The Compression Effect in Photography

What it is and how it works

The Compression Effect

There is a wonderful effect that I have been seeing more of lately which photographers refer to as compression, or “flattening” an image. A subject is framed against a background that appears larger than life — at a scale that our eyes do not see. It is stunning — check out the following shots by @pegs4days and @alexstrohl (who is probably my favorite photographer of all time).