Summary

Etude 2

Forced Perspective and Composition

Statement Of Intentions

My thoughts about this study were to produce some forced perspective and composition art work that looked realistic. I have never really done any photos in this style and I wondered how easy it would be to create something. In a similar way the the first study the idea of doing forced perspective as a project was purely on an artistic and exploratory level and having the freedom to try things that you have never tried before. I will research the method behind forced perspective photography and see if I can get some hints and tips to assist me in producing a good realistic piece. I think it will be very much trial and error.

Conceptualisation Of The Work

The purpose of the Etude is just a curiosity and exploration of different art processes that I have never done before. It is an interesting area as it has been used a lot in professional settings for adverts and films. The forced perspective idea appeals because of it's recent use in the Harry Potter and the Lord Of Rings series of movies, which are very much prime examples of the magic of film. Whilst I'm not looking to produce film footage in this way I think it would be nice to produce a still photo that has the wow factor, which I think is easier said than done.
Forced perspective photography is relevant to the 3D hybrids module in a similar way to the last Etude in that you are taking 3D objects and converting them into 2D via the medium of the camera, but also by way of tricking the eye into believing the impossible. As if the capturing of the 3D scenario on camera could mean that it possibly exists in reality.
I'm not looking to use any of the skills I have learnt about forced perspective in my final project, however, it's an interesting area of exploration.
There is no real target audience in my mind for the exploration of forced perspective, other than I guess, anyone who is interested in playing tricks on the mind, I feel the area is non genre, age, race or culture specific.
I think forced perspective photography is very difficult to do well and because of the lack of apparatus that I have I don't think that I'll achieve anything too fabulous or with much audience appeal. If I had lighting rigs and a high end camera then I might stand more chance, however this is why the subject I've chosen also includes composition pictures, the type that make you question their validity. I think if I can create something that looks real but couldn't possibly be then I'm going to be very happy with the results.

Documentation of Technical and Artistic Process

See blog entries below

Technical Analysis

See blog entries below

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_perspective

http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/153602.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve-brandon/178839409/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ddVo1c_1Gs



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZYh_HRY70g

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/giant-skeleton.html

http://www.maj.com/gallery/DaRkSiDe/animals/megaladon.jpg

http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/images/pig_sm.jpg

http://humanflowerproject.com/images/uploads/hoax-fairy-pic.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-shift_miniature_faking


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-shift_lens

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thiru/1514344777/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdashton/1480013373/

How Successful Is The Etude?

I've struggled greatly with this study and I think that the results are a little changeable. I like the last picture I did, I think it's quite a sweet composition, although there's still issues with the lighting. A lot of the compositions and forced perspective photos don't achieve the wow factor which was what I was hoping for. The limitations that I have had with all the pictures is that the background items in the room effect the realism of the photo. I've learnt that the lighting is the essential factor that makes one picture look effective in comparison to one with bad lighting that doesn't. Lighting is an extremely difficult thing to control and adjust realistically and I don't think that I have achieved perfect lighting on any of my photos.

Composition 3

I've done one more piece that I'm reasonably happy with I've Photoshopped the background out of the picture and I'm not sure whether it looks better with it or without it.

Here's the piece:-



I think it looks quite nice really. I'm happy!

Here are some of the other photos that I took that have not had any processing done to them.

Composition 2

I have been experimenting some more with composition/forced perspective pictures and I have done another one. This particular piece was taking as a forced perspective photograph but because it didn't work very well I though I would amend and composite the idea so it worked better. Here's the original photo.



Here's the background I chose.



And here's the composition below so judge for yourself.



I'm not sure it works really, although the composition is more realistic than the first forced perspective photo. I thought it was important to explain what I did. In photoshop I cut out the arms, the ball and the head as separate items. I then arranged them in a new document and adjusted the brightness and contrast to ensure they were a similar shading level. I then using gaussian blur setting I made the ball a little less detailed because this showed clearly that the ball was at forefront of the the photo and that Ben was blurred because he was further back. I used the sharpen tool to sharpen the arms and head up. I then imported the window background and adjusted the contrast levels to make it brighter in order to make it appear that the shadow across the ball, the arms and face were coming from behind. At this pint I realised that there wasn't enough light outlining Ben and the ball because I had cut it out too tightly. I flattened down the ball, head and arms and duplicated it. I adjusted the brightness and contrast and made it white like light and slightly offset it behind the other layer but infront of the window scene. I then rotated the object so the were more horizontal and cropped the picture down.

