The curse of being lanky.

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Cupotea

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Peter
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At 6'3" I'm taller than most. Normally this is only an issue with repeatedly braining myself in older properties and being asked by sweet old ladies to get things from the top shelves in supermarkets. The problem I have with height and photography is taking pictures (especially of people) with anything approaching a wide angle lens, my favourite being 35mm. This always results in either annoying keystoning, stooping like a loon or suddenly looking like I'm about to propose to someone as I kneel down in the middle of a street. If you move to reframe whilst using the latter two techniques it begins to look like a Monty Python Ministry sketch.

So my question is.... am I alone in this? If not, how you you counter it? I shoot a Sony A7Riv and Fujifilm X100v, neither of which have a flippy (in the right way) or fully articulated screen to allow shooting from below. Especially if there's a lot of sun out. If there was a digital Rolleiflex for waist high shooting I'd be very happy, though I imaging incredibly poor as well.
 
Cupotea said:
At 6'3" I'm taller than most. Normally this is only an issue with repeatedly braining myself in older properties and being asked by sweet old ladies to get things from the top shelves in supermarkets. The problem I have with height and photography is taking pictures (especially of people) with anything approaching a wide angle lens, my favourite being 35mm. This always results in either annoying keystoning, stooping like a loon or suddenly looking like I'm about to propose to someone as I kneel down in the middle of a street. If you move to reframe whilst using the latter two techniques it begins to look like a Monty Python Ministry sketch.

So my question is.... am I alone in this? If not, how you you counter it? I shoot a Sony A7Riv and Fujifilm X100v, neither of which have a flippy (in the right way) or fully articulated screen to allow shooting from below. Especially if there's a lot of sun out. If there was a digital Rolleiflex for waist high shooting I'd be very happy, though I imaging incredibly poor as well.
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I wonder if a right-angled (view)finder would, so to speak, get you low enough? Such an accessory used to be popular with macro shooters or in some instances wildlife shooters before the advent of articulated screens.

Positionally it would get the camera down at approx collarbone level!

PS various to find
 
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The Panasonic GX9 has a tilting EVF, I've always thought that was a good idea that should be more widespread.

It's a shame that the more usual tilting screen isn't working for you but it should allow level shooting from a lower position at least in landscape orientation.
 
woof woof said:
The Panasonic GX9 has a tilting EVF, I've always thought that was a good idea that should be more widespread.

It's a shame that the more usual tilting screen isn't working for you but it should allow level shooting from a lower position at least in landscape orientation.
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I do tend towards portrait orientation which exacerbates things, or certainly makes keystoning more obvious. I'm sure this is my subconscious slyly fueling my GAS!
 
Cupotea said:
I do tend towards portrait orientation which exacerbates things, or certainly makes keystoning more obvious. I'm sure this is my subconscious slyly fueling my GAS!
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I'm not tall but I am conscious of the effects taking pictures at various heights, positions and angles has. For some or even most of my pictures it really doesn't matter and for some it can even make the picture so there are other angles to this (haha.) No one on here has ever commented on perspective matters when I've posted pictures here but it is something that I see and that I'm conscious of so I feel your pain :D

Maybe go for an A7IV with fully articulated screen?
 
My view is that camera height is so important that we just have to accept the need to get into strange-looking positions when necessary.

Historically, waist-level viewfinders were the best, and of course the cameras could also be held overhead to gain a lot of extra height when needed.
 
Flippy/flappy screens are a godsend! Getting into the required contortions isn't (usually!) too hard but getting out of them can be...
 
Being a shortarse was definitely an advantage in my years as a wedding photographer, I’ve had similar conversations with other short photographers and it’s common for us to acknowledge the advantage.

Sometimes necessary to climb on a chair to look over folk, but mostly my height was an advantage.
 
I'm 6'1.5" and never had such issues, maybe I'm just below the cut-off :D I mean, I've often taken portraits of kids/animals that were obviously a lot shorter [this will no doubt be that case for all of us] and have had to get down on the knees or even lay down on my tummy to get the desired shot. When it comes to street I'd use the flip-out LCD and shoot from hip level where needed - something to think about definitely, switch to something with at least a flip out, if not full swivel LCD
 
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Cagey75 said:
I'm 6'1.5" and never had such issues, maybe I'm just below the cut-off :D I mean, I've often taken portraits of kids/animals that were obviously a lot shorter [this will no doubt be that case for all of us] and have had to get down on the knees or even lay down on my tummy to get the desired shot. When it comes to street I'd use the flip-out LCD and shoot from hip level where needed - something to think about definitely, switch to something with at least a flip out, if not full swivel LCD
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Ahhh another 185cm'er..however I am longer in the body and shorter in the legs and most of my mass is in the middle. Which means of course, either pointing the camera downwards more than often or having to get up from a kneeling position awkwardly, losing all sense of dignity. :oops: :$ :LOL:
 
I'm the same height as OP... can confirm that half of my photos look a bit like they've been taken from a distant bell tower somewhere. My girlfriend on the other hand is short, so she has the exact opposite problem and every photo we take of each other is at a funny angle somehow
 
I'm 6'5" - my solution trousers with kneepads (which often come with a multitude of pockets.- handy for.lens caps etc)
 
I'm a relative ahort arse at 6ft, but still find myself kneeling quite often.
Hardest part these days is getting back up again.
 
Why not just shoot a bit wider and have the lens hanging on it's neckstrap and guess it?, the A7 should have bags of resolution to crop in a bit. Even NASAs moon landing finest managed it with a "Blad" bolted on their chest. Mind that was in area 51......... :exit:
 
6'4" - Headshots are a pain in the kneecaps. Quite literally. Especially in low light when you begin to lose stability. I once had a penchant for intentional keystoning when shooting full body portraits up close with a wide angle lens.
 
Another 6'4"er here, for me it's a blessing and a curse. In the OP's scenario it's definitely a curse and I often resort to looking like I'm about to propose as crouching crucifies my knees. Living in the UK this often resorts to a wet and/or dirty knee, or in the case of kneeling on the metal boards and Goodwood, a grazed knee :rolleyes:

Tilty/flippy screens are great,.... IF you can see them. Most of the time for me I can't see what's on the LCD due to the sunlight. It doesn't even have to be that bright, it still washes the screen out for me.
 
6ft2 here. I don't do a lot of photographing people, but I know the problem, especially when your subject is short.
I do have a Canon RP which has a fully articulated screen, meaning I can flip it to the side and point up if shooting landscape or turn it if I'm shooting portrait and looking down on the camera.
If the sunlight hitting the screen is a problem, then you want one of these type of shades:
Amazon link

I think if you want to save your knees and looking awkward, and this is really important to you, you might need to swap cameras to get the flip out screen.
Alternatively, slap one of these monitors ontop of your camera and connect it to the HDMI output.

Which looks the least silly? Kneeling/bending or extra big monitor on the camera :D
 
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