I’m in the process of putting together a couple of presentations about using perspective in photography, both for my class at Illinois Central College and also for presentation to the Peoria Camera Club.
There are four basic photographic controls; exposure, focus, color and perspective. Perspective is the primary and most powerful tool for creating your composition, and it’s the only one that doesn’t have an “auto” mode on your camera. It includes where you place the camera and what focal length lens you choose. Should you get close with a wide angle lens, or stand back and use a telephoto? How do you want the foreground to relate to the background? Perspective also involves decisions about framing the scene in the camera, and cropping the image in post processing.
Simply changing perspective can move a photo from ho-hum to dynamic. Unlike other photographic controls that the camera can manage, the perspective you choose is all up to you.