matter of including all of the subject or ground area in
the picture.
Hand-held oblique aerial photography often
provides a unique communication capability—an
overall view that cannot be obtained from the ground in
a single photograph or even in several photographs.
Generally, aerial oblique photos show relationships in
size and spacing between objects better than ground
views. The angle of view is unusual and attention
getting, partly because people are unaccustomed to
seeing subjects from above. As with composition for
any type of photography, when you compose an aerial
photograph, you should consider all the aspects of good
composition—image size, subject placement within the
picture area, balance, camera angle, lighting, and timing
(when to fire the shutter). The target and purpose of the
pictures are the guides you should use for determining
proper composition. Good aerial photographic
composition is harder to achieve than ground
photographic composition. In aerial work you are in a
moving aircraft and do not have the time necessary to
compose a picture in the viewfinder. You must
compose the picture in your mind as you observe the
target from the aircraft during the approach. You cannot
move the subject around or change the direction from
which the light is coming. Your two primary tools in
aerial composition are camera viewpoint and timing.
You must shoot your pictures at the correct instant to
ensure the area and objects of interest are in the picture.
Also, in a sequence of exposures (a strip), each
photograph must have the correct relationship to the
4-28
Figure 4-23.—Hand signals.
