When you change the angle of your camera, you completely change your picture!
And that’s when you shoot people. Only in this case, you show or hide some characteristics of the person and can also transmit a feeling that goes from fragility to prepotency.
When we are going to photograph people with a full body, we usually take the photo from the height of our eyes or from top to bottom. And this ends up distorting the dimensions of that person, especially if you are very close to them. I’m not saying that this is bad or good, I just want you to be aware of what you are doing. If you bend down and put the camera approximately half the height of the person you are photographing, and hold it at a right angle, you will take the picture without any distortion.
Similarly, if you hold the camera at the height of the floor, and make the photo like this, your model will appear to have larger legs than they actually have. That’s the great advantage of knowing this, being able to take advantage of these perspective effects and use them to your advantage.
Talking a little about the psychological issue that each angle provokes, especially in portraits, we can say that the normal angle is the most neutral, because the photographed is at the same height as the camera. The upper angle (known as Plongée) highlights the fragility, inferiority or even intimacy of your subject and is widely used in cinema for this purpose. The lower angle (against Plongée) where the camera takes the shot from bottom to top, the objective is exactly the opposite: to empower your character, to show confidence and superiority.
And the selfie? Normally, because it is made with the camera from above, and with a more open lens, it accentuates your face and body curves. Your eyes appear to be a little bigger than they really are and you put yourself in a more intimate position 🙂