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perspective

Lens compression is absolute nonsense – It doesn’t exist, and here’s why

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This post will probably upset a few of you. Don’t care. Lens compression is a myth, I’ve been saying it for years, but when I try to explain why, peoples’ eyes start to glaze over. This video from Dave McKeegan, however, explains and demonstrates the principle wonderfully. Although, as Dave says, it really doesn’t matter.

Dave does go very in-depth into explaining the technical side of why lens compression doesn’t really exist, and if you’re not technically minded in the least, you’ll probably want to watch some parts of the video two or three times to fully understand what the demonstrations… uh, demonstrate. But it’s worth sticking with it. The better you know the principles, the better you’ll be able to use your gear.

“The camera never lies” is a myth and these photographers explain why

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During the coronavirus crisis, the importance of keeping a distance from others keeps popping up. And yet, we keep seeing photos that show people standing way close to one another. The camera never lies. Or does it?

Copenhagen-based photojournalists Ólafur Steinar Rye Gestsson and Philip Davali decided to debunk the myth that the camera always tells the truth. In an experiment for the photo news agency Ritzau Scanpix, they took photos in public using different lenses and perspectives. The photos they made show just how much you can change the story by simply changing the angle of view or the focal length.

This is how famous breathtaking stunts were performed before we had green screens and after effects

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Silent films of the early 20th century had some pretty breathtaking stunts that would be made using a green screen in modern days. Just think of Harold Lloyd’s famous clock scene or Charlie Chaplin’s roller skating scene. Some of the stunts they filmed even seemed quite dangerous, but this video shows that it was, in fact, all a matter of perspective and clever planning.

This is how Disney’s Multiplane camera worked to create fake perspective

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Perspective is a wonderful thing. It’s what lets us judge distance. How far away something is, to pick out what’s in the foreground from what’s in the background. It’s why we have two eyes. Cameras, though, only have one. In a still photograph, this isn’t much of a problem. Things just need to be roughly the right size relative to everything else and you can just flat stack 2D images.

When you move a camera, though, for animation or video, flat 2D images stacked on top of each other are an instant giveaway. Walt Disney knew this, so he developed the Multiplane Camera. It allowed him to stack the layers in 3D space so that when the camera moved, we see the shift in parallax and perspective. I saw a small clip of a video on Facebook, so I went hunting for the original on how it works.

This photographer captures bicycles from a unique perspective

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It’s always an interesting experience to see things from a different perspective. So far, Lithuanian photographer Andrius Burba has shown us animals from below, which is definitely not the most common way of photographing them. But the latest series of his Underlook Project doesn’t include cats or dogs. This time, he decided to give it a shot with something less fluffy and cuddly – bicycles.

This project took Andrius to Netherlands, where the bikes outnumber people. So he shot all kinds of interesting bikes from below, which, you’ll agree, is not the most usual way we see them or take their photos.

Nvidia’s new “computational zoom” tech lets you change composition in post

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This whole “computational photography” thing always felt a little bit weird. But it also intrigued me. The idea that a computer can realistically create things that weren’t actually shown in the original shot is pretty amazing. Maybe it was seeing this scene in Blade Runner as a kid that did it for me. It was pure fantasy back then, but we’re getting there.

A new “computational zoom” technology developed by researchers at Nvidia and UCSB brings us a step closer to Deckard’s reality. Essentially it allows the photographer to change the focal length and perspective of an image in post, but this description barely does it justice. It actually allows you to simulate multiple focal lengths simultaneously. Here, watch this video, and it’ll all make sense.

Shot a person from below? Fix the perspective with a few clicks

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Something came to my attention recently thanks to some feedback from close friends. This was called “Fixing the Keystone” or “Keystoning” and it simply means making sure that your verticals are vertical and horizontals are horizontal.

A very simple concept and also one which architectural photographers will have been on top for decades.

Here’s how you can fix the problem in just a few clicks!

Do cameras really add weight to our appearance?

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It’s a common saying that “the camera adds 10 pounds” (or 5, depending on how much you want to tell yourself). I’m sure most of us at some point have had a friend or family member look at a photo of themselves and say “OMG, I look huge!” when the truth is they don’t. Perhaps you’ve even said it yourself. But does the camera really give the illusion of being larger than you are?

That’s the topic which SciShow cover in this video. They delve in with a little bit of science in order to understand why this perception happens. Ultimately, it’s all a matter of perspective. Quite literally.

Manually fixing distortion in Photoshop is easier than you think

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When you’re photographing interiors or tall buildings, perspective distortion is often inevitable. There’s ways around it with tilt shift lenses or large format film cameras, but for most of us that’s not an option. These days, Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop and other tools provide a number of fancy automated ways to help correct for this. Sometimes, though, it doesn’t quite hit the mark, and we need to step in and do it manually.

This particular type of perspective distortion is commonly known as “converging verticals”. It’s caused by things getting smaller as they get further away from the camera. It’s essentially the same thing you see when looking down a straight set of train tracks that seem to eventually arrive at a point. Only, this happens vertically when shooting up or down on objects oriented vertically. Fixing it manually is fairly simple and straightforward. This video from the folks at Sleeklens shows us how.

How to use vanishing point perspective in Photoshop to add graphics to a surface

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The actual title for the latest video tutorial by Phlearn is “How to create a Packaging Design Mockup in Photoshop”, but it’s so much more than that. There is no doubt that the ability to create product packaging mockups is valuable. Maybe we’re doing it for ourselves, or maybe it’s for a client. But it’s something many photographers and designers have done at some point or another.

But, the techniques shown in the video go far beyond simply adding logos to a brown box. It can be used to replace signs in streets, for example, or to switch out logos on the side of a vehicle. Perhaps you’re presenting room interior makeover mockups to a client. You can use this technique to hang art on the walls. Or. you can even use it to patch holes in surfaces like potholes in roads.

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