Ideas for creative photoshoots.

These quick adjustments turn average photos into dynamic, one-of-a-kind shots.

What turns photoshoots from ordinary to extraordinary is the way the photos are shot. Learn how to play around with angles, depth, crops, and scale for a photoshoot that’s edgy and original.

Photoshoot settings.

Try adjusting these elements for your next photoshoot:

Angles: Instead of photographing your composition head on, experiment with different perspectives. Shooting from a low angle is a great technique for making your composition look larger-than-life. It’s also helpful for eliminating distracting backgrounds. Aerial photography, on the other hand, shrinks your subject relative to its surroundings and turns the ground into your photo’s backdrop.

Scale: As with angles, you can use scale to enlarge or shrink your subject relative to its surroundings. For instance, if your subject is a human next to a towering tree, shooting both objects side-by-side in full draws attention to the awe of nature next to the relative smallness of the person. Also try “forced perspective” to create illusions of size. For example, if you set a person far back in a scene and shoot from a low angle, a piece of grass in the foreground could appear to be the same size as the human in the background. These optical illusions make for fun and playful compositions.

Depth: A shallow depth of field flattens your photo, bringing the foreground into heightened focus and blurring the background. Using a shallow depth of field is an easy way to draw attention to your photo’s subject while keeping an interesting composition.

Crops: Close crops of a picture create an abstract effect, highlighting patterns and geometry in the details rather than making sense of a full subject. Zooming and cropping are great tools to create a striking and thought-provoking photo.

Explore more tips.

Learn more about how to take creative photos, from lens adjustments to perspective ideas. And explore everything you can do with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to make a real creative difference in your editing process.