This guide explores how to proportion in photography for dramatic effect.
Proportion is a fundamental element of photography, defining the space between subjects and objects and how they interact.
While photographers typically strive for balanced proportions in their compositions, distorted proportions are sometimes adopted for comic or stylistic effect.
Read on to discover how you can implement these techniques in your composition approach to create more interesting photos.
What is Proportion in Digital Photography?
Proportion is one of the fundamental rules of producing creative photos, relating to the concept of balance that runs through the visual arts.
Whether you’re shooting landscape photography or photographing people and street scenes, it can be used to enhance your visual storytelling by accentuating the important elements.
It can also help add depth to an image by drawing the viewer’s attention to certain elements.
By portraying various objects or subjects related to one another, proportion helps ascribe importance and result in a more interesting image.
Additionally, the use of proportion can extend to other elements of an image, such as color and how these relate to one another.
Many photographers combine this basic principle with other compositional rules, such as the golden ratio (also known as the golden spiral).
The golden ratio combines rectangles and arcs and is found throughout nature, from the human body to plants and other animals.
A good example of the golden ratio is the shape of a snail’s shell, which is often referenced artistically for its close resemblance to the Fibonacci sequence.
What Is the Difference Between Scale and Proportion in Photography?
Proportion refers to the relationships and dimensions between elements of an image. Scale relates to their overall placement from a given reference point.
In essence, scale refers to how big elements are in relation to one another, combined with the viewer’s perspective and context.
For example, a photograph of a person standing at the base of a mountain would be an instance of scale being used to create a striking composition.
Here, the scale refers to the relationship between the person and the mountain and is set within the overall framing and composition.
Within this hypothetical example, proportion relates to the position of the elements in the frame and how this creates a balanced image.
Using the Proportion of Color in a Photo
Just as subjects and objects can enhance an image’s overall sense of proportion, color proportion can have a striking impact.
Color can help create a rhythm in a photograph by repeating patterns and then breaking up the repetition to draw the viewer’s attention to a particular feature.
For example, a photograph showing rows of red umbrellas with a single blue umbrella interrupting the trend will create an interesting rhythmic break for the viewer.
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Alternatively, breaking a photograph’s composition into bold color combinations with subdominant colors can also heavily impact its proportion.
Artists often use this technique in paintings, and other photographers also assign dominant and subdominant colors to accentuate proportion.
Two Types of Proportion in Photography
There are two main types of proportion in photography that can be used to produce eye-catching and creative compositions.
We’ll begin by explaining the fundamentals of the perfect proportion technique, then move on to how to break the rules with distorted proportion.
1. Perfect Proportion
Perfect proportion in composition ensures all the elements are positioned correctly in relation to one another for a pleasing visual result
“Perfect” is a loaded word that raises questions around subjectivity and the individual’s judgment and personal tastes.
However, in the context of photography and composition, the term “perfect proportion” is fixed to tangible principles.
Put simply, a perfect proportion relates to how the subject or environment is presented to reflect how the viewer would perceive it if they were actually there.
It’s the way in which the human eye interprets reality, free from artistic distortions and with the most important element dominating the frame.
This approach is used in everything from portrait photography to landscapes and architecture to produce aesthetically pleasing images.
For portraits, this means aligning the proportion of facial features and anatomy to capture the subject in a balanced composition.
Landscape and architecture photographs use the principle to bring a sense of order to the structure and topography of the subjects.
As previously noted, photographers use techniques ranging from the rule of thirds to applying the golden spiral or ratio to achieve this sense of proportion.
Additional techniques include avoiding shooting certain subjects, such as humans, with wide-angle lenses. This helps to avoid distorting proportions.
2. Distorted Proportion
Altering the camera’s position and angle is an easy way to create distorted proportions for a more abstract image
While utilizing perfect proportion effectively ensures well-composed photographs, sometimes it pays to buck the trend.
Shooting and framing shots using distorted proportions can be a compelling way to radically shift the viewer’s perspective and interpretation of an image.
The degree of distortion can vary wildly, with more exaggerated distortions capable of creating surrealistic and abstract compositions.
It can also be accomplished through the choice of lens, with a fish eye lens‘s distortion an example of the extreme end of the spectrum of possibilities.
Wide-angle lenses used for portraits can also enhance the drama of an image, pulling the subject into the foreground and accentuating features.
Likewise, placing a subject up close to the edge of the frame will create the illusion of additional size, making small objects perceived as larger.
Conversely, distortion proportion is sometimes used for gimmicky photography, such as to make it appear as if someone is holding the sun (also known as forced perspective).
While its applications are more limited and niche than correctly proportioned photography, distorted proportion nevertheless remains a valid stylistic approach.
What Proportion is Best for Photography?
The type of proportion used in photography will vary wildly depending on several factors, from what you’re shooting to the tone and mood you hope to achieve.
These factors include the position of your main subject in relation to the background and the focal point of your composition.
While landscape photography aims to capture more depth, portraits will be composed with a closer focal point in comparison.
On the other hand, architectural photography takes a different approach, eschewing concepts such as the golden ratio in favor of emphasizing clean lines.
Ultimately, the use of scale, proportion, and placement of elements will be reconsidered for each image and the desired creative and emotional results.
6 Examples of Using Proportion in Photography
Now that we’ve explored the various approaches to proportion in photography and the underlying rules, let’s examine some practical examples.
