When shooting portraits, turning the face upside down to change the usual perspective can give the face a dramatic new look.  We are used to seeing people right side up with the eyes higher in the photo than the nose, lips and chin. Putting the eyes at the bottom of the photo changes the look of the face. Most people are surprised at the difference in how they look when photographed from this angle.

You don’t get this look by shooting a normal portrait and then turning the photo upside down – the end result will look quite odd. Have your subject recline and place your camera above the top of your subject’s head and at an angle to the face so the top of the head is closer to the camera than the chin (see the side view illustration).

Side view, camera positioned at an angle above the face.

The soft light for this portrait came from a window to camera left with the light diffused by a translucent accordion blind.  The light intensity was low so I set the ISO to 800 to have a useable shutter speed (1/13 second) on the tripod mounted camera.

Photo Data: Canon 5D, Canon EF 24-205mm lens at 67 mm. f/8, 1/13 second, ISO 800.