Dutch Tilt /Angle ... why ?

[astroNikon]

I'm seeing more and more photos with a Dutch Tilt.

When I look up a description of it

A Dutch tilt is a camera shot in which the camera angle is deliberately slanted to one side. This can be used for dramatic effect and helps portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication, madness, etc.

from Dutch Tilt

Just lately here I've seen
a picture of a tree at an angle. I simply didn't understand how a tree at a 40 degree angle would portray like this

a wedding photo - "unease, disorientation .. intoxication" ?? think that would not be good.

and car racing - I can see the unease aspect except it may look weird if there's people in the photo at a 45 degree angle.

Does anyone have some "good" photos of Dutch Tilt?
Better description .. when to use, etc ?

 

[tirediron]

Dutch Tilt, like lighting from below is something that we've borrowed from the movie industry. If you watch a Hitchcock-era horror flick, you'll see lots of Dutch Tilt, and that's where it works. You want tension, you want disorientation. IMO, like selective colour, there's maybe one still image in a thousand where it's used that it's actually appropriate.

 

[Gary A.]

Dutch Tilt, like lighting from below is something that we've borrowed from the movie industry. If you watch a Hitchcock-era horror flick, you'll see lots of Dutch Tilt, and that's where it works. You want tension, you want disorientation. IMO, like selective colour, there's maybe one still image in a thousand where it's used that it's actually appropriate.

I agree with John. The Dutch Tilt/Angle was used extensively by the Nazi propaganda machine for their newsreels.

 

[Designer]

Does anyone have some "good" photos of Dutch Tilt?

I've seen some good examples. I don't have any of my own. Here is one I took just last week done on purpose. I made the extreme tilt to;

1. get the long table in
2. emphasize the ants
3. diminish the background

 

[astroNikon]

Does anyone have some "good" photos of Dutch Tilt?

I've seen some good examples. I don't have any of my own. Here is one I took just last week done on purpose. I made the extreme tilt to;

1. get the long table in
2. emphasize the ants
3. diminish the background

I zoomed in looking for real ants, until I saw the faces on those table things lol

 

[Fred Berg]

Vendor in the early morning market Photography Forum

I don't know if the tilt in this photo was intentional or not (or whether it's what would be called Dutch tilt), but it seems to add some extra interest and tension to the shot.

 

[petrochemist]

In addition to the bits in your quote it can make an image more dynamic. Which is probably the intention in motorsport shots.
I suspect many of the shots taken like this are just people following the trend without understanding the reason it was done for.

 

[snowbear]

Yes, another over-done fad.

 

[Scatterbrained]

I'm seeing more and more photos with a Dutch Tilt.

When I look up a description of it

A Dutch tilt is a camera shot in which the camera angle is deliberately slanted to one side. This can be used for dramatic effect and helps portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication, madness, etc.

from Dutch Tilt

Just lately here I've seen
a picture of a tree at an angle. I simply didn't understand how a tree at a 40 degree angle would portray like this

a wedding photo - "unease, disorientation .. intoxication" ?? think that would not be good.

and car racing - I can see the unease aspect except it may look weird if there's people in the photo at a 45 degree angle.

Does anyone have some "good" photos of Dutch Tilt?
Better description .. when to use, etc ?

Well, technically this is a Dutch Tilt, although it was done because both of the subjects were leaning in, so the tilt kinda cancels out their awkward angles.
Natasha: Mermaid Makeover at The Pirates League by tltichy, on Flickr

I have to go pretty far back to find dutch tilt shots in my images, and usually I look at them now and think "well, that was really unnecessary".

 

[otherprof]

I'm seeing more and more photos with a Dutch Tilt.

When I look up a description of it

A Dutch tilt is a camera shot in which the camera angle is deliberately slanted to one side. This can be used for dramatic effect and helps portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication, madness, etc.

from Dutch Tilt

Just lately here I've seen
a picture of a tree at an angle. I simply didn't understand how a tree at a 40 degree angle would portray like this

a wedding photo - "unease, disorientation .. intoxication" ?? think that would not be good.

and car racing - I can see the unease aspect except it may look weird if there's people in the photo at a 45 degree angle.

Does anyone have some "good" photos of Dutch Tilt?
Better description .. when to use, etc ?

Here is a sort of reverse Dutch tilt. The tree is fine; the rest of the neighborhood not so good after Sandy . . .

 

[astroNikon]

View attachment 100705 Here is a sort of reverse Dutch tilt. The tree is fine; the rest of the neighborhood not so good after Sandy . . .

That just hurts the eyes lol

 

[table1349]

Jeeze people, come on. The Dutch live 9 feet below sea level with a kid that protects them from leaking water by sticking his finger in a hole. Growing tulips isn't that time consuming. Plant the bulbs......Drink.......Weed the tulip field.....Drink.....Cut the flowers.....Drink...Drink...Drink.

Lets be serious here, if you have that much time on your hands and are drinking that much booze the "Dutch Tilt" looks normal to you at the time. Now where was I?

 

[vintagesnaps]

I think effects like this can work when used for a specific purpose and not done excessively. The term supposedly came from use of the technique in German (Deutsch) films in the '30s. It's been used in some of Orson Welles' movies.

Scroll down to see stills (by the way, 'Touch of Evil' is on Turner Classic tonight, so is 'The Lady from Shanghai' which has a cool funhouse mirror scene near the end, but that's getting OT...). Dutch angles and The Third Man plus film preservationist Grover Crisp The Lumi re Reader

Seems to work in this clip, gives a somewhat off balance feeling to the man being followed and near the end I think seems to make him seem closed in on.
Film Language Glossary - Canted Angle Dutch Angle

 

[Joves]

Jeeze people, come on. The Dutch live 9 feet below sea level with a kid that protects them from leaking water by sticking his finger in a hole. Growing tulips isn't that time consuming. Plant the bulbs......Drink.......Weed the tulip field.....Drink.....Cut the flowers.....Drink...Drink...Drink.

Lets be serious here, if you have that much time on your hands and are drinking that much booze the "Dutch Tilt" looks normal to you at the time. Now where was I?

Yeah that is why I pretty much thought that the Dutch had so many tilted photos.
The only time I get any tilting in a photo is when I am not paying attention, or as in otherprofs photo the subject is the one tilting. Then it is usually for dramatic, but natural reasons.

 

[table1349]

The Dutch Tilt is the Gangster shot of Photography.