dealing with technology in one fashion or another, often leading teams to implement enterprise applications or systems. It makes for a comfortable life, but one very driven by process. I think the reason I truly enjoy photography is because it presents challenges that allow me to use my creativity to resolve them; which can be at odds with a procedural environment.

To be honest, this wasn’t a complete surprise. Various business areas of the company have been laying off employees since June. I worked for an overhead area which also reduces staff when the business areas reduce staff. Since my role had funding through the end of our fiscal year and a project that was wrapping up implementation in November, I thought I’d be around a little longer, but I knew I didn’t have an assignment for next year – that’s a pretty big clue that your head is on the chopping block.

This is my second time being laid-off by a large corporate employer. I cut back on my expenses, searched job ads internally and externally, and sent customized resumes to a plethora of positions. Apparently, so did many other people because I never got any replies. I counted up my remaining weeks and severance pay, figuring that I needed to make it through December.  Let’s face it, hardly anyone hires at this time of year.  I knew it would be tight, but I felt I could make it through the first couple of months of next year.  Then the shoe dropped – I’m out now. My ability to get through the holidays to the hiring season suddenly took a sharp plunge, so I started looking at alternatives to provide income.

As if being knocked down to my knees by this news wasn’t enough, life came along and gave me a kick in the gut.  My mother called last week to tell me that my cousin, Dawn, had died. Her husband found her dead at home. She was 44. One more time this year, my family gathered for a funeral. Although she died of natural causes, I had no expectation of losing her at this time in her life. Dawn and I grew up together. My mom and her dad were brother & sister, often getting together on weekends as families do. I suddenly had flashbacks to times when we were just past being toddlers, going on a cruise with our family when I was about 11, and her driving like a bat out of hell down West Virginia mountain roads at night because she wanted to take me to a Japanese restaurant (which turned out to have a Jamaican chef). We were both raised in Florida and she didn’t know where those roads lead to any better than I did, but that didn’t slow her down. Where I feel trepidation at the prospect of plunging into darkness, she did it happily.

Dawn seemed either fearless, or blithely ignorant of her own mortality. She lived life harder than I did, never failing to press the gas pedal closer to the floor than I would, and I love racing. I only know of one thing that ever scared her – frogs.  She had a lifelong fear of frogs.  I guess they just creeped her out more than most. Even so, she turned her fear into a passion – she started collecting frog figurines and other frog-related junk.  She even went so far as to have frogs tattooed on both of her shoulders, for which I gave he endless amounts of grief; I detest tattoos.

While I was busy feeling sorry about myself for losing my job, my perspective changed when I lost something much more precious to me. It may take a while to find a job, but I can never replace one of my closest family members. Her passing was a sharp reminder to me of something many people have been saying lately – life is short.

Too short, I think, to keep repeating the same routine and hoping for a better outcome. That’s why I think it’s time for me to once again embrace the idea of going into my own business rather than being a minion for another corporate giant. I’ve been working through ideas since my employer announced layoffs earlier this year, and I’ve already started working on projects to develop my business.

Becoming an entrepreneur on such short notice is definitely plunging into darkness. I have ideas and plans.  I’ve done a lot of research., It’s an uncertain future. Then again, Dawn’s future was cut drastically short. You can do all the right things – get married, work at a job, save for your retirement – and still find that life deals out the unexpected. A week before I was notified of being laid-off, my employer posted a 25% increase in profit and it still cut hundreds of jobs. Relying on a single source of income where someone else is making the decisions that affect my future isn’t something I can consider a path to success in this age.

While doing my business research, I couldn’t help but notice that this is actually a marvelous age in which to launch my own venture. We have unprecedented abilities to create and distribute content directly to consumers without engaging the gatekeepers of the old world. You no longer need to find and seduce a publisher, work through a printing press, get your publications distributed to resellers – all of which take a cut out of the price. Authors, musicians and other creative people now have relatively inexpensive means to produce and deliver directly to their customers. I look around and see other photographers creating eBooks, stock photo sites and other direct-distribution systems.  They’ve eliminated the gatekeepers.

Some of them are successful and some are not.  The same is true for traditional publishing and distribution. That tells me that the point of failure is not the medium, but elsewhere. Consumers can now demand products that are all meat and no filler. If they want one or two songs instead of the entire album, they can get it.  If they want an ebook on a specific topic, rather than a generalized subject filled with fluff to expand the page count and make the book look bigger on the shelves, they can find it. The infrastructure is in place.  It’s up to the producer to make it successful.

That’s my challenge. Right now, I have a series of five ebooks under development. Each one is specific and targeted to an audience that, I think, is under-served and frustrated by a lack of specific information to answer their questions. As I’ve discussed my ideas with friends, I’ve found this theme stretches into a number of areas where I have an ability to apply my own knowledge to those issues. Those five ideas are stretching into more directions, more projects, and more opportunities.

