# Dutch Tilt /Angle ... why ?



## astroNikon (May 6, 2015)

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 ?


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## tirediron (May 6, 2015)

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.


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## Gary A. (May 6, 2015)

tirediron said:


> 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.


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## Designer (May 6, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> 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


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## astroNikon (May 6, 2015)

Designer said:


> astroNikon said:
> 
> 
> > Does anyone have some "good" photos of Dutch Tilt?
> ...


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


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## Fred Berg (May 7, 2015)

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.


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## petrochemist (May 8, 2015)

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.


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## snowbear (May 8, 2015)

Yes, another over-done fad.


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## Scatterbrained (May 8, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> I'm seeing more and more photos with a Dutch Tilt.
> 
> When I look up a description of it
> 
> ...


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".


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## otherprof (May 8, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> I'm seeing more and more photos with a Dutch Tilt.
> 
> When I look up a description of it
> 
> ...



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


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## astroNikon (May 8, 2015)

otherprof said:


> 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


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## table1349 (May 8, 2015)

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?


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## vintagesnaps (May 8, 2015)

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


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## Joves (May 11, 2015)

gryphonslair99 said:


> 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.


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## table1349 (May 11, 2015)

The Dutch Tilt is the Gangster shot of Photography.


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## bribrius (May 11, 2015)

vintagesnaps said:


> 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
> 
> ...


good read, nice frames


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## FITBMX (May 20, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> Designer said:
> 
> 
> > astroNikon said:
> ...



I did the same thing! I was looking, "thinking what ants, I don't see anything!" Then I looked up at the table!


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## unpopular (May 22, 2015)

As said in the first, it's used to create tension.

Tilting to straighten subjects relative to the background is not really a "dutch angle". According to wikipedia:

"The Dutch angle, also known as Dutch tilt, canted angle, oblique angle or German angle, is a type of camera shot where the camera is set at an angle on its roll axis so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame, or so that the horizon line of the shot is not parallel with the bottom of the camera frame."


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## bribrius (May 22, 2015)

unpopular said:


> As said in the first, it's used to create tension.
> 
> Tilting to straighten subjects relative to the background is not really a "dutch angle". According to wikipedia:
> 
> "The Dutch angle, also known as Dutch tilt, canted angle, oblique angle or German angle, is a type of camera shot where the camera is set at an angle on its roll axis so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame, or so that the horizon line of the shot is not parallel with the bottom of the camera frame."


people should stop thinking it is a fad. I has been around a long time. works best in narrow frames though. I think they article above mentioned the start of cinema-scope, pretty much killed dutch tilt.


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## Big Mike (May 22, 2015)

I really don't care for 'labels' when it comes to art, but I think there is a misconception of the concept here.  

Tilting the camera because it allows you to fit something into the frame, be it a table or two people etc....is not what I would consider a 'Dutch Tilt'.  That is simply choosing your composition.  

The idea is not just that the camera is tilted, or even that you are intentionally tilting it....the idea is that you are adding or creating a sense of unease, through the technique of tilting the camera away from what 'looks normal'.


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## unpopular (May 22, 2015)

bribrius said:


> people should stop thinking it is a fad. I has been around a long time. works best in narrow frames though. I think they article above mentioned the start of cinema-scope, pretty much killed dutch tilt.



I think it's more of a cliche than a fad. But when it's done well (Hitchcock, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) you hardly notice it.

Wonky angles in photography is a bit harder to pull off though since we have more opportunity to absorb and analyze the frame. As a result canted angles are much more obvious.


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## bribrius (May 22, 2015)

unpopular said:


> bribrius said:
> 
> 
> > people should stop thinking it is a fad. I has been around a long time. works best in narrow frames though. I think they article above mentioned the start of cinema-scope, pretty much killed dutch tilt.
> ...


very true. i shoot dutch occasionally. But after this thread i watched a couple old bw movies myself again. Gave me a new appreciation for it. Now i am thinking of working on it in my photography. Not the cliche crappy kind. To see if i can pull it off well.


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## chuasam (Jun 28, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> I'm seeing more and more photos with a Dutch Tilt.
> 
> When I look up a description of it
> 
> ...


lazy photographer who  doesn't know any better.


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## thereyougo! (Jul 2, 2015)

There's a toothpaste ad in the UK done with a constantly changing dutch tilt.  It makes me want to throw a doorstop at the tv.  So annoying...


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