We live in a three-dimensional environment, so understanding how the maritime terms of roll, pitch, and yaw work can eliminate flare and elevate our images. While the effects are obvious, others are unexpected. This is an exercise to hone your skills.
People who come to me for training vary in their skills and experience. But there are some common traps that many people fall into, regardless of their skill level. Small changes to their shooting technique can improve their photos tenfold. Usually, it is related to the angle of the camera.
If, like me, you can row a boat, rolling, rolling, and yawning are familiar terms. They are also used by aircraft pilots. They are equally applicable to camera placement in three-dimensional space.
Scroll is where the camera pans horizontally. The line on which it rotates is called the roll axis; Think of a boat rolling from side to side in the sea. The consequence of rolling is that the vertical and horizontal directions are imprinted.
As another interesting thing, the horizontal is derived from the word horizon. It’s an old word whose etymology has gone all the way around. We take it from the late 14th-century French orisoun, which is derived from Old French orizon, and even earlier, orizonte. French took it from the Latin horizon, stole it from the Ancient Greek horizon (kyklos), which means limit (circle). Meanwhile, the Old English word for horizon is “epristemearc,” which means eye mark, or the limit of one’s eye. At sea level, the horizon is about three miles away before the earth’s curvature takes over. If the world were flat, we would see the sea stretch out endlessly until atmospheric impurities blocked our view. Those impurities are one of the reasons why you should get closer to your subject than using a telephoto lens.
Whatever we call it, our mind expects the horizon to be horizontal.
I live by the sea, and if the photo’s horizon is slightly off, it sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. Balancing it is so essential to our understanding of the world that if we tilt our heads and look at a scene, the horizon still appears level with us. In a photo, the horizon is compared to its frame and we expect the base of the frame to be parallel to the ground. Therefore, if the camera is tilted to the side, everything in the frame is at the wrong angle. Likewise, if a picture is not hung directly on the wall, it will baffle us.
So if the seawater is flowing out of the frame, it’s not a pretty look. Admittedly, it’s not always easy to use the camera. Historically, I struggled to see if the horizon was straight when looking through the viewfinder. Luckily, my camera has a composite grid and a built-in level meter. Even so, the glaring horizon is more noticeable on my computer screen, so I still have to use the equalizer in whatever software I use sometimes.
There is also the Dutch corner. That’s where the camera is tilted intentionally to create tension. Dutch is Deutsch corruption, the German word for German. It is so named because the German film industry used it a lot during the silent film era. If used well, it can transform an image, but it can also be a cliché. It is often used without any real thought by the photographer. Properly recruited, however, it can work.
Pitch, also known as tilt, occurs when we point the camera up or down. It has the effect of raising and lowering the horizon. It’s arguably the first composition technique novice photographers learn, especially regarding the rule of thirds.
Pitch also changes the way vertical lines appear in the image. When the camera is not parallel to the ground, the verticals no longer align with their length but converge. When you look along a road or path, as it goes into the distance, the edges of the path seem to get closer until they meet at a vanishing point. The same thing happens when we look up at a building. Its faces drew closer together, eventually meeting at a vanishing point in the sky. The more our camera is tilted upwards, the more this effect is magnified.
Like Dutch Angle, we can use that effect intentionally. Standing relatively close to a tall structure, point the camera upwards and the sides of the building will be closer together than the camera. However, we often want our verticals to appear perpendicular to the horizon. In that case, placing the camera parallel to the ground is essential.
To some extent it is possible to correct convergence lines in computer software. In Photoshop, go to the Edit menu, the Transform menu has Skew and Perspective that can help. The Perspective Warp tool is also found in the Edit menu. However, these tools can only do so much, so it’s best to use it right away with the camera.
Yaw is the rotation of the camera on a vertical axis, which rotates the camera left and right. It’s something that many people don’t think about when taking pictures, but it does impact photography.
I know that shooting diagonally along the coast can create an imbalance in the image because the main lines of the horizon and shoreline fade to a vanishing point on the edge of the frame. Therefore, I often try to put the subject in the frame to balance that.
However, shooting directly at the subject can help reduce the illusion of perspective, especially when combined with other techniques.
When shooting interiors, the position of the camera greatly affects the image. Horizontal lines running away from the camera will have inappropriate angles if the camera is not properly aligned with the wall and floor. Therefore, placing the camera facing the center of the wall without pitch, roll or deflection will give you the most eye-catching lines. If you can’t get there, the next best option is to shoot at a 45-degree angle.
The same applies to shooting down a street. In many cases, you want to have vertical and horizontal lines aligned with the edges of the frame.
Here’s a helpful exercise to get your camera in place:
First, place your camera on a tripod in the center of the room. Make sure it’s perpendicular to the opposite wall and parallel to the floor. All horizontal and vertical lines facing each other must appear at 90 degrees to each other. Take a shot. Now change the camera roll, pitch and yaw and take a picture every time. Observe how the picture doesn’t look as good as it does when your camera is properly positioned.