Of course, it’s a risk. I feel confident in my abilities to produce the content that people want. The challenge is making folks aware of those products and starting multiple streams of income before my money runs out. Let’s face it, I still have bills to pay. Right now, I’m highly motivated to create a successful business. If I’m right and I see progress, I could tap into my retirement resources and still live comfortably for another year and a half. Part of me doesn’t want to reach into that resource, but a bigger part thinks there’s no point in saving for a future if you don’t have a present.

I watch the evening news and I see people whining about the lack of jobs. Well, I don’t want to be one of those people. I don’t want to shuffle through unemployment lines with them hoping someone else will find something in me that they can use (for now). My choice is to do what the politicians talk about – create a job. Just for me. My plan is to create something of value and sell it. I’d rather take action and try to make my own future happy & successful than to just go along with the crowd.  I’ve seen where they’re heading and I don’t like it.

It probably won’t be easy.  I expect good days and bad. There will be times when I need to re-evaluate and adjust to changing circumstances. At least the decisions will be mine, without having to earn the consent of a corporate overlord with a different agenda and, perhaps, less determination.

Up until now, I’ve written this blog from a different perspective; a sideline venture. Now I have a different vision of where I’m going and the role this site plays. That means my style and content may change a bit, but I hope it’s an improvement. My long, rambling posts like this one will give way to the new direction. This post was a bit of catharsis and transformation for me. Sometimes we need to take our troubles, put them in perspective, and recognize that new opportunities await – if only we have the courage to pursue them.

Band Leader - © Copyright 2011 by William Beem

If you’re thinking that I’m posting a lot of photos of Walt Disney World lately, you’re right.  That’s due to a project of mine, but it isn’t the point of this post.  However, it does give me an excuse to get to the point.

The subject of the photo is this Halloween pumpkin scarecrow.  By itself, that lends a sense of the season to the image.  However, the unmistakable castle in the background gives it a sense of place. Cinderella’s Castle is the centerpiece icon of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom – visible from many areas of the park.  You can wander down Main Street, through Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Fantasyland and out of Tomorrowland.  At some point in each of these different sections of the park, you can see the spires of this castle to give you a sense of direction.  It immediately tells anyone who sees this photo that it was taken in a Disney park, and that’s the point. The sense of place is a part of the story.

You don’t need to be in a Disney park to use an anchor point to help people feel a sense of place in your photos.  They’re all around .  Consider a few examples:

• The Stratosphere in Las Vegas
• The Chrysler Building in New York
• The Space Needle in Seattle
• The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
• The Willis (formerly Sears) Tower in Chicago
• The Arch in St. Louis
• The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

So what if you don’t live in an area near one of these major structures? Then think about what’s native and unique to your area. Long before Disney came to Orlando, we were known for oranges.  I couldn’t go anywhere without running through an orange grove. Sadly, that’s less and less true these days, but those oranges are still an iconic anchor for this area. In downtown Orlando, the fountain in Lake Eola has become practically synonymous with Orlando – even appearing on street signs.

No matter where you live or visit, there is something that will give your viewers a sense of place.  Mountains, lakes, beaches, lighthouses, types of architecture, etc. It doesn’t need to be the main subject, but rather, a presence in the shot to give a subtle reminder of where you are.

Pumpkin Mickey - © Copyright 2011 by William Beem

In the shot above, the Mickey Mouse shape of the pumpkin on the light pole tells you it’s Disney, but the castle behind it – even out of focus – is an iconic reminder of location. Take a look around your next location.  It could be something in the foreground or background of your image that gives the viewer a sense of place, and that helps to form a connection with the image. You’re invoking a sense of familiarity and recognition.

Anchor points are just one of the elements you can use to forge that bond with the viewer.

Take a look at a couple of snapshots I grabbed for an example:

Straight On Angle - © Copyright 2011 by William Beem

I know, it’s a face only a mother could love. This is the typical shot most people would make – straight on, giving equal weight to all parts.

Low Angle - © Copyright 2011 by William Beem

It’s the same subject, but I lowered my perspective by a couple of inches. In doing so, the angle emphasizes the tiki idol’s mouth and those big choppers.  It also diminishes its forehead area. The Straight-On shot gives an overall perception of a slimmer face, while the Low-Angle shot seems fuller.

Although a couple snapshots of a Tiki Idol aren’t going to win any prizes, the concept still applies and it’s something photographers should consider when making a composition. By lowering my angle, I made the mouth closer to my camera.  Things that are closer appear larger, things that are farther away seem smaller.  You can use this to your advantage when you want to emphasize part of your subject, or downplay another part which is less interesting or flattering.

Keeping perspective and lens distortion in mind can help you avoid some problems, too. Not long ago, I came across a portrait of a lovely young women reclining.  The closest thing to the camera was her shoe – a big honking shoe that drew your eyes right to it.  The smallest thing in the photo was her face, since it was farther away.  If the photographer intended to make an advertisement for a shoe, maybe it would’ve worked. Instead, it was supposed to be a glamour portrait. It left me with the impression that the model had huge feet and a little, tiny head.  Not good for a glamour shot.

Perspective can work for you if you use it, or it can work against you if you forget about it. Take some time.  Play with it.  Change your perspective and see what works best for your subject.