Take a look through Instagram these days, and you’ll see rows of mesmerizing images of ordinary objects. How can you capture the ordinary and make it worthy of putting up on your bedroom wall?
It’s all about those angles, baby. This isn’t geometry class, so forget about that acute and obtuse stuff — just start experimenting. Here are our tips on how to get started:
Sweat the Small Stuff
Let’s start with those close-ups — everyday objects in direct proximity to you. The closer you get to a small subject, the more of an effect each shift in your position makes. After all, you don’t have to move much to get around something the size of a butterfly.
The key is to take your time. Look at it from above and below, from the front and behind. Each move will change the angle on your subject and create a new backdrop. The key is you gotta commit. Get down in the dirt, jump up in the air, climb on something. No one cares if you get dirty or look silly if you come up with an amazing shot.
Put on Your Walking Shoes
Then we have massive subjects. These seem intimidating because let’s face it, you’re not going to move a bridge for that perfect angle, or get a perfectly misplaced tree out of the way of your ideal vista. So you have to be clever and committed. Move around until you find a frame to give your subject context, or use that object that hinders your wide shot to make your image unique.
Cropping here is essential — without the ability to change your background by moving against the subject, you have to find a way to differentiate each shot. You may not be able to fit the entire subject in the frame, so use the most interesting or unexpected part of it to fill your screen.
Move it, Move it
No subject exists in a context-free space! Unless you’re in a perfectly lit studio against a spotless white background, there are going to be real-world objects in your shot that influence your subject.
If you are shooting something that you have the power to move, move it. Put your subject against different backgrounds, change its position in relation to other items in the shot. Know your light source and experiment shooting with it or against it, or find things with holes or transparency you can take your picture through.
Show Them Off
And, of course once you’ve snapped some, you’ve got to find a way to display them. You didn’t put all of that work in to keep your art in a little electronic box!
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