On top of the world with royalty-free top-down images

A top-down view offers a unique perspective on a given subject by seemingly hovering directly above said subject to get the shot. This is in direct contrast to an up view. That sort of shot involves getting down as low as possible and shooting straight up toward the subject. Makes sense that while a top-down view is sometimes referred to as a bird’s eye view, the up view is sometimes known as a bug’s eye view. These opposing views affect the viewer in powerfully different ways. A top-down view of a cityscape will make the buildings appear quite small, whereas an up-view city shot might be taken from the foot of a towering skyscraper, thus playing up the immense height of that building as it stretches toward the sky.

A top-down image is one in which the shot is taken by positioning the camera above the subject and then shooting downwards from directly above. There are no angles in these images. The idea is to capture the top surfaces of everything in the frame. By simply switching up the perspective, top-down images offer viewers a fresh take on subjects they may otherwise be familiar with. Most of us have sat down at a desk with a laptop situated before us, for example, but we have never sat above the desk to look down at what our workspace might look like from above. The novelty of such a perspective engages viewers. These top-down images can sometimes even resemble abstract works of art! When the subject has been shot from such a distance that the familiar subject no longer appears all that recognizable, the viewer’s curiosity may be piqued as they wonder why the subject seems familiar and yet they can’t quite place it. A top-down extreme close-up of stone or wood is a prime example of this.

Top-down images essentially take our familiar view of the world and dramatically reorient us so that we are seeing the image’s subject anew. A top-down view of a city that is all lit up at night can look a bit like a glowing switchboard. A top-down look at a very long and winding river may make viewers think of a giant serpent. Such images wake us up out of jaded perspectives and remind us that the world is actually rather wildly mysterious. There is even something about seeing people from a top-down view that can stir the heart. The many details involved in living a human life can certainly feel overwhelming at times but getting a glimpse of people from so far away that look like little ants can put our personal problems in perspective for a moment. These images can offer us the space to take a breath and consider that perhaps we are all in this together, maybe our personal problems are not as painfully all-encompassing as we had imagined.

Some of the most popular top-down images include: Top-down city scenes: Top-down streets with loop-de-looping highways, top-down car views of little red convertibles zooming through cities, and top-down people vectors of different types of people moving about their business can all be found within our library. Top-down home dwellings: Top-down kitchen shots of beautiful wooden cutting boards with an array of vibrant fruits and vegetables, top-down room views of people lounging on the living room couch or napping atop colorful quilts in the bedroom and many more can be seen in Shutterstock’s library. Top-down office spaces: Take a look at our top-down desk views with steaming coffee cups, potted plants, and leather notebooks, top-down laptop images that inspire viewers to be productive, and top-down shots of office workers putting their heads together both literally and figuratively to get the job done.

With Shutterstock’s high-powered search engine at the ready, you will have high-quality top-down images within moments. Simply enter your keywords into the search bar and scroll through the thousands of resulting images. Don’t quite have time for that? Quickly narrow your search by utilizing the filter options on the left-hand side of the search page. Select the sort of image you would like to see (i.e. photos, vectors, or illustrations) and the orientation of the image (i.e. horizontal or vertical), as well as the age, gender, and number of people in your image, if you are indeed searching for an image that features people. Alternatively, you can use the Search by Image option. If you came across a top-down image elsewhere on the web but you want to ensure that moving forward, you work with an image that is royalty-free, then simply drag and drop your image above the Shutterstock search page. You will be instantly presented with images that bear a close resemblance to your original.