Use Interior Perspective to Lead the Eye

Learn from Fine Art Masters

Perspective in Composition

Interior perspective began enhancing the realism of painting in the early fifteenth century. Masaccio introduced perspective to artwork, which was a key step toward alignment with the realism that we can achieve in photography today.

"Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors", Tommaso Masaccio, 1425-28 from his fresco in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy (from the Wikipedia Commons) Mouse over to see perspective.

Masaccio, an Italian painter, was the first to use scientific perspective with a vanishing point in his paintings. As an example, roll your mouse over "Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors" (1425-28) from his fresco in Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

Note how the lines of the coffered barrel vault ceiling converge at a vanishing point below Christ's feet. This example of one-point perspective draws the viewers eye downward toward the point of convergence and right to the main subject, the body of Christ.

Perspective is an important part of both art and photography compositions. In paintings, perspective must be created by the artist. In photography, perspective appears by virtue of the camera's role in mimicking what your eyes see - you can't avoid it.

Photography and Perspective

Minolta Dimage 7Hi, Built-in Zoom @ 28mm ISO 200, 1s, f/2.8 Basilique Notre-Dame, Montreal. Mouse over to see lines of perspective.

Although it comes for "free", you can leverage interior perspective for good effect. In your photographs, try different camera angles (very high or low, or far off-center) to introduce motion that guides the eye into your images.

For example, in this photograph of Montreal's Basilique Notre-Dame the wide-angle view enhances the impact of the perspective as it draws your eyes along the length of the nave to the ornate altar.

When you mouse-over the image, you will see two sets of perspective lines that don't quite connect. The lines of floor patterns and pews all converge in a vanishing point that is somewhat below the vanishing point for the ceiling elements.

It turns out that vanishing points as used in art are an approximation of what happens in the real world. In art and architectural drawings, all lines can be made to converge. In your photographs, though, not all lines will truly converge - but they are close enough that you can still use the approximation to give your images impact!

Other One-Point Perspectives

One-point perspective can be seen outdoors as well as in. 
You just might have to look harder. 

Think of photographing down a straight, tree-lined dirt lane.  Or, consider the shadows from this fence leading to the solar point of convergence.