When implementing these techniques, don’t be afraid to experiment with breaking the rules if you think it might improve the image.
Altering Your Camera Angle
Proportion in photography is fundamentally related to the viewer’s perspective on the subject, which makes the camera angle vitally important.
The position of the camera and how it informs proportionality is the first thing photographers consider changing when working on composition.
Moving laterally or vertically can significantly improve composition by readjusting the subject to a more proportionally accurate position.
Similarly, moving toward or away from the subject can enhance dramatic effects by altering the emphasis of elements within the frame.
When shooting photographs, experimenting with the angle and position of the camera can result in far more potentially great shots for the editing room.
Changing the Focal Length
Just as the camera’s position can impact the proportion of composition, the focal length can also play a large creative role.
We’ve outlined how wide-angle lenses can be used for dramatic effect above, and other focal lengths have their own unique advantages.
Choosing a 50mm lens is a close approximation of how the human eye perceives the world, resulting in images that are proportional and harmonious.
Along with the 70mm lens, it’s one of the go-to focal lengths for portrait and fashion photographers who tend to avoid distorting their subjects.
Telephoto lenses also affect composition and proportion in a specific way, delivering flattened backgrounds that allow the subject to pop out of the frame.
Adjusting the Horizon
The position in the frame of horizon lines offers another example of how to use proportion techniques in photography.
For example, the location of the horizon line in portrait photography can make the difference between a compelling composition and one that feels odd.
Running the horizon line through a subject’s shoulders rather than their head will produce a more harmonious composition.
This would typically be positioned around one-third from the top of the frame, in keeping with the rule of thirds compositional approach.
Landscape photography also applies this principle to maintain proportion, with the horizon either one-third from the top or bottom of the image.
Using Close Cropping
One of the many advantages of shooting on modern high-quality digital cameras is the ability to alter compositions in software significantly.
This is particularly effective when close cropping removes unwanted elements from the frame and draws more attention to subjects.
Close cropping is an effective tool for enhancing the drama of portraits and even for producing more abstract compositions.
Remove Elements In Post-Production
Just as cropping can be used to reframe the image to create a more proportionally balanced result, programs such as Photoshop and Lightroom can be used to manipulate elements further.
With AI-powered object removal and replacement tools, photographers can achieve better proportions without having to crop the image.
Unwanted figures in the background or environmental details, such as power cables, can be removed to refine the composition with a better sense of proportion.
Experimenting With Aspect Ratios
The application of different aspect ratios is something that filmmakers have been taking creative advantage of for decades.
While the most common aspect ratio in photography is 3:2, reformating your image ratio can be another great way to improve proportion.
For instance, using a square ratio may be optimal for certain subjects, while a wide, Cinemscope-style ratio could work wonders for a landscape.
3 Proportion Photography Ideas (for Creative Impact)
The techniques outlined above relating to proportion in photography have a broad range of creative applications for all photography styles.
Here are a few ideas for using proportion in photography to improve your compositions and deliver a more creative impact for the viewer.
Landscape Photography
Landscape photography typically seeks to find a sense of proportion through the various elements within the frame
Landscape photography often strives to capture the impressive grandeur of a mountain range, valley, or other environment.
As such, a sense of proportion comes from the relationship between the key features of the landscape and their relation to the surroundings.
By placing a feature such as a farmhouse in this broader environmental context, the image’s proportions will enhance the sense of scale of a scene.
Portrait Photography
The symmetry of a subject’s face dictates how the composition will affect its proportions.
For portrait photography, proportion plays an important role in preventing facial features from being distorted.
Getting too close or using a wide-angle lens enhances this potential issue with proportion and makes some features appear larger in contrast with others.
Using a portrait focal length will prevent these distortions and create a more naturalistic and flattering composition.
Street Photography
Street photography often requires managing a large selection of elements within a frame, from the straight lines of architecture to the organic shapes of people.
By focusing on a dominant element of the image, proportional compositions are much easier to accomplish.
Using a 50mm lens is an effective way to ensure the image replicates what the human eye can see and deliver a strong sense of proportion.
FAQ
Why is proportion used in photography?
Understanding proportion in photography serves a variety of purposes and helps establish compelling and well-structured compositions.
It places the size of objects in relation to one another, creating a sense of priority and importance between them.
Proportion can also be used to emphasize the scale of values in distances and object and subject size for more dynamic compositions.
What is proportional analysis of the photograph?
A proportional analysis of a photograph involves breaking down the aforementioned compositional attributes and elements of the shot.
Perhaps the most obvious example of proportional analysis is the use of the rule of thirds, which is used to identify guide lines and their intersectional points.
This technique is familiar to anyone who has used the crop function on programs such as Lightroom, which overlay these guidelines when cropping images.
Is it ok to use distorted proportion in photography?
While the use of proportion in photography is largely observed, there are instances when creative decisions call for the use of distorted proportion.
This approach is often used for comic effect through exaggeration of relationships between subjects or for a surreal, abstract image.
What’s the relationship between viewpoint and proportion in photography?
The viewpoint of an image refers to the position of the camera when it was taken, and as such, this will inform the resulting proportion.
By shifting the viewpoint, photographers can change the proportion by bringing elements closer, distorting angles, and other visual tricks.
