Andy's happy angle

[rutt]

Andy said, "Watch the photographer, you can learn a lot." So I watched him and looked at his shots and I learned something. That certain happy 30 degree angle sure makes a lot of boring stuff look, well, if not interesting, then at least happy.

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/37763980-L.jpg

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/37764039-L.jpg

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/37764147-L.jpg

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/37764221-L.jpg

Well, maybe there is a limit to the images it can make look happy:

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/37764271-L.jpg

[PossumCorner]

Rutt they are great examples and the subjects effective and interesting.
So when are you going to post the boring looking stuff?
Memo to self: clean up desk. Other people manage without a stack of papers a foot high.
Second memo: first find desk where last seen under the paper-stacks.

Edit to add: Would "Show us your desk/office/digi darkroom" suit a monthly comp - or just a thread?

[DavidTO]

Personally, I think a G5 and a 23" cinema display are happy at any angle...

Nice shots, Rutt.

Gotta use that angle thing.

[rutt]

Rutt they are great examples and the subjects effective and interesting.
So when are you going to post the boring looking stuff?

That's the point. I've shot these same scenes square on and they were boring.

Here are the sunflowers with a more conventional camera angle.

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/37729279-L.jpg

Tilt that camera counter clockwise by 30 degrees, and presto-chango, magic Andy dust, interesting shots.

[ginger_55]

That is cool info Rutt. Seems to work.

as a side note, I am not posting my work space anywhere: any time soon, like in my lifetime.

ginger (unless that happy angle also "cleans")

[Andy]

cool stuff.
i shoot at lots of angles, but the happy angle works many times :D

[ginger_55]

Another thing, on bldgs, I have been trying angles for a long time. I can never figure out which way the angle is supposed to be. Often I take a photo of every angle.

Cool that you got a guy to stand by the bookstore, too. I do like the lights at an angle, now which angle is that?

ginger

[rutt]

You get the happy angle by rotating the camera about 30 degrees clockwise.

Do the opposite, and you get a sad angle. Don't have any example, I deleted them all once I'd figured out the trick. Try it yourself.

I wonder if you write Arabic or Hebrew, some right to left language, would the happy angle look sad and visa versa? What about Chineese? Or manybe this has nothing to do with it. Might be getting ahead of myself, here. Perhaps the "sad" angle also looks happy to people without a theory to be proven.

[rutt]

I'm really not making this up. I was just looking at the shots Andy posted in his KPotD gallery here: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/106204

None of these seem to have been shot with the camera tilted, but that happy angle is a major composition element of a lot of them.

Let's see.

Woman with earphones. Check.
Umbrella man. Check.
Dog. Check.


The "Curse of the Bambino" shot does use this angle, but it's only one of several upward angles, some as steep as 45 degrees (look a the arm, lower left.)

You can make a case for the little girl (light shadow across face, arm) and haircut (comb), but I have admit it's a stretch. No for the IR landscape.

So that's 3 our of 7, counted conservatively. Much more than a random sampling of my shots would give you.

[StevenV]

Son of a gun, there's something there. I know that I have a tendancy to try to stay horizontal or vertical, and about the first thing I do with an image in PS is to straighten the horizon.

Thanks for perhaps breaking me out of my 90-degree rut.


We need more angle, Mr. Scott!

http://miltonsports.smugmug.com/photos/36571113-S.jpg

36571113 (http://miltonsports.smugmug.com/gallery/819012/3/36571113)

[USAIR]

Son of a gun, there's something there. I know that I have a tendancy to try to stay horizontal or vertical, and about the first thing I do with an image in PS is to straighten the horizon.

Thanks for perhaps breaking me out of my 90-degree rut.




We need more angle, Mr. Scott!







http://miltonsports.smugmug.com/photos/36571113-S.jpg







36571113 (http://miltonsports.smugmug.com/gallery/819012/3/36571113)







OK I say it
I think that looks good at any angle :D

Fred

[Andy]

24-105L @24mm
i'd say, happy angle :lol3

http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/38413477-L.jpg (http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=38413477)

[4labs]

sure makes me happy

http://4labs.smugmug.com/photos/25503209-M.jpg

[snapapple]

I've always loved this one. I think the angle does something for an old car or a happy school bus.
http://snapapple.smugmug.com/photos/2119930-M-1.jpg

[Nikolai]

How about this one?:-)
Is this happy, sad, crazy or plain dumb?

http://nik.smugmug.com/photos/38314447-L.jpg