Camera angles: five framings that cover almost everything

A 3D mockup gives you a camera, which means you now have four controls that all affect each other: rotation around the device, tilt above or below it, field of view, and distance. Understanding how they interact is the difference between hunting for a nice angle and choosing one on purpose.

The five framings worth knowing

Head-on, for maximum legibility — the default for store screenshots. Slight three-quarter, around 10 to 15 degrees, which adds depth while keeping type readable and is the best all-purpose hero angle. Steep three-quarter, past 30 degrees, where the device becomes a shape and the screen is texture. Top-down, useful for laying out several devices as a composition. And low-angle, looking slightly up, which makes the device feel monumental and works well for a video's opening frame.

Field of view is not zoom

Zoom changes how much of the scene fits in frame by moving the camera; field of view changes the perspective itself. Same framing, wide field of view: the near edge of the phone looms and rotating it feels like a door swinging. Same framing, narrow field of view: the device stays rectangular and rotation reads as a turn. For product shots, a narrow field of view with the camera further back is almost always the more flattering choice.

Keep the device centred unless you have a reason

Off-centre framing is a design decision that has to be paid for by something else in the composition — caption text, a second device, deliberate negative space. Absent that, an off-centre device just looks like a framing mistake, and it crops unpredictably across placements. Centre it, then move the whole composition if you need room for text.