Camera Height

I still remember reading Ansel Adam's Basic Photo series and seeing a picture of Ansel standing on top of his International photographing from a roof platform. So, just how high should the camera be and are there implications for various heights.

Eye Height has the advantages of convenience, especially if hand holding. It could be argued that it's the most natural position to view the world, but alternatively one could make the argument that serious photography is about showing people things they hadn't seen or didn't notice before - so perhaps anything but eye height would be best.

We are used to looking at faces from eye height, yet many of the great portraits were photographed with a waist level finder and position. Such a position shortens the chin and nose and presents the whole body in correct perspective - not leaning back if photographing from the floor, or looming forward, if shot from eye level.

A low position tends to emphasize foreground which is ok so long as you have the depth of field to use it - perhaps a reason why most low position shots are made with a very wide angle lens.

Low tends not to work well when there are tall grasses or small bushes in the way. If the path is clear though and if you can tilt the camera back or lens or have enough depth of field or are using Helicon Focus to blend several shots at different focus points, then it can be dramatic.

You could of course shoot from low but aim high enough to avoid foreground but you need to be aware that from this position everything is going to look like it's falling backwards unless you have lens shift. I'm quite happy to make the correction in Photoshop. I know many people don't like the additional processing and the throwing away of some pixels that this engenders, but they are the same group who when shooting large format were happy to use the unsharp edge of their lens coverage to get the same effect - bottom line, I'm quite impressed with the results of perspective correction in Photoshop.

What about higher than eye height? It's a bit of a hassle. Either you can't see the viewfinder or you have to bring your own step ladder. I have a few times needed to get over something in the foreground or had to eliminate something in the distance. As I don't normally carry a step stool with me, I have been known to rely on auto focus and used the fact that my tripod does have a centre column which won't rotate to set everything up, then raise the camera a foot or so and take the picture, re-aiming as needed after checking the LCD.

I have shot from the roof of a suburban but as I typically don't shoot grand landscapes, don't often have a need for a high position and when I do, I'm off in the boonies with no vehicle in sight.