Welcome to my new monthly article, in this monthly article I will be exploring techniques and other areas which help to improve screenshots.  Each month there will be a different topic which I will talk about and give some examples, then its over to you.  You will then have the opportunity to come up with your own examples on the given topic.  With this I hope that everyone’s screenshots will dramatically improve.

First Topic: Perspectives

I’m going to start off my research and development feature by exploring perspectives.  Perspectives can dramatically improve your screenshots,but only if they are incorporated correctly.

Firstly the question: What is a perspective?

"the art technique used to give an illusion of three-dimensional nature on a two-dimensional surface, mostly by giving the illusion of depth"
I found that quote on a website, sorry can't remember where.  So we now know what we are trying to achieve, however the types of perspectives that we are trying to achieve are slightly different.  Not only are we interested in creating a 3-D illusion, but we want to give a feel of action or anticipation in our screenshots.  This can set the scene for the shot, which is especially important for the monthly competition for example.  For example in last months (December) contest it was all about heavy armour underneath the plane, so a great perspective for that kind of shot would be either looking up from behind the plane, to achieve the feel of depth whilst showing all the armour, or a front on view, which would give the feel of the plane coming straight at you and give an aggressive look.
Now let’s have a look at some examples:

This first shot is courtesy of Mees.  I don’t think that I’ve seen a shot from this perspective for a while, the ‘driving down the road’ perspective gives great realism to the shot.  Just think about how many times you have been driving down the round when out of nowhere a plane shoots in to land.  This shot also gives us the anticipation of touchdown and begins to bring in the element of size.  Here is a photo showing that ‘down the road’ feel, click

And here’s Mees shot:


The second shot is courtesy of eno.  Now there is quite a few of us here at the ‘V’ that try to produce a shot from above, but in my opinion there is no one better than eno at achieving this type of shot.  This shot in particular gives a sense of height and from this we get a great depth.



The third shot in this topic is courtesy of Sniperman.  I remember when this shot first appeared in the forums, and I tried my hardest to achieve a shot from the same perspective, and I failed horribly.  The shot here gives us a shallow feel to it and a sense of low altitudes.  The way that Sniperman has positioned the camera allows us to see where we are going and also what we are above.



This last one is a shot I found over at ScreenshotArt.com.  The perspective here is great, there is a good sense of depth as well as giving a nice close up of the powerful engines.  The most important thing here is how we go from big to small throughout the shot.  The clouds give us the anticipation of very bad weather ahead and they give the shot a bit of drama.  This shot is an edit however, so it is easy to perform adjustments to get the desired effect.



There are many, many more different types of perspectives, anyone remember the cockpit contest we had here at the studio a while back?  What about looking back from the cockpit and getting a nice view of the wings and engine(s)?  Take a look at the shots from that contest here
How do I know what is a good perspective?
Well its all down to your judgment.  The way I look at it is what does the shot feel like?  I pause and scoot around the plane and then decide which angle gives the best perspective.  This is in terms of depth, scenery and visibility of the plane in question.  Everything in the shot should be more or less equal (scenery, plane etc), if you achieve this then your shot will be great whatever the perspective.  The other thing to consider is, come up with a bit of a story and take pictures that fulfill aspects of that story, ie if you are patrolling somewhere, then your shot should include in the background the area you are patrolling.

Here's a shot I took recently.  This shot took a while to get the view set up the way I wanted it.  What I was trying to accomplish (to get a sense of 3D) was:

1. The aircraft from below a bit to the side.
2. The scenery of Toronto (CN Tower and Rogers Centre).
3. The runway I'm landing at.
4. The water.



All of these combined give this shot a real sense of 3D, to me.  Let me know what you think.  (And great article Stuart .)

- Kevin

Great shot Kevin, you have a great combination of all four things and it works fantastcially well

Wow... what a great article--- Studio V is just getting awesome!

Thanks for the compliment Stuart...and again, great article!

- Kevin

Come on people where are your perspective shots

I hope youdon't mind me putting in three. The two Etandard shots wer two I immediately thought of and The Eurocopter one is one that I encountered in my search of the Etandard shots

1.          2.          3.


1. I put the view right behind the subject and I put the subject near a mountain ridge. By using the fishy eye stuff you stretch the whole pic and in this case it gives you a more in-depth view

2. Used the downwards mountain ridge. Somehow this pic Turned out the way it did Iand I think it has quite some depth in it. I;ve never been able to re-create it though ( haven't tried it much though)

3. Use of the scenery and the contrails coming of the wing edges. + fishy eye makes depth!


Hope you like?

Okay, fire away guys...

     

Yeah, I know, it could be better. But the slow eyepoint movements make screenshot making quite annyong.