I am struggling with the forced perspective photographs, I tried to do some more and I've realise the problem I'm having is down to the space in which I'm trying to take the photos within. The thing I've realised is that the surrounding size of furniture, doors, window etc. effect the realism of the photos. I guess I should have known this already but when you've got an idea and the photo is compromised by the surroundings then it is slightly annoying.

I've put an example below as a demonstration.



You can blatantly see that the robot is a toy, whereas I was hoping to make it look enormous by taking the shot as a close up.
I'm feeling like this project has beaten me and I'm struggling to feel passionate about this study!

Simple composition

I decided to try and see if I could create a simple composition. I have done one using my hair brush and hand just to see what was involved in the process. I'm not too happy with the results, I don't think it is very successful. but it was just an experiment.

Composition photography

Whilst I haven't truly finished exploring forced perspective photography ideas, I thought I'd take a quick detour via composition and tilt shift fake miniature photography and find some good examples of work that look real. The composition photos will look real but couldn't possibly be and the miniatures will be as expected. I think this might be a challenge because obviously the appeal of composition photo's is that the creator is unlikely to let you know whether it's real or not because they wanted to keep the audience guessing, it's a bit like magic, you know that what you've seen can't be real but you can't explain how it was done!!

Well I've found a couple of tilt shift fake miniature photos of interest, but are they miniature sets or are they real environments made to look like miniature sets?
I think in some cases the blur on the distance areas is slightly over the top but decide for yourself!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdashton/1480013373/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/thiru/1514344777/

I thought it was important to add a couple of links to wikipedia that describe the concept of tilt shift photography and fake miniature tilt shift photography.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-shift_miniature_faking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-shift_lens

I realise that we're going slightly off track here but I think that's the interest of free organic learning!!

Here are some fake composition photos that are posing as real ones.


http://humanflowerproject.com/images/uploads/hoax-fairy-pic.jpg


http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/images/pig_sm.jpg


http://www.maj.com/gallery/DaRkSiDe/animals/megaladon.jpg


http://www.hoax-slayer.com/giant-skeleton.html

Follow the link below to go to a great web-site with a few hoax and a few real photos on:-

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/prank-hoaxes.html

Levitated Apple

In the last post I showed a couple of quick trials I did using the forced perspective idea and I indicated that I should have tried levitating the apple. Below I have shown the levitated apple and I think you'll agree that it looks better than the other photo.
I have put both pictures below so that it is easier to compare them.




I think the difficulty of forced perspective photos is finding objects to take pictures of that will make the audience step back and think.
For instance the reason the apple works in the picture above is purely because we as an audience know instinctively that apples are much bigger than the one shown. Therefore as an experimentation it is difficult to think of objects that are really going to give the wow factor. The only picture in the previous blog post that I feel gives that wow factor is the giant person and the tiny person in the room, we instinctively know that the picture looks real but the size of the people is all wrong. The car on the driveway scenario could potentially be just that, a standard sized car on the driveway, the only thing that gives it away to the audience is that the car looks like it's made of plastic and is moulded.
The man holding the giant can doesn't look real it looks like what it is a man standing a long way in front of the object in his hand, it is so easy for a picture to just looks wrong whether it be the subject matter or set. The picture below is of a friend of mine and we were trying to make it look like he was holding on to the Burj, but unfortunately it doesn't quite work because of the angle and grasp of the hand in comparison to where the camera is.



I think what I'm trying to say about this subject is that it is good when we know that something couldn't possibly be and yet the photograph in front of us appears very real and convincing, which leads us to the other area of study, the composite photograph.

How does it work?

Forced perspective is an easy concept to explain, basically the object you wish to appear large is closer to the camera than the small object. For instance one of the most recent well known examples of forced perspective is in Lord Of The Rings using Gandalf the wizard and Frodo the hobbit.
Because the film makers needed to make Gandalf appear to be much bigger than Frodo scenes with them interacting with one another had to be shot with Gandalf closer to the camera than Frodo.
I'm having trouble finding photos to demonstrate this but if you've seen the film you'll understand.

I've found some footage on Youtube of force perspective:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ddVo1c_1Gs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZYh_HRY70g

The other trick with forced perspective photos is having realistic miniatures available so that you can make someone appear giant by the angle of the shot.

I've done a couple of simple shots myself using my own hand.





I think the apple photo is reasonably effective and the lighting seems to have worked quite well naturally without any adjustments in Photoshop. The kettle photo doesn't quite work because of the surface that the kettle is resting on and the curvature at the base of the object. I think the apple picture may work even better if it is levitated slightly.