How do you folks that are good with a camera capture the steepness of a hill

[Chuck K.]

On a recent trip I took some pics. this one for example does a fair job showing how steep the hill is:



Here is a buddy trying unsucessfully to climb it :



This is a shot someone took of me making up but it does not look that steep to me..:




Any tips on how to take better wheeling pics would be great

[TObject]

How to show steepness of the hill more accurately? Hold the camera, so that the line of sight through the camera is parallel to the [true] ground. Another words, don't point the camera up.

This is pretty difficult to accomplish sometimes, when there is something you want to get in the picture. You may want to try wider lenses.

Another trick is to show the hill from the side rather than straight up. Also sometimes difficult, as you would often have trees and stuff in your way blocking what is it you are taking the picture of.

[Jerry Bransford]

Straight-on shots never work for me when I'm trying to show a hill's steepness. Instead, try taking pics from the side or from an angle including common vertical objects like trees or people in the frame that will directly show the steepness of the hill itself. When Stu Olson shows pics of really steep hills, his are usually from the side which really helps accentuates the steepness. It helps to tilt the camera slightly which makes a hill look steeper than it really is.

[battallion14]

Ditto what Jerry and Sergey are saying. From the side with some type of reference point like a tree seems to do a better job of conveying the steepness. Case in point; same hill, different jeeps, but different camera angles as well:

[Chuck K.]

Thanks for the tips guys, I dont have a wide angle lense, my camera is a Fuji finepix 3800 something or another I am not really up to speed with cameras. Maybe the tips you guys offered will help.. Chuck

[chef]

i like the last photo, it captures the jeep with what looks like a light front end, you can tell it's climbing. still hard to say how steep it is i suppose.

just as hard trying to capture JV on video. keep experimenting.

[Joe Dillard]

Here's an example of how I need to take aboard some of you guys advice!

[Chuck K.]

Wow. Joe I think someone did a pretty good job of capturing the steepness of that hill. L/F tire off the ground coupled with how small the trees are in the back ground make it a awesome picture IMHO.. Do you know yet if you are going to the JU trip in April?

[Joe Dillard]

Hi Chuck!

It's doubtfull at this point, but don't rule me out. I'd LOVE to go but I'm not sure what my work schedule will be till sometime later this week. Things are changing alot lately and I can't give a firm answer as of yet (regretfully).