Showing posts with label experimentation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label experimentation. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

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.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

